Anand is No 1, says FIDA finally 

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) on Sunday bowed to widespread pressure and crowned the Indian as the world's number one player. This was after initially depriving Viswanathan Anand of the top position in its latest ranking list.

The Indian was to become the world number one on FIDE charts for the first time in his career after winning the Morelia-Linares tournament in Spain last month, but the FIDE list showed Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria still on top, 13 points ahead of Anand.The game's world governing body said that the Morelia-Linares tournament was not taken into consideration while updating the rankings since it concluded on March 10, outside the cut-off date of February 28.But following the AICF's strong protests and widespread criticism, FIDE agreed to correct the list. 


FIDE Rating Committee chairman Casto Abundo confirmed Anand as the game's new number one. "Congratulations to Anand and the All India Chess Federation. Pleased to inform you that we have rated Linares event today and Anand is world number one," Abundo said in a message to PTI from Elista, Russia.

When asked about this, World number one Viswanathan Anand on Tuesday said he did not think racism was a factor in the International Chess Federation's (FIDE) initial decision not to give him the top ranking .The chess genius believes there must have been some "genuine technical problem" behind FIDE's initial decision However he added that he would focus more on playing "good and solid" chess to retain his spot.