User Profile: alexmagnus

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alexmagnus
Member since Dec-06-04 · Last seen Oct-31-25

Hobby player.
If you feel misunderstood, feel free to say it.
My favourite players are: Magnus Carlsen, Kateryna Lagno and Hanna Marie Klek!
The domination list, based on the peak rating distance to the #10 player (official lists only, distance 50+ needed to "qualify"):
Kasparov 175 (January 1990)
Fischer 160 (July 1972)
Karpov 130 (January 1989)
Carlsen 123 (March 2014)
Kramnik 110 (January 1998)
Tal 105 (January 1980)
Ivanchuk 105 (July 1991)
Anand 105 (July 1998)
Korchnoi 95 (January 1980)
Topalov 84 (July 2006)
Caruana 80 (October 2014)
Aronian 72 (March 2014)
Spassky 70 (January 1971)
Shirov 65 (July 1994)
Ding 64 (Nov 2022, Dec 2022, Jan 2023)
Nakamura 62 (October 2025)
Gelfand 60 (January 1991)
Kamsky 60 (January 1996, July 1996)
Morozevich 57 (July 1999)
Portisch 55 (January 1980)
Jussupow 55 (July 1986)
Timman 55 (January 1990)
So 53 (February 2017)
Adams 52 (October 2000)
Mamedyarov 52 (November 2018, December 2018)
Erigaisi 51 (Dec 2024, Jan 2025, Feb 2025)
Bareev 50 (July 1991)
Vachier-Lagrave 50 (August 2016)
...
(Gukesh 43 October 2024)
#1 record distances to #2 (no qualification hurdle):
Fischer 125 (1972)
Kasparov 82 (January 2000)
Carlsen 74 (October 2013)
Karpov 65 (January 1982)
Topalov 34 (July 2006, October 2006)
Anand 23 (July 2007)
Women's "domination list" since July 2000:
J. Polgar 248 (April 2007)
Hou 160 (December 2015, February 2019)
Humpy 114 (October 2007)
Goryachkina 100 (August 2021)
S. Polgar 96 (January 2005)
Xie 92 (January 2005)
Ju 92 (August 2019)
A. Muzychuk 82 (August 2012)
Stefanova 76 (January 2003)
Galliamova 65 (January 2001)
Zhao 64 (September 2013)
Lei 60 (August 2025, September 2025)
Kosteniuk 58 (July 2006)
Lagno 58 (February 2019)
Chiburdanidze 57 (October 2000)
Cramling 56 (April 2007)
T. Kosintseva 56 (November 2010)
Zhu J. 56 (October 2025)
Zhu C. 52 (April 2007)
M. Muzychuk 52 (June 2019)
N. Kosintseva 51 (November 2010)
Earliest Soviet championship with living players: USSR Championship (1955) (Shcherbakov)
Earliest Interzonal with living players: Gothenburg Interzonal (1955) (Panno)
Earliest Candidates with living players: Amsterdam Candidates (1956) (Panno)
Earliest WC match with living players: Karpov - Korchnoi World Championship Match (1978) (Karpov)
Earliest WC match with living winner: Karpov - Korchnoi World Championship Match (1978) (Karpov)

Earliest WC match with both players living: Karpov - Kasparov World Championship Match (1984/85)

>> Click here to see alexmagnus's game collections.

   alexmagnus has kibitzed 11632 times to chessgames [more...]

   Oct-27-25 Vladimir Kramnik

alexmagnus: The worst thing to me in the whole debate is Kramnik claiming he showed concern for Naroditsky's health during the latter's final stream. Concern? It was pure <mockery>. If this is the way VK expresses concern, I don't want anyone, ever, to have an emergency with only ...

   Oct-23-25 Daniel Naroditsky

alexmagnus: Whatever the cause of death, we've all seen that final stream. Even if his death turns out to be unrelated to Kramnik, it doesn't make Kramnik less of a bully.

   Oct-08-25 alexmagnus chessforum

alexmagnus: October: European Union: 1. Firouzja 2762 2. Giri 2759 3. Keymer 2755 4. Vachier-Lagrave 2737 5. Duda 2729 6. Rapport 2724 7. Fedoseev 2720 8. Topalov 2717 9. Van Foreest 2697 10. Bluebaum 2687 Former Soviet Union: 1. Abdusattorov 2750 2. Mamedyarov 2742

   Sep-15-25 FIDE Women's Grand Swiss (2025)

alexmagnus: <I think the women should play, say, nine rounds> Usually the formula for the optimal number of rounds in a Swiss system is the floor of the binary logarithm of the number of players plus three. So in this case it would be eight rounds in the women's section and nine in the

   Sep-11-25 FIDE Grand Swiss (2025)

alexmagnus: <When has a World Champion lost three games in a row? Kasparov lost to Karpov in the 1986 match, in a tournament surely never.> Ding lost four in a row one IIRC. And of course, when it comes to WC matches, Steinitz lost five in a row against in his match vs Lasker (games ...

