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??
