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Subject: Top players' club?

Author: Frederic Friedel

Date: 01:20:55 05/12/00


Posted by James Robertson on May 11, 2000 at 19:50:03:

> Kramnik refuted this argument in an artical shortly after the FIDE WC. He took
> the win percentages of the top "inflated" players against all lower rated
> players in the last 5 or so years and the statistics showed the higher rated
> players winning very near the percentage expected against the lower rated
> players.

It was a memorable contribution in Schach 10/1999 pp18-19. Everyone was
discussing how a small group of about nine top players build a club and always
play amongst themselves, keeping their ratings artificially high and not letting
other equally strong players improve their ratings. The impression was this was
a kind of cartel that prevented a lot of players from receiving their due.
Vladimir's contribution was simple: let's just take a look at the numbers. He
lists the results of the nine "club members" from 1995 until the time of writing
against the "suppressed elite" -- GMs between 2550 and 2670.

1. Kasparov   +41  -04   =33
2. Anand      +47  -06   =40
3. Kramnik    +59  -07   =70
4. Shirov     +79  -35  =108
5. Adams      +71  -31  =120
6. Ivanchuk   +47  -11   =74
7. Karpov     +30  -07   =58
8. Gelfand    +38  -11  =102
9. Topalov    +65  -25   =71
Total        +447 -137  =676

"I think these figures require no further commentary", Vladimir wrote.




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