[aquateen]

Rating deflation?! I believe there have only been five players to get 2800+. Topalov, Anand, and Carlsen did this within the last few years.

Kasparov near his peak: http://ratings.fide.com/toparc.phtml?cod=1 Current top 100: http://ratings.fide.com/top.phtml?list=men

I always viewed 2700 as the super-GM mark. That used to include ~10, but it's a useless standard now.

Kasparov steamrolled the competition.