   Jul-28-25 Divya Deshmukh

alexmagnus: Divya's way to the World Cup: Qualified to the World Cup as the 2024 World Girl's Champion (with World Girls' championship itself being invitational). 2024 World Girl's Championship: R1: vs Anurpan (India, 1872), win R2: vs Sherali (India, 1955), win R3: vs Tejasvini ...

   Jul-28-25 FIDE Women's World Cup (2025)

alexmagnus: ...And Divya won. But before this recent form high she had quite a slump, so that she is still below her peak rating (her live rating is 2478, her peak official rating is 2501 in October 2024).

   Jul-18-25 Josiane Legendre

alexmagnus: Any relation to the 18th-19th century mathematician?

   May-31-25 M Christoffel vs H Steiner, 1946

alexmagnus: Christoffel symbol.

   May-15-25 Superbet Chess Classic Romania (2025)

alexmagnus: <There is nothing sacred or romantic about it.> It's a game, not a religion nor a love affair.

indicates a reply to the comment.

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 43 OF 57 · Later Kibitzing>
Nov-30-19		beatgiant: <alexmagnus> OK I will post something seasonal if time permits. A minor correction to my "Old Guard" list - Gelfand and Shirov are tied for 9-10.

Jan-05-20		alexmagnus: January: Due to Firouzja playing under the FIDE flag, he is excluded from the Asia list. European Union: 1. Vachier-Lagrave 2770 2. Giri 2768 3-4. Rapport 2758 3-4. Duda 2758 5. Topalov 2738 6. Wojtaszek 2725 7. Navara 2717 8. Vallejo 2704 9. Almasi 2696 10-11. Adams 2694 10-11. Anton 2694 Former Soviet Union: 1. Grischuk 2777 2. Nepomniachtchi 2774 3. Aronian 2773 4. Mamedyarov 2770 5. Radjabov 2765 6. Kramnik 2753 7. Karjakin 2752 8. Vitiugov 2747 9. Artemiev 2731 10. Andreikin 2726 Former British Empire: 1. Caruana 2822 2. So 2765 3-4. Anand 2758 3-4. Dominguez 2758 5. Nakamura 2736 6. Vidit 2721 7. Harikrishna 2716 8. Xiong 2712 9. Adams 2694 10. Sadler 2692 Asia: 1. Ding 2805 2-3. Wang 2758 2-3. Anand 2758 4. Wei 2732 5. Yu 2726 6. Vidit 2721 7. Harikrishna 2716 8. Le 2713 9. Bu 2705 10. Gelfand 2686 Born later than the world champion: 1. Caruana 2822 2. Ding 2805 3. Giri 2768 4. So 2765 5-6. Rapport 2758 5-6. Duda 2758 7. Wei 2732 8. Artemiev 2731 9. Yu 2726 10. Firouzja 2723 Nuclear powers: 1. Caruana 2822 2. Ding 2805 3. Grischuk 2777 4. Nepomniachtchi 2774 5. Vachier-Lagrave 2770 6. So 2765 7-9. Wang 2758 7-9. Anand 2758 7-9. Dominguez 2758 10. Kramnik 2753

Jan-05-20		beatgiant: With the new decade, I decided to post the top-ranked active player born in each decade since the 1920's. 1920's: Rutman (born 1927, rated 2056) 1930's: F. Portisch (born 1939, rated 2340) 1940's: Huebner (born 1948, rated 2576) 1950's: Karpov (born 1951, rated 2617) 1960's: Anand (born 1969, rated 2758) 1970's: Kramnik* (born 1975, rated 2753) ------- Topalov (born 1975, rated 2738) 1980's: Grischuk (born 1983, rated 2777) 1990's: Carlsen (born 1990, rated 2872) 2000's: Firouzja (born 2003, rated 2723) 2010's: Finek (born 2010, rated 2234) *Kramnik is still on the active list but has announced his retirement.

Jan-05-20		OhioChessFan: I enjoyed the Halloween theme. It sure made me think about some puns.

