Tradition has it that the first day of the New Year rings in with it the publication of the January FIDE Rating list - and there was no surprises as it showed Magnus Carlsen - after his pre-Christmas win of the London Chess Classic - entering 2011 on a high, as he's once again back as the World No1 at 2814.

Carlsen claimed the top spot from January through November of the old year past, but a mini-slump at the Olympiad saw the Norwegian being replaced by Vishy Anand, allowing the Indian ace to end 2010 with the double whammy titles of world champion and world No.1. Anand, despite reaching a career-high rating of 2810, now moves down to second place in the rankings.

Levon Aronian of Armania is the third player on the list above 2800 at 2805. A newcomer to the top five is Sergey Karjakin of Russia, who gained 16 points. Also in the elite club at number 10 in the rankings is Hikaru Nakamura of the USA, as he continues to climb higher with a gain of 10 points in the past couple of months.

2011 looks set to be an exciting year ahead for the chess world - and the action from the first grand slam of the year gets underway shortly, with the 73rd Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands, running 14th-30th January.

ICC will have live coverage throughout of the upcoming Tata Steel Chess tournament. GM Yasser Seirawan will be heading our Chess.FM commentary team, and he'll be joined by the usual suspects of GMs Joel Benjamin, Alex Yermolinsky, Larry Christiansen and Ronen Har Zvi - and look out for some more surprise star commentators joining the team in 2011, such as Peter Svidler and Gata Kamsky!

So why not make your New Year Resolution for 2011 to join ICC for all the best in live chess action? To join ICC click here!