Up to 1971, the best player in the world was first among equals. For the next decades, three players in turn took dominance: Bobby Fischer, then Anatoly Karpov, and finally Garry Kasparov. Only in recent years has parity returned to the top of the chess world, and the struggle for the #1 spot continues to become more intense.

Magnus Carlsen started the year on a high by topping the January FIDE rating list, as he earned enough points in Nanjing and London to edge out World Champion Vishy Anand, the leader of the previous list. But the March list just released shows Anand back again as No.1 by edging out the young Norwegian, as both gained 7 and 1 point respectively at Tata Steel in Wijk aan Zee. And firmly establishing himself among the exclusive '2800 club' is Levon Aronian, who also increased his rating by 3 points.

The ratings rollercoaster ride that is Vassily Ivanchuk has again seen a massive jump in his rating, this time going from 9 to 5 after his demolition job of the field at the recent Gibraltar Masters. And this shows another interesting race with only 7 rating points separating places 5 through 9 - and the one to watch among this close grouping is unquestionably the young American player-of-the-moment, Hikaru Nakamura.

Click here for the latest FIDE top-100 rating list.

FIDE Top-10: 1. V Anand, 2817 (+7); 2. M Carlsen, 2815 (+1); 3. L Aronian, 2808 (+3); 4. V Kramnik, 2785 (+1); 5. V Ivanchuk, 2779 (+15); 6. S Karjakin, 2776 (=); 7. V Topalov, 2775 (=); 8. H Nakamura, 2774 (+23); 9. S Mamedyarov, 2772 (=); 10 A Grischuk, 2747 (-26).

The 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament returns to its spiritual home of Monaco soon for a farewell Jubilee Edition. It will take place at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort in Monaco, from March 11 to 24, 2011.

In this final jubilee edition, the line-up includes a truly stellar grandmaster field of: World Champion Viswanathan Anand (India), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Sergey Karjakin (Russia), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Hikaru Nakamura (United States), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan) and Anish Giri (The Netherlands).

Live coverage will start from 8:30am ICC every day (last round starting at 6:30am ICC) - check the full ICC schedule for Amber by clicking here. Book the dates of 12th-24th March in your calendars now for one farewell not to be missed!

The final leg of the Fide Women's Grand Prix is now underway in Doha, the capital of Qatar, and continues until Saturday 5 March - and each day here on ICC, we have the live relay of all the games.

The cycle began in Istanbul way back in March 2009, and has taken in Nanjing in September 2009, Nalchik in Russia in April-May 2010, Jermuk in Armenia in June-July 2010, and Ulanbaatur in Mongolia in July-August 2010. It was supposed to finish in Santiago in Chile at the end of 2010, but they pulled out after due to the earthquake there and Doha stepped in to fill the breach.

With the final event to go, the new world champion, Hou Yifan, is leading overall on 410 points. However, she isn't playing in Doha and two other players have a chance to overtake her: Nana Dzagnidze from Georgia, who will win if she is first or second; and Humpy Koneru from India, who needs to be first and Dzagnidze not to be second - but those top two are not having an easy time of it!

GM Elina Danielian from Armenia is having the tournament of her life with a sensational perfect start of 4/4, and she leads by a commanding 1.5 points over her nearest rivals - and those rivals in equal second on 2.5 points include GM Marie Sebag from France, and one of ICC's own top vendors, IM Martha Fierro Baquero (MarticaFierro - pictured above in the main image) from Ecuador, who despite being the bottom seed, has already defeated second seed Dzagnidze.

You can follow the final Women's Grand Prix - and Martha's progress - live each day on ICC (Qatar-WGP11) starting from 7am ICC (final round at 4am ICC).

China and India have long been seen as rising superpowers on the chess scene, but the performances over the past year of rising young Vietnamese stars suggest a new Asian tiger on the prowl.

Leading the charge has been GM Le Quang Liem, 19, who is one of the world's top young players. He first came to international notice last year with two remarkable back to back performances in the chess heartland of Russia's capital, as he out-scored several of the world's top grandmasters to capture the Aeroflot Open and tying for first in the subsequent Moscow Open.

But Le Quang took it to another level - literally and figuratively - with an impressive second-place finish in the elite annual superGM event in Dortmund, Germany last year, ahead of former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, a nine-time winner of the event.

And last week in Moscow, lightening struck twice as Le Quang won this year's edition of the Aeroflot Open. This behemoth of an international open ended in a three-way tie, as front-runner Le Quang Liem (whose only loss came in the penultimate round to Ivan Cheparinov), Nikita Vitiugov and Evgeny Tomashevsky all scored 6.5/9. Gata Kamsky, the current U.S. champion and upcoming candidates match contestant, finished equal 4th-10th a half point behind the main winners.

But the young Vietnamese star (pictured above with arbiter Geurt Gijssen and TD Alexander Bach) took the title and the lion's share of the prize fund on tiebreak - and with the top honors went the lucrative qualifying spot for the Dortmund Sparkassen super-tournament in July.

We've come to an end of an era as ICC was saddened to hear this week that the Mainz Chess Classic in Germany will not be held this year, due to the global economic woes effecting the main sponsors of the annual summertime chess extravaganza.

The tournament, the brainchild of über-organizer Hans-Walter Schmitt, did much during the past decade to popularize not just rapid chess but also Chess960. It was the first major tournament on the international circuit to adopt Chess960 and even ran the Chess960 World Championship.

ICC was honored to have run in the past two major Chess960 qualifiers for the Mainz Chess Classic (one of which was won by the current holder of the Chess960 title, a certain GM Hikaru Nakamura). Many ICC members enjoyed playing in those Chess960 qualifiers for the Mainz Chess Classic, and indeed for many it was their first introduction to the popular variant of the game associated with Bobby Fischer.

In a statement posted on the Chess Tigers site (http://www.chesstigers.de/), the city of Mainz, its chess-mad Lord Mayor Jens Beutel and the Chess Tigers e.V. with its chairman Hans-Walter Schmitt thanked everyone over the years - including the long-time sponsors, players and spectators, the international journalists and the many volunteers - for all their help in making the tournament the success it was.

It is a common gripe here on ICC: members disconnecting in lost positions and refuse to resume the game, and then you have to wait weeks to be awarded what was a sure-fire win.

Over the years, many members have complained about this particular unsportsmanlike tactic of "pulling the plug" and taking all the fun out of playing on ICC - but now, enforcing the law comes JudgeBot, a new computer program that monitors every game where your opponent disconnects.

If JudgeBot determines that you are clearly winning, it will award the win to you in about 30 or 40 seconds! You will receive an ICC message and the game will appear as a win in your history. There is no need to request the win or search for days for your opponent to resume!

ICC would also like to listen to member feedback on their experience of using JudgeBot - we want you to "message JudgeBot <text>" with praise, complaints, and questions about this new system! And the verdict in its first week is that its a big winner for ICC, who yet again show they lead in community-based development for better online play for its members.

Click here for more details on JudgeBot.