Jan-09-20		beatgiant: Post-Communist (except USSR and China): 1-2. Duda 2758 1-2. Rapport 2758 3. Topalov 2738 4. Wojtaszek 2725 5. Navara 2717 6. Le 2713 7. Almasi 2696 (*Rausis 2685 cheating) 8. Leko 2663 9. Saric 2655 10-11. Berkes 2649 10-11. Lupulescu 2649

Jan-10-20		beatgiant: Old Guard: 1. Anand 2758 2. Kramnik 2753 3. Topalov 2738 4. Svidler 2723 5. Ivanchuk 2698 6. Almasi 2696 7. Adams 2694 8. Sadler 2692 9. Gelfand 2686 (* Rausis 2685 cheating) 10-11. Kamsky 2677 10-11. Shirov 2677 With the new year, I moved the cutoff for this list to 1980, but Malakhov, the top rated player born in 1980, didn't make the cut this time.

Jan-10-20		beatgiant: Middle East: 1. Gelfand 2686 2. Salem 2682 3. Maghsoodloo 2674 4. Amin 2673 5. Nabaty 2644 6. Sutovsky 2643 7. Tabatabaei 2638 8. Ipatov 2631 9. Rodshtein 2628 10. Amin 2615 The big news of course is the absence of Firouzja, currently playing under the FIDE flag.

Jan-11-20		beatgiant: Latin America: 1-2. Cori 2652 1-2. Mareco 2652 3. Bruzon Batista 2640 4. Delgado Ramirez 2636 5. Granda Zuniga 2630 6. Bachmann 2611 7-9. Martinez Alcantra 2606 7-9. Pichot 2606 7-9. Vescovi 2606 10. Henriquez Villagra 2603

Jan-13-20		alexmagnus: Wunderkind index (age based on birth year. So, mostly one year off but that's how we defined it): 1. Firouzja, age 17, rating 2723 (index 1.46) 2. Praggnanandhaa, age 15, rating 2602 (index 1.04) 3. Mishra, age 11, rating 2397 (index 0.94) 4. Gukesh, age 14, rating 2542 (index 0.84) 5. Abdusattorov, age 16, rating 2635 (index 0.7) 6. Nihal, age 16, rating 2618 (index 0.36)

Jan-13-20		alexmagnus: Out of curiosity: when was Carlsen present on the wunderkind index? October 2003: 0.00 (that is, <exactly> on point, rated 2450 at 13) April 2004: 1.04 (2552 at 14) July 2004: 1.34 (2567 at 14) October 2004: 1.62 (2581 at 14) January 2005: 0.06 (2552 at 15) October 2005: 0.40 (2570 at 15) January 2006: 0.50 (2625 at 16) April 2006: 0.92 (2646 at 16) July 2006: 1.50 (2675 at 16) October 2006: <1.96> (2698 at 16 - all time high) January 2007: 0.80 (2690 at 17) April 2007: 0.46 (2693 at 17) July 2007: 1.20 (2710 at 17) October 2007: 1.28 (2714 at 17) January 2008: 0.66 (2733 at 18) April 2008: 1.30 (2765 at 18) July 2008: 1.50 (2775 at 18) October 2008: 1.72 (2786 at 18) January 2009: 0.52 (2776 at 19) April 2009: 0.40 (2770 at 19) July 2009: 0.44 (2772 at 19) September 2009: 0.44 (2772 at 19) November 2009: 1.02 (2801 at 19) January 2010: 0.20 (2810 at 20) March 2010: 0.26 (2813 at 20) May 2010: 0.26 (2813 at 20) July 2010: 0.52 (2826 at 20) September 2010: 0.52 (2826 at 20) November 2010: 0.04 (2802 at 20)

Jan-31-20		alexmagnus: February: European Union (now without the UK. Should the EU collapse any time in history, it will be included again though): 1. Vachier-Lagrave 2770 2. Giri 2763 3. Rapport 2758 4. Duda 2755 5. Topalov 2738 6. Wojtaszek 2720 7. Navara 2717 8. Vallejo 2704 9. Anton 2697 10. Almasi 2696 Former Soviet Union: 1. Grichuk 2777 2. Nepomniachtchi 2774 3. Aronian 2773 4. Mamedyarov 2770 5. Radjabov 2765 6. Karjakin 2752 7. Vitiugov 2731 8. Artemiev 2728 9. Andreikin 2726 10. Svidler 2723 Former British Empire: 1. Caruana 2842 2. So 2770 3. Dominguez 2758 4. Anand 2755 5. Nakamura 2736 6. Vidit 2721 7. Harikrishna 2713 8. Xiong 2709 9. Adams 2698 10. Sadler 2690 Asia: 1. Ding 2805 2. Wang 2758 3. Anand 2755 4. Wei 2732 5. Vidit 2721 6-7. Harikrishna 2713 6-7. Le 2713 8. Yu 2709 9. Bu 2705 10. Gelfand 2685 Born later than the world champion: 1. Caruana 2842 2. Ding 2805 3. So 2770 4. Giri 2763 5. Rapport 2758 6. Duda 2755 7. Wei 2732 8. Artemiev 2728 9. Firouzja 2726 10. Vidit 2721 Nuclear powers: 1. Caruana 2842 2. Ding 2805 3. Grischuk 2777 4. Nepomniachtchi 2774 5-6. So 2770 5-6. Vachier-Lagrave 2770 7-8. Dominguez 2758 7-8. Wang 2758 9. Anand 2755 10. Karjakin 2752

