The 41st Chess Olympiad Ends – China wins, Russia second – Where are the US players??

So when I went to Wikipedia this morning to check something there in the news, I saw that the 41st Chess Olympiad concluded with the following results…..

China won the open section of the tournament for the first time, while Russia claimed victory in the women’s section for the third consecutive time as well as third time overall. Chinese Yu Yangyi, playing on board three, and Georgian Nana Dzagnidze, playing on board one, were the most successful players in the open and women’s section, respectively.[8] The event was also the last competitive tournament for Judit Polgár, the strongest female chess player in history,[9] who announced her retirement from competitive chess after the end of the Olympiad.[10][11][12] Playing as a reserve player for Hungary in the open section, she won a silver medal with her team and recorded four wins, one loss and one draw for a total score 4½/6. Read More

Reading on I saw that the top ten finishers in the Open Event were……

1 China
2 Hungary
3 India
4 Russia
5 Azerbaijan
6 Ukraine
7 Cuba
8 Armenia
9 Israel
10 Spain

In the Women’s event…..

1 Russia
2 China
3 Ukraine
4 Georgia
5 Armenia
6 Kazakhstan
7 Poland
8 United States
9 Germany
10 India

Well, it least the women’s team placed in the top ten!! After noting  the absence of the male USA team among the top ten teams I wondered, where do individual male chess USA chess players stand in the world rankings. I found the Standard Top 100 Players – August 2014 ranking at the World Chess Federation website….Here are the top 25 players. (Complete List)

Rank Name Title Country Rating Games B-Year
 1  Carlsen, Magnus  g  NOR  2877  0  1990
 2  Aronian, Levon  g  ARM  2805  0  1982
 3  Caruana, Fabiano  g  ITA  2801  7  1992
 4  Grischuk, Alexander  g  RUS  2795  0  1983
 5  Nakamura, Hikaru  g  USA  2787  0  1987
 6  Karjakin, Sergey  g  RUS  2786  0  1990
 7  Anand, Viswanathan  g  IND  2785  0  1969
 8  Topalov, Veselin  g  BUL  2772  0  1975
 9  Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime  g  FRA  2768  10  1990
 10  Kramnik, Vladimir  g  RUS  2760  7  1975
 11  Dominguez Perez, Leinier  g  CUB  2760  0  1983
 12  So, Wesley  g  PHI  2755  15  1993
 13  Gelfand, Boris  g  ISR  2753  0  1968
 14  Svidler, Peter  g  RUS  2751  0  1976
 15  Jakovenko, Dmitry  g  RUS  2747  0  1983
 16  Giri, Anish  g  NED  2745  10  1994
 17  Ivanchuk, Vassily  g  UKR  2744  9  1969
 18  Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar  g  AZE  2743  0  1985
 19  Ding, Liren  g  CHN  2742  13  1992
 20  Vitiugov, Nikita  g  RUS  2742  0  1987
 21  Adams, Michael  g  ENG  2740  7  1971
 22  Leko, Peter  g  HUN  2740  7  1979
 23  Wojtaszek, Radoslaw  g  POL  2735  10  1987
 24  Morozevich, Alexander  g  RUS  2731  0  1977
 25  Wang, Hao  g  CHN  2730  3  1989

 

Hum, one American on the list Hikaru Nakamura. Ok so it’s not your typical Daughters of the American Revolution type name and actually he was born in Japan, but his mother was an American and after his parents divorced he and his mother moved to the US, so he is a typical American! Who was taught to play chess before he was five and was coached by his Sri Lankan stepfather, FIDE Master and chess author Sunil Weeramantry! Yep, just a typical American kid, who just happens to have a FIDE Master for a stepfather!

Ok so let’s move on, only two other players from the US are on the list of the Top 100 players, Gata Kamsky is number 44 born in Russia and Alexander Orischuk born in Ukraine. Come on, where’s Bill Smith, Steve Johnson you know some 4th or 5th generation Americans? Should I be worried that there’s nobody like that on the list??? Is it all a part of the dumbing down of America! Kids don’t play  chess anymore?? Are they too busy playing video games??? Any thoughts??

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