The FIDE Junior rating list is probably one of the most interesting in history of chess. Three juniors are above 2700 ELO – the leader Anish Giri, the second Le Quang Liem, and the third Fabiano Caruana. All of them have proven to be great talents and very soon we may see them not just in the 2700 club, but competing directly for the top 10 in the World.
Their distance ahead of the chasing pack in the junior list is close to 50 ELO points, a difference regarded as “enormous” just a decade ago. Positions 4th to 8th are all for players currently competing in the World Cup – Sebastien Feller, Ding Liren, Wesley So, Yu Yangyi, and Parimarjan Negi. Another participant from the junior rating list is Salgado Lopez, and adding Le Quang Liem and Fabiano Caruana, it turns the World Cup in a small battle of youth vs experience.
The Armenian Champion Robert Hovhannisyan is also present in the list. as well as the World Champion Yifan Hou. And there is the stellar climb of the young GM Alexander Ipatov – after medals in Cappelle La Grande and Nakhchivan Open he gained close to 100 ELO points in two rating lists to enter directly at position 15.
Rank | Name | Country | Rating | Games | B-Year |
1 | Giri, Anish | NED | 2722 | 19 | 1994 |
2 | Le, Quang Liem | VIE | 2717 | 13 | 1991 |
3 | Caruana, Fabiano | ITA | 2712 | 20 | 1992 |
4 | Feller, Sebastien | FRA | 2666 | 0 | 1991 |
5 | Ding, Liren | CHN | 2659 | 10 | 1992 |
6 | So, Wesley | PHI | 2655 | 23 | 1993 |
7 | Yu, Yangyi | CHN | 2646 | 12 | 1994 |
8 | Negi, Parimarjan | IND | 2631 | 16 | 1993 |
9 | Matlakov, Maxim | RUS | 2630 | 24 | 1991 |
10 | Sjugirov, Sanan | RUS | 2627 | 24 | 1993 |
11 | Safarli, Eltaj | AZE | 2625 | 17 | 1992 |
12 | Hess, Robert L | USA | 2616 | 6 | 1991 |
13 | Salgado Lopez, Ivan | ESP | 2614 | 23 | 1991 |
14 | Kovalyov, Anton | ARG | 2612 | 9 | 1992 |
15 | Ipatov, Alexander | ESP | 2591 | 37 | 1993 |
16 | Swiercz, Dariusz | POL | 2585 | 31 | 1994 |
17 | Robson, Ray | USA | 2583 | 22 | 1994 |
18 | Zherebukh, Yaroslav | UKR | 2580 | 9 | 1993 |
19 | Hou, Yifan | CHN | 2578 | 33 | 1994 |
20 | Hovhannisyan, Robert | ARM | 2578 | 14 | 1991 |