Feb-02-20		beatgiant: Since the UK is out of the EU but still under the European single market until December, and nobody knows what will happen beyond, I'm taking the occasion to try a new list this month. The eligibility criterion is players in a federation whose country is not in the EU but is in the European single market: Norway, UK, Switzerland, Iceland and Liechtenstein. (By convention, I'm not including the separate customs union treaty countries like Turkey or Monaco.) Now what should we call the list? "European Economic Area" is inaccurate (doesn't include UK and Switzerland), "Non-EU members in the European single market" is too unwieldy, "Semi-EU" is to irreverent... What the heck, "Semi-EU" it is! So without further ado, here are the top 15 Semi-EU players on the February list. 1. Carlsen 2862 2. Adams 2698 3. Sadler 2690 4. Jones 2681 5. McShane 2680 6. Howell 2665 7. Tari 2629 8. Hammer 2628 9. Short 2626 10. Hodgson 2609 11. Milov 2604 12. Christiansen 2600 13. Gretarsson 2586 14. Pelletier 2579 15. Hawkins 2570

Feb-02-20		beatgiant: Post-communist (except USSR/China) 1. Rapport 2758 2. Duda 2755 3. Topalov 2738 4. Wojtaszek 2720 5. Navara 2717 6. Le 2713 7. Almasi 2696 Rausis 2685 8. Leko 2663 9. Berkes 2655 10. Lupulescu 2653 Rausis cheating scandal

Feb-02-20		beatgiant: Latin America 1. Cori 2652 2. Bruzon Batista 2644 3. Delgado Ramirez 2634 4. Granda Zuniga 2630 5. Mareco 2629 6. Martinez Alcantra 2617 7. Pichot 2606 8. Henriquz Villagra 2600 9-10. Bachmann 2599 9-10. Flores 2599

Feb-03-20		beatgiant: Middle East 1. Gelfand 2685 2. Salem 2682 3. Amin 2675 4. Maghsoodloo 2674 5. Nabaty 2650 6-7. Ipatov 2644 6-7. Sutovsky 2644 8. Tabatabaei 2638 9-11. Adly 2615 9-11. Rodshtein 2615 9-11. Smirin 2615

Feb-03-20		beatgiant: Old guard 1. Anand 2755 2. Topalov 2738 3. Svidler 2723 4. Adams 2698 5. Ivanchuk 2698 6. Almasi 2696 7. Sadler 2690 8. Gelfand 2685 Rausis 2685 9. Kamsky 2677 10. Shirov 2672 Rausis cheating scandal The big news is that Kramnik was officially removed from the active list a year after his retirement.

Feb-03-20		beatgiant: Seasonal: What was the score when Leko played a tennis match with Giri? <Love all>, of course! The theme for this month's novelty list is <Valentine's Day>. 1. Hug 2469 2. A. Kiss 2327 3. Valentine Kalinins 2236 4. Love 2235 5. Charmier 2116 6. Date 2056 7. Candy 2052 8. Sweety 1874 9. Flowers 1852 10. Heart Padilla 1419 My heart was making a "padilla, padilla" sound as I went through a long list of Hungarian chessplayers with names like "Kinga Kiss" or "Gabor Kiss" while trying to think of a good "Kalinins"-based joke.

