Hikaru Nakamura
Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura remains the top US chess player. As of January 2013, Nakamura has 2769 ELO and is taking 9th position in the January FIDE rating list. The top 10 re-entrance came after strong performance at the recently concluded London Chess Classic.
Second among the US players is GM Gata Kamsky. A permanent member of the 2700 club, Kamsky is 17th with 2740. Him and Nakamura are way ahead of the third US player, who for this list is the winner of the North American Open GM Timur Gareev with 2655. Fifth is Alexander Onischuk, followed by Varuzhan Akobian, Yasser Seirawan, Alexandr Lenderman, Ray Robson, Jaan Ehlvest, and Gregory Kaidanov.
January 2013 FIDE rating list has three players with rating over 2800 ELO. Magnus Carlsen’s rating record has been made official by the World Chess Federation, as now he is sitting on top of the list with 2861 points, after a 13 points gain during the last London Classic. Second position in the rating list is for Vladimir Kramnik with 2810 ELO, who overtakes the third 2800 club player, the Olympic champion Levon Aronian.
The world’s top 10 chess players list is completed by Radjabov, Caruana, Karjakin, Anand, Topalov, Nakamura, and Mamedyarov, as the 10th position mark is at 2766 ELO. That is 5 points more than the January 2012 rating list, 22 points more than the January 2010 rating list, 43 points more than the January 2006 rating list, and 62 points higher than 12 years ago.
A total of 47 players are above 2700 ELO in January 2013. The top 100 mark is set by Eduardo Iturrizaga with 2650. As the month of December was low period for tournament, there are only a few newcomers to the list. Ildar Khairullin is 99th with 2650, Denis Khismatullin is 94th with 2652, and Hrant Melkumyan is 88th with 2656.
US top chess players January 2013
| 1 | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2769 | |
| 2 | Kamsky, Gata | 2740 | |
| 3 | Gareev, Timur | 2665 | |
| 4 | Onischuk, Alexander | 2660 | |
| 5 | Akobian, Varuzhan | 2622 | |
| 6 | Seirawan, Yasser | 2620 | |
| 7 | Lenderman, Aleksandr | 2619 | |
| 8 | Robson, Ray | 2615 | |
| 9 | Ehlvest, Jaan | 2603 | |
| 10 | Kaidanov, Gregory S | 2598 | |
| 11 | Hess, Robert L | 2595 | |
| 11 | Shankland, Samuel L | 2595 | |
| 13 | Shabalov, Alexander | 2578 | |
| 13 | Stripunsky, Alexander | 2578 | |
| 15 | Christiansen, Larry M | 2577 | |
| 16 | Novikov, Igor A | 2563 | |
| 16 | Shulman, Yury | 2563 | |
| 18 | Ibragimov, Ildar | 2555 | |
| 19 | Becerra Rivero, Julio | 2554 | |
| 20 | Goldin, Alexander | 2549 | |
| 21 | Ramirez, Alejandro | 2544 | |
| 22 | Ivanov, Alexander | 2542 | |
| 23 | Alburt, Lev O | 2539 | |
| 24 | Arnold, Marc T | 2538 | |
| 25 | Gulko, Boris F | 2533 | |
| 26 | Kudrin, Sergey | 2531 | |
| 26 | Perelshteyn, Eugene | 2531 | |
| 28 | Benjamin, Joel | 2530 | |
| 29 | Dlugy, Maxim | 2527 | |
| 30 | Yermolinsky, Alex | 2517 | |
| 31 | Sevillano, Enrico | 2515 | |
| 32 | De Firmian, Nick E | 2510 | |
| 33 | Khachiyan, Melikset | 2501 | |
| 34 | Holt, Conrad | 2494 | |
| 35 | Friedel, Joshua E | 2491 | |
| 35 | Zatonskih, Anna | 2491 | |
| 37 | Finegold, Benjamin | 2488 | |
| 38 | Zierk, Steven C | 2485 | |
| 38 | Gurevich, Dmitry | 2485 | |
| 40 | Naroditsky, Daniel | 2483 | |
| 41 | Yang, Darwin | 2481 | |
| 42 | Shahade, Gregory | 2476 | |
| 43 | Schneider, Dmitry | 2475 | |
| 44 | Gonzalez, Renier | 2472 | |
| 44 | Ludwig, Daniel | 2472 | |
| 46 | Hungaski, Robert Andrew | 2469 | |
| 46 | Orlov, Georgi | 2469 | |
| 48 | Foygel, Igor | 2468 | |
| 49 | Smith, Bryan G | 2466 | |
| 50 | Molner, Mackenzie | 2460 | |
| 51 | Krush, Irina | 2458 | |
| 51 | Lapshun, Yury | 2458 | |
| 53 | Palatnik, Semon | 2455 | |
| 54 | Browne, Walter S. | 2448 | |
| 55 | Esserman, Marc | 2447 | |
| 56 | Ashley, Maurice | 2443 | |
| 57 | Fedorowicz, John P | 2442 | |
| 58 | Milman, Lev | 2441 | |
| 59 | Altounian, Levon | 2438 | |
| 60 | Bartholomew, John | 2435 | |
| 61 | Rohde, Michael A | 2434 | |
| 61 | Vigorito, David | 2434 | |
| 63 | Norowitz, Yaacov | 2432 | |
| 64 | Sarkar, Justin | 2431 | |
| 65 | Bryant, John Daniel | 2428 | |
| 66 | Brooks, Michael A | 2425 | |
| 67 | Enkhbat, Tegshsuren | 2424 | |
| 68 | Ippolito, Dean | 2423 | |
| 69 | Shen, Victor C | 2422 | |
| 69 | Bercys, Salvijus | 2422 | |
| 69 | London, Dimitri | 2422 | |
| 72 | Bass, Leonid | 2419 | |
| 73 | Kiewra, Keaton F | 2415 | |
| 74 | Bartell, Thomas | 2410 | |
| 75 | Sher, Miron N | 2404 | |
| 76 | Lee, Michael | 2400 | |
| 77 | Nagle, Sean | 2397 | |
| 78 | Stein, Alan | 2396 | |
| 79 | Coleman, Teddy | 2393 | |
| 80 | Fernandez, Daniel | 2392 | |
| 80 | Ritter, Mark | 2392 | |
| 82 | Kapengut, Albert Z | 2391 | |
| 82 | Sharma, Arun | 2391 | |
| 84 | Wang, Philip Xiao | 2390 | |
| 84 | Zilberstein, Dmitry | 2390 | |
| 86 | Sevian, Samuel | 2385 | |
| 86 | Herman, Matthew J | 2385 | |
| 86 | Paschall, William M. | 2385 | |
| 86 | Yedidia, Jonathan | 2385 | |
| 90 | Rensch, Daniel | 2384 | |
| 91 | Mulyar, Michael A. | 2382 | |
| 92 | Ostrovskiy, Aleksandr A | 2381 | |
| 93 | Adler, Viktor | 2377 | |
| 94 | Felecan, Florin | 2375 | |
| 95 | Kleiman, Jake | 2374 | |
| 96 | Blocker, Calvin | 2373 | |
| 97 | Regan, Kenneth | 2372 | |
| 98 | Bradford, Joseph M | 2370 | |
| 99 | Young, Gregory | 2367 | |
| 100 | Renna, Tony | 2365 | |