Caruana regains second place

Plenty of tournaments were played in October 2024, not least the Chess Olympiad in Budapest and the European Club Cup in Vranjacka Banja, where most of the top players were involved. The world's best chess player, Magnus Carlsen, played close to his elite level at the Chess Olympiad and confirmed his 2831 rating. The Norwegian thus remains the unchallenged number one in the chess world.

This month's biggest winners in terms of rating include Fabiano Caruana, who scored particularly well in the US Championship. Caruana gained 9 points and moved up to second place in the world rankings with a 2805 Elo rating. Nakamura did not play any rated games and remains in third place with 2802.

Arjun Erigaisi was briefly the fourth player above the 2800 rating mark, but then he 'only' managed two draws at the end of the European Club Cup and slipped to 2799.

Vincent Keymer was also in good form, especially at the European Club Cup, where he was the best player in his team Novy Bor. Keymer recorded an increase of 11 points and overtook world champion Ding Liren in 21^st place.

Some top players suffered setbacks and lost a few points, including Dommaraju Gukesh, Wei Yi and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu.

Top 100

Top 100 - Women

The women's world rankings continue to be led by four Chinese players: Hou Yifan, Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie. In Budapest, however, the women's team from China at the Chess Olympiad did not include any of these four top players, who therefore did not play any games in October.

'Best of the rest' is Humpy Koneru in fifth place, also without a change in rating. Among the winners this month are Zhu Jiner, who will certainly soon join the Chinese leading group, and Polina Shuvalova, who won 23 points at an Open in France and at the Spanish Club Championship, which allowed her to move up to 12^th place.

Top 100 - Juniors

Dommaraju Gukesh remains number one among the world's best juniors despite losing 11 rating points. Magnus Carlsen recently commented in an interview on the playing style of the World Championship challenger and noted that Gukesh calculates all his moves and doesn't play on intuition. This works well in classical games because the Indian is a fantastic calculator. In games with a faster time control, it doesn't work so well.

Four U-20 stand above the 2700 rating mark. Gukesh is joined by Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Praggnanadhaa and Vincent Keymer. With Frederik Svane, the same age as Keymer, German chess has another promising talent in ninth place.

Top 100 - Girls

Divya Deshmukh remains the world's best junior among women, but has lost a few points at the European Club Cup. Bibisara Aussaubaxeva and Leya Garifullina follow in second and third place. Hungary's Tsoka Gaal made a big leap with an increase of over 20 points and is now fifth behind the 14-year-old prodigy from China, Lu Miaoyi.

Things have looked much better for the German Chess Federation in the past for young female players. The only young German player in the top 100 is Antonia Ziegenfuss. However, she lost over 50 points and slipped from 38^th to 70^th place.

Country list

(Average Elo of the country's best ten players)

More information on FIDE's website...