Wesley So rises to 4th in the February 2017 URS Rating list

The February 2017 Universal Rating List has been released and sees GM Wesley So rise to 4th place on the URS rating list after his impressive victory at the 2017 Tata Steel Masters tournament. The other major beneficiary amongst the top 15 players was GM Levon Aronian who rose from 11th place to 8th place following a solid +2 performance in the same event. GM Wei Yi also finished on +2 at the Tata Steel Masters and this result sees him replace GM Vladislav Artemiev as the number 1 ranked junior player on the list. January was a quiet month for the top ladies and saw little change amongst the top ranked female players top of the URS rating list.

The top 15 open and female players per the February 2017 rating list are now as follows. The change column reflects individual movements from the January 2017 URS rating list.

Commentators with a key eye will note that GM Vladimir Kramnik has lost 3 rating points on the February list despite not playing any rated games during the month of February. This is one of the key differences between the URS and the ELO rating systems. URS continuously re-rates all players in the database regardless of individual activity during the month and these movements are hence normal for the system. A more detailed explanation of some of the notable changes between the January and February rating lists will be released in due course.

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