Anand becomes chess World No. 1

THE BEST: Anand was subject to a miscalculation by the rankings released by FIDE earlier.

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New Delhi: India's Vishwanathan Anand has finally become the number one chess player in the world after FIDE, the world chess governing body re-calculated their rankings.

The new rankings include Anand's win at the recently concluded Linares tournament.

FIDE had released its April ratings, which had Anand at No 2 and Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov at the top.

After the Indian Chess Federation took up the matter with FIDE, the world body rectified its rankings, making Anand the number one.

Anand had won the Linares tournament while Topolov had finished seventh.

CNN-IBN spoke to the Secretary of the All India Chess Federation who explained how the Federation got back the number one status for Vishwanathan Anand.

"This list was prepared one month ahead, that means on February 28. The last day for submitting all the results thorughout the world goes to the FIDE. The Linares tournament ended on March 10, which is probably the number one chess tournament in the world and is always included in the list for the past 15 years," AICF Secretary D V Sundar said.

"This year, the FIDE didn't enter this tournament, by its rule that all the results should come before February 28. But our point was why this was not told before the tournament for starters. In turn, we told the FIDE that they can't give a go-by to the conventions or traditions. We could not let go of this opportunity. Only five people have achieved the number one ranking," Sundar added.

Speaking to CNN-IBN, the new World No 1 Vishwanathan Anand was a relieved man. "It feels fantastic, especially because I felt scared when unexpectedly they didn't rate the (Linares) tournament, which they rated for the past 15 years or something, and decided to go with the next list. But luckily they have changed their mind and I am happy that now I'm officially there on paper as the world number one."

"I'm actually very grateful to everyone, the Federation (AICF) and all my colleagues who pressed this matter. And then they also found that there were irregularities. So it wasn't even that they applied the rule consistently. So I'm very grateful that the Federation took this matter. It didn't affect me too much because I was actually playing a league game at the same time. So I tried to shut it down and then concentrate on that," Anand added.