Top 20 July 2007
 1 Anand, Viswanathan      g IND  2792  4  1969
 2 Topalov, Veselin        g BUL  2769  10 1975
 3 Kramnik, Vladimir       g RUS  2769  1  1975
 4 Ivanchuk, Vassily       g UKR  2762  22 1969
 5 Morozevich, Alexander   g RUS  2758  18 1977
 6 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar  g AZE  2757  14 1985
 7 Leko, Peter             g HUN  2751  9  1979
 8 Aronian, Levon          g ARM  2750  15 1982
 9 Radjabov, Teimour       g AZE  2746  7  1987
10 Jakovenko, Dmitry       g RUS  2735  29 1983
11 Shirov, Alexei          g ESP  2735  28 1972
12 Svidler, Peter          g RUS  2735  6  1976
13 Gelfand, Boris          g ISR  2733  21 1968
14 Grischuk, Alexander     g RUS  2726  18 1983
15 Adams, Michael          g ENG  2724  18 1971
16 Kamsky, Gata            g USA  2718  28 1974
17 Carlsen, Magnus         g NOR  2710  19 1990
18 Akopian, Vladimir       g ARM  2708  5  1971
19 Polgar, Judit           g HUN  2707  10 1976
20 Ponomariov, Ruslan      g UKR  2706  16 1983

 1   Xiangzhi Bu             GM 2685  8.0 
 2   Nigel D. Short          GM 2683  7.5 
 3   Kamil Miton             GM 2648  7.5 
 4   Chanda Sandipan         GM 2563  7.5 
 5   Tomas Krnan             IM 2492  7.5 
 6   Bator Sambuev           GM 2482  7.5 
 7   Vadim Milov             GM 2678  7.0 
 8   Sergey Tiviakov         GM 2648  7.0 
 9   Andrey V. Rychagov      GM 2557  7.0 
 10  Mark Bluvshtein         GM 2520  7.0 
 11  Abhijit Kunte           GM 2519  7.0 
 12  Alex Yermolinsky        GM 2517  7.0 
 13  Anton Kovalyov          FM 2510  7.0 
 14  Hoang Thong Tu          GM 2483  7.0 
 15  Frank De La Paz Perdomo GM 2452  7.0 
 16  Thomas Roussel-Roozmon  IM 2414  7.0 
 17  Alexander Reprintsev    IM 2410  7.0 
 18  Leonid Gerzhoy          IM 2409  7.0 
 19  Joe Bradford            FM 2406  7.0 
 20  Daniel Rensch           FM 2400  7.0 
 21  Jonathan Tayar          FM 2271  7.0 
 22  Victor Mikhalevski      GM 2601  6.5 
 23  Suat Atalik             GM 2564  6.5 
 24  Anton Shomoev           GM 2561  6.5 
 25  Valeriy Aveskulov       GM 2539  6.5 
 26  David Howell            GM 2519  6.5 
 27  Tomas Likavsky          GM 2494  6.5 
 28  Tom O'Donnell           IM 2427  6.5 
 29  Shiyam Thavandiran      FM 2337  6.5 
 30  Arkady Vul              GM 2312  6.5 
280 players

4th GM March Taiyuan CHN (CHN), 4-14 vii 2007
                    -----------  Wang Yue        2696 5.0
                    |  --------  Wang Hao        2624 4.0
                    |  |  -----  Ni Hua          2681 3.0
                    |  |  |  --  Zhang Pengxiang 2649 3.0
                    |  |  |  |  
1 Zvjaginsev,V 2658 ½½ 1½ ½1 ½1 5.5
2 Cheparinov,I 2657 00 1½ ½1 ½½ 4.0
3 Asrian,K     2608 ½½ ½½ ½½ ½½ 4.0
4 Balogh,C     2567 ½½ 00 ½½ ½1 3.5

WCh Candidates Finals Elista RUS (RUS), 6-13 vi 2007

Aronian, Levon g  ARM 2759   1 = = = = = 3.5  2756
Shirov, Alexei g  ESP 2699   0 = = = = = 2.5  2702

Leko, Peter    g  HUN 2738   1 = 1 = =   3.5  2792
Bareev, Evgeny g  RUS 2643   0 = 0 = =   1.5  2589

Grischuk, A    g  RUS 2717   1 = = 0 = = 1 = 1 5.5  2680
Rublevsky, S   g  RUS 2680   0 = = 1 = = 0 = 0 3.5  2717

Gelfand, Boris g  ISR 2733   = = 1 = 1   3.5  2854
Kamsky, Gata   g  USA 2705   = = 0 = 0   1.5  2584

WCh Candidates s/f Elista RUS (RUS), 27 v-3 vi 2007

Aronian,Levon  g ARM 2759  1 = 0 1 0 = 1 = = 0 1 1 7.0  2750
Carlsen,Magnus g NOR 2693  0 = 1 0 1 = 0 = = 1 0 1 5.0  2702

Leko, Peter    g HUN 2738  = 1 1 1             3.5  2971
Gurevich, M    g TUR 2635  = 0 0 0             0.5  2416

Rublevsky, S   g RUS 2680  = = 1 = = =         3.5  2774
Ponomariov, R  g UKR 2717  = = 0 = = =         2.5  2623

Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2733  = = = = = = 1 = 1   5.5  2757
Kasimdzhanov,R g UZB 2677  = = = = = = 0 = 0   3.5  2653

Kamsky, Gata   g USA 2705  = 1 1 1             3.5  3045
Bacrot, E      g FRA 2709  = 0 0 0             0.5  2383

Grischuk, A    g RUS 2717  1 = = 1 =           3.5  2828
Malakhov, V    g RUS 2679  0 = = 0 =           1.5  2568

Bareev, Evgeny g RUS 2643  = 1 = 1 0 =         3.5  2784
Polgar, Judit  g HUN 2727  = 0 = 0 1 =         2.5  2586

Shirov, Alexei g ESP 2699  = = = 0 = 1 1 1 =   5.5  2814
Adams, Michael g ENG 2734  = = = 1 = 0 0 0 =   3.5  2619

FIDE have announced their new cycle http://www.fide.com/news/download/NewWorldChampCycle.pdf. The format will be a mixed one.

The World Championship itself will be settled by matches after the tournament in Mexico City. In 2008 Vladimir Kramnik will play the winner of Mexico City unless he wins the event himself. Veselin Topalov as the loser of the last match in Elista will play the winner of the World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk which takes place at the end of the year. The winners of those matches will play for the title in 2009. However if Kramnik wins the WCCh tournament in Mexico City 2007, a match between Kramnik and Topalov, the current and the previous world champions, will take place in 2008. In that case, the winner of the Kramnik- Topalov match will play against the winner of the 2007 World Cup.

After that qualification for a world title shot will come from one of two methods. Firstly there will be another World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk in 2009. The winner of that will play the winner of a newly established Grand Prix three events per year (different continents) taking place over the years 2008-9. The winners of the Grand Prix and the World Cup will meet in a match and the winner of that will challenge the world champion in 2010 and on it goes with another match in 2012.

It looks terribly complicated to me but with the World Cups already guaranteed in Khanty Mansiysk for the next two cycles the problem of finding sponsorship for this event is solved. The details of the Grand Prix, who gets invited, scoring and which events are involved is obviously pretty key. We'll have to see how this all works out in practice.