8/1/2018 – July was relatively quiet, with the annual super tournament in Dortmund exerting the most influence on FIDE's classical ratings. It was a good month for Ian Nepomniachtchi who is now number 11 in the world in both classical and rapid chess. | Photo: Ritvo Photography

7/1/2018 – June was a busy month for rapid and blitz ratings with some players playing 36 games of the latter. In terms of classical performances, Sam Shankland has earned himself the cover of American Chess Magazine as he has continued his ascent among the 2700 echelons. Wesley So made a big leap in rapid ratings, and Jan-Krzysztof Duda is now the top junior. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

6/14/2018 – At the end of the FIFA Council last Sunday in Moscow, the World Football Association announced that it would reform its world ranking for the national football teams. There was much criticism of the previous ranking system and the new formula is based on the chess Elo.

6/1/2018 – Ding Liren is at a career best 2798 on the Elo ratings and number four in the world. But Thursday night it emerged that he's suffered a hip fracture while bicycling in Norway and will miss today's fourth round. The scheduled game with Caruana has been postponed (for now) until the next rest day, June 4th. Before the incident, the players took part in a "cook-off" where they were paired up and got to play the roll of professional chefs for a while. Here Ding enjoys the fruits (or rather veggies) of his labour. Behind him (L-to-R): Vachier-Lagrave, Aronian, Caruana and Karjakin | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Altibox Norway Chess

5/1/2018 – It was a month in which the two best players 'explained' once more to the world, why they are the best. Magnus Carlsen came storming through the second half of the Gashimov Memorial to win it, while Fabiano Caruana won the Grenke Classic, and came second in the US Championship with a plus five score. Sam Shankland enjoyed the greatest result of his career with a huge US Championship win, and a 2701 rating to boot. Here are the ratings and report for your perusal. | Photo: Shamkirchess.az

4/15/2018 – ChessBase recently reported on the new artificial intelligence program “AlphaZero” and its astoundingly steep learning curve for chess skill. Given just the rules of chess, in 24 hours of playing games only against itself, it improved to a superhuman level. Along the way, AlphaZero discovered and ultimately abandoned standard openings such as the French and Caro-Kann Defences. | Pictured: The learning curve projection for World Champion Magnus Carlsen overlayed on the actual rating trend.

3/31/2018 – There were plenty of interesting results this last month, and the Candidates was but one of the contributing factors. There can be no discussion about calling Fabiano Caruana 'Man of the Month', but fascinating moves abound, from the rise of Iranian youth (watch out Batumi!), to Anand's ascension to world no.3 in Rapid. See all, read all, in this month's ratings report! | Photo: World Chess

3/1/2018 – FIDE just published the new ratings and the official world ranking list. Compared to March there are some slight changes among the top ten, but World Champion Magnus Carlsen is still clear number one. Number two in the world is Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, followed by Vladimir Kramnik on three. Hou Yifan leads the women's list.

1/31/2018 – January was naturally dominated by the Tata Steel Chess tournaments in Wijk aan Zee, and is otherwise a quiet month when most of the world's best players are inactive. It was a great success for Anish Giri, and a huge disappointment for Fabiano Caruana and Hou Yifan. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

1/3/2018 – It was a great month to end the year, with exciting chess throughout. Fabiano Caruana retook the no.2 spot after his win at London, but the biggest news was really Vishy Anand's evergreen result, taking the World Rapid title at age 48, facing a player less than half his age, albeit a bit green in tournament strategy, 22-year-old Vladimir Fedoseev. Let's not forget Magnus Carlsen who took the World Blitz title, and many more results. | Photo: Anastasia Karlovich

11/30/2017 – What an interesting month it was for ratings. At the top, there were a few changes and personal bests, but among the Girls and Juniors we saw significant leaps forward. Among the elite, the news was the win by Levon Aronian (again!) and Dmitri Jakovenko, but lower down among the youth, several records are getting ready to topple. Enjoy this review of the new ratings list. | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

11/23/2017 – Readers may have noticed a recent, and significant, change in Playchess, notably the playing room: the new ratings. It is designed to get you a quick game with no delay against a random opponent with a similar rating. These "pools" include ratings calculated on games played at the same time control, as compared to the previous system which lumped multiple game times together as "blitz" up to 5 minutes with 4 seconds of increment. We now have 1-minute bullet, and 3-minute and 5-minute blitz, with no added time. The ratings for previous modes, and individual challenges, are now called "Classic" but continue to be maintained independently. Read on for a more detailed explanation.