Top 100

FIDE's August Elo ratings show little change at the top compared to the previous month. With none of the top eight players active, the rankings remained unchanged. Magnus Carlsen continues to lead, followed by American grandmasters Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. Next come India’s top three players: Praggnanandhaa, reigning World Champion Gukesh, and Arjun Erigaisi.

China’s top player, Wei Yi, gained five points from his match victory over Levon Aronian, but remained in ninth place. Among the top 20, both Aronian and Vladimir Fedoseev lost a few points and dropped slightly in the standings, despite Fedoseev’s win in the Biel Chess Festival’s triathlon event, which included blitz and rapid formats. 

Top 100 Women

Hou Yifan rarely competes in chess tournaments these days but continues to lead the women’s world rankings. However, her significant Elo lead shrank noticeably in July. She took part in the relatively modestly rated Paris City Championship in mid-July and finished only 20th—a disappointing result given her rating. Because the tournament, played in a Swiss system format, featured mostly lower-rated opponents, Hou Yifan lost no fewer than 24 Elo points.

The recently concluded Women’s World Cup in Batumi, which featured nearly all of the top female players, led to several changes in the women's rankings. Behind Hou Yifan, four other Chinese players now occupy the next spots, underlining China’s strong dominance in women’s chess. The best of the rest is India’s Humpy Koneru. Although she finished second at the World Cup, she still lost one Elo point. Meanwhile, Tan Zhongyi, Lei Tingjie, and Zhu Jiner all gained points, as they mostly won their matches in the classical games.

Among the Elo gainers is World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh, who picked up 15 points and moved up to 15th in the world rankings. The biggest jump came from Leya Garifullina, who gained 27 points—though not in Batumi, but at the Open International d'Aix en Provence.

Top 100 Juniors

Praggnanandhaa and World Champion Gukesh remain the top juniors. Javokhir Sindarov holds third place as the third young player with a rating above 2700. Among the rising stars are Volodar Murzin, who swapped places with Raunak Sadhwani, and the very young Turkish talent Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. The 14-year-old gained 16 Elo points by defeating Peter Svidler in classical games and now ranks seventh in the U20 world ranking, just behind his compatriot Ediz Gürel. 

Top 100 Female Juniors

World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh has solidified her lead at the top of the girls’ junior rankings, while the second-highest junior, Lu Miaoyi, lost 15 Elo points. The girls' rankings often see dramatic shifts. Afruza Khamdamova gained 83 points at the Aktobe Open in Kazakhstan, jumping from 16th to 5th place. France’s Manon Schippke had an even bigger leap, gaining a total of 176 points across several tournaments, moving up from 72nd to 9th place. Also impressive were Prishita Gupta’s 135-point gain and Guldona Karimova’s 142-point increase.

Country List

In the country list, which is based on the average rating of each country's top ten players, the United States leads the list. Germany, the best-ranked federation from the European Chess Union, is currently in fifth place.

FIDE...