Feb-29-20		alexmagnus: March: European Union: 1. Vachier-Lagrave 2767 2. Giri 2763 3. Rapport 2760 4. Poland 2753 5. Topalov 2735 6-7. Navara 2719 6-7. Wojtaszek 2719 8. Vallejo 2710 9. Anton 2703 10. Almasi 2687 Former Soviet Union: 1. Grischuk 2777 2. Nepomniachtchi 2774 3. Aronian 2773 4. Radjabov 2765 5. Mamedyarov 2764 6. Karjakin 2752 7. Andreikin 2726 8. Svidler 2723 9. Vitiugov 2722 10. Artemiev 2716 Former British Empire: 1. Caruana 2842 2. So 2770 3. Dominguez 2758 4. Anand 2753 5. Nakamura 2736 6. Vidit 2726 7. Harikrishna 2719 8. Xiong 2709 9. Adams 2701 10. Sadler 2694 Asia: 1. Ding 2805 2. Wang 2762 3. Anand 2753 4. Wei 2732 5. Vidit 2726 6. Harikrishna 2719 7-8. Le 2709 7-8. Yu 2709 9. Bu 2705 10. Gelfand 2685 Born later than the world champion: 1. Caruana 2842 2. Ding 2805 3. So 2770 4. Giri 2763 5. Rapport 2760 6. Duda 2753 7. Wei 2732 8. Firouzja 2728 9. Vidit 2726 10. Artemiev 2716 Nuclear powers: 1. Caruana 2842 2. Ding 2805 3. Grischuk 2777 4. Nepomniachtchi 2774 5. So 2770 6. Vachier-Lagrave 2767 7. Wang 2762 8. Dominguez 2758 9. Anand 2753 10. Karjakin 2752

Feb-29-20		beatgiant: <alexmagnus> #4 in the EU list must be Duda, right?

Feb-29-20		beatgiant: Post-Communist (except USSR/China) 1. Rapport 2760 2. Duda 2753 3. Topalov 2735 5. Navara 2718 6. Wojtaszek 2719 7. Le 2709 8. Almasi 2687 (*Rausis 2685 cheating) 9. Leko 2663 10. Berkes 2661 Latin America 1. Cori 2652 2. Bruzon Batista 2644 3. Granda Zuniga 2630 4. Mareco 2629 5. Martinez Alicantra 2623 6-7. Delgado Ramirez 2621 6-7. Pichot 2621 8. Iturrizaga 2607 9. Vescovi 2606 10. Henriquez Villagra 2600

Feb-29-20		beatgiant: FIDE may have finally started delisting Rausis. Although he still appears on the main rating list, he does not appear in advanced searches and clicking on his profile shows "no record found."

Feb-29-20		beatgiant: Middle East 1. Gelfand 2685 2. Salem 2682 3. Maghsoodloo 2676 4. Amin 2667 5. Ipatov 2644 6. Sutovsky 2640 7. Nabaty 2635 8. Yilmaz 2630 9. Tabatabaei 2629 10. Adly 2615 Old Guard 1. Anand 2753 2. Topalov 2735 3. Svidler 2723 4. Adams 2701 5. Sadler 2694 6. Almasi 2687 7. Gelfand 2685 8. Ivanchuk 2678 9. Kamsky 2674 10. Shirov 2664

Mar-01-20		beatgiant: Semi-EU 1. Carlsen 2862 2. Adams 2701 3. Sadler 2694 4. Jones 2678 5. McShane 2675 6. Howell 2653 7. Tari 2634 8. Short 2626 9. Hammer 2614 10. Milov 2610 11. Christiansen 2609 12. Pelletier 2581 13. Gretarsson 2579 14. Bogner 2571 15. Hawkins 2570 16-18. Agdestein 2558 16-18. Studer 2558 16-18. Urkedal 2558 19. Pert 2554 20. Georgiadis 2551

Mar-02-20		alexmagnus: <#4 in the EU list must be Duda, right?> Oops, yes.

Mar-02-20		beatgiant: This month's novelty theme is... palindromes! Are there no famous players with palindromic names? N... Nunn. (Ouch!) There's no quick and easy way to search for these, so I didn't try to produce a real top list, but here are the top ones I managed to find by looking for a few of the more obvious possibilities. Criterion: surname as given on FIDE card is a palindrome. 1. Pap 2535 2. Seres, L. 2415 3. Nitin 2379 4. Kerek, C. 2326 5. Nun 2289 6. Kerek, K. 2262 7. Pop 2259 8. Oro 2255 9. Laval 2183 10. Seres, B. 2182 11. Sabas 2177 12. Bub 2122 13. Savas 2112 14. Ciric 2078 15. Redder 2025 Savas 2112 also has a palindromic rating. Is there any palindromic player, as defined above, with a higher rank than Pap? A tip of the knight's visor to <Pedro Fernandez>, whose recent comments about palindromes suggested the theme.

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