October 2024 FIDE Ratings: Gukesh Joins Arjun In World Top-5

Indian GM Gukesh Dommaraju has broken into the world top-five for the first time on the October 2024 FIDE rating list after scoring double gold at the 2024 FIDE Chess Olympiad in Budapest, while also growing the gap to his world championship opponent GM Ding Liren to a whopping 66 points. GM Arjun Erigaisi has also moved up to world number-three on the official list, but a loss to 15-year-old Turkish GM Ediz Gurel in the Bundesliga has knocked him back down to fifth on the live rating list.

There's a theory that events such as the Olympiad that pair the world's best against much more varied opposition will lead to the stars losing rating, but Budapest largely blew that theory out of the water. The established stars maintained their ratings or made modest gains (GM Fabiano Caruana's 4/4 start briefly took him above GM Hikaru Nakamura to world number-two, but draws saw him slip back again), while some youngsters took the chance to prove once again that they're the future of chess. 

All eyes were on the all-conquering Indian team, with Gukesh breaking into the top-five with a gold medal 3056-performance that gained him 30 rating points, while World Champion Ding failed to win a game and dropped eight points, so that the gap between them grew by 38 points in a month. Gukesh has plenty to celebrate... 

Manasilayo...with my family friends!
Idhu epdi irukku 😎 pic.twitter.com/r2hkDWYiJE

— Gukesh D (@DGukesh) September 29, 2024

...though Ding is happy with the role of underdog.

Ding Liren [in a new interview with Singaporean press]: “I like the fact that the media are saying this and the feeling of being the underdog. I’ll then surprise them.” https://t.co/dmvE7fiuU9

— Olimpiu Di Luppi (@olimpiuurcan) September 30, 2024

Gukesh received high praise from GM Magnus Carlsen, who has just won the 2024 Julius Baer Generation Cup.

"It remains to be seen if Arjun is quite 2800 strength yet, but Gukesh is really really good. I think he is by far the best apart from Alireza." - Magnus Carlsen#ChessChamps https://t.co/Z8XfpXDzuW pic.twitter.com/XvDxVsbgXH

— chess24 (@chess24com) September 29, 2024

GM Alireza Firouza sat out the Olympiad and was pushed down to seventh place, while Arjun's stunning 10/11 saw him gain 19 points (he faced much weaker opposition than Gukesh) and climb to world number-three, though as we'll see, not for long!

GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov is the other young star who continued his rise, picking up 17 points for leading Uzbekistan to bronze medals, though he had to content himself with maintaining the sixth spot on the rankings. It's noteworthy that 54-year-old Viswanathan Anand is only edged out of the top-10 on the tiebreak of having playing less games (zero) in September than GM Wesley So, who started slow but finished fast in the Olympiad to help the U.S. team to silver.  

Lower down the rankings, there were some big gains, including by Olympiad individual gold medalists GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen (Czech Republic, board two, +16), GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzbekistan, board four, +18), and GM Frederik Svane (Germany, board five, +15).  

FIDE Classical Ratings | October 1, 2024

18-year-old Gukesh took over from Abdusattorov as the highest-rated junior, while notable gains were made by the Turkish prodigies. 13-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus picked up nine points, which was enough to smash the record for the youngest player ever to cross 2600 on an official classical rating list.

His teammate Ediz Gurel is pushing the record holder as the youngest grandmaster ever, GM Abhimanyu Mishra, to become the highest rated 15-year-old, and his 2755 rating performance in the Olympiad gained him 23 rating points as well as individual bronze on board two.

That's not the end of the story, however, since over the weekend he played in the German League. His first game was a spectacular loss to GM Max Warmerdam (who had dropped 26 rating points at the Olympiad), but his second on Sunday was a victory over none other than Arjun, who could have climbed to 2799.9 with a win.

That's why it's worth noting that Arjun is now down to world number-five on the live rating list, after dropping 7.3 points in that one game. The game came too late to be counted for the October rating list.   

Junior FIDE Classical Ratings (Top 20) | October 1, 2024

We noted before the Olympiad began that nine members of the Women's top-10 were missing, and that's why the top-10 is unchanged, with GM Nana Dzagnidze, the only member to play, making a modest gain.

The young stars who did play, however, took full advantage, with GM Divya Deshmukh's gold-medal-winning 9.5/11 on board three gaining her 18 points. The 18-year-old has crossed 2500 for the first time and become the Indian number-two, after GMs Harika Dronavalli and Vaishali Rameshbabu had some difficult moments. The Indian Women's team's overall success was also down to 22-year-old IM Vantika Agrawal, who climbed 17 places and picked up 22 rating points as well as the individual gold medal on board four.

Mom hugs daughter after she won gold at #ChessOlympiad! @vantikachess pic.twitter.com/afC5k3TeD4

— Chess.com - India (@chesscom_in) October 1, 2024

There were also big gains for players on the other teams that picked up medals. 21-year-old U.S. star IM Carissa Yip is up to world number-40 after picking up 32 rating points and gold on board two (to go with team bronze) for her 10/11.

Kazakhstan achieved silver medals with a remarkably young team, with 17-year-old WIM Alua Nurman making her debut in the Top 100 after also picking up 32 rating points. 18-year-old WIM Xeniya Balabayeva picked up 27, while 19-year-old IM Meruert Kamalidenova climbed 20 places not on the back of the Olympiad (where she lost five points) but for one of the best results ever by a female player in the run-up to the event.  

Women's FIDE Classical Ratings | October 1, 2024

All data courtesy of FIDE.