October of 2019 was dominated by the FIDE World Cup and Grand Swiss Isle of Man, the tournaments causing major shifts in the November rating list. It is no coincidence that those who performed well in these massive events made the biggest progress in the rankings.
Top-10 November rating list
1. Carlsen, Magnus (2870; -6)
2. Caruana, Fabiano (2822; +10)
3. Ding, Liren (2801; -10)
4. Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (2777; -10)
5. Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime (2777; +3)
6. Giri, Anish (2776; -4)
7. Nepomniachtchi, Ian (2773; -3)
8. Aronian, Levon (2767; +9)
9. Radjabov, Teimour (2767; +9)
10. So, Wesley (2765; -2)
The most noticeable change, when it comes to top-10, is the resurgence of Teimour Radjabov. After his triumph at the FIDE World Cup, the GM from Azerbaijan reappeared in the elite group for the first time since April 2013. Despite making it to the final, Ding Liren lost 10 rating points but preserved his third position on the list. Fabiano Caruana, who tied for the first in the Isle of Man, picked up 10 rating points and broke away from the Chinese GM, whereas Levon Aronian returned to the top-10 following his strong showing in the same tournament.
(Photo: Kirill Merkuryev)
Biggest gains
1. Alekseenko, Kirill (2715; +41)
2. Wang, Hao (2752; +26)
3. Najer, Evgeniy (2661; +26)
4. Vitiugov, Nikita (2756; +24)
5. Abasov, Nijat (2655; +23)
6. Maghsoodloo, Parham (2684; +20)
7. Duda, Jan-Krzysztof (2753; +19)
8. Predke, Alexandr (2676; +19)
9. Firouzja, Alireza (2720; +18)
10. Kryvoruchko, Yuriy (2683; +14)
Kirill Alekseenko made a real splash at the World Cup, reaching the round of 16, but a couple a weeks later did even better in the Grand Swiss Isle of Man where he came third. As a result, the young GM from St-Petersburg soared up in the rating list and became the biggest gainer of October (41 points). The winner of the Grand Swiss Wang Hao understandably netted quite a lot of rating points and tied for the second in this nomination.
Another Russian GM Evgeniy Najer also earned 26 rating points thanks to his solid performance in the above-mentioned tournaments (plus a couple of victories in the Czech League) and climbed 62 positions up. The same but to a slightly lesser extent applies to a young Azerbaijani GM Nijat Abasov who is making his debut in the top-100. Other top players from our list (except for Alexander Predke, who mainly accumulated his points in Spanish Team Championship in Linares) also distinguished themselves in one or both important October events.
Welcome to top-100
78. Najer, Evgeniy (2661)
79. Melkumyan, Hrant (2661)
84. Swiercz, Dariusz (2659)
87. Lupulescu, Constantin (2657)
92. Abasov, Nijat (2655)
96. Adhiban, B. (2654)
98. Kuzubov, Yuriy (2652)
We have seven newcomers in the top-100 and again, the majority of them improved their rating in two flagship October tournaments.
Since there were not many women’s tournaments in October, the top-10 remains virtually intact. Nevertheless, two women, namely Harika Dronavalli and Dinara Saduakassova made a difference. Playing in the open section of the Grand Swiss Isle of Man they scored 5.5 each and became best performing women in the tournament. Needless to say, both substantially increased their rating by 23 and 24 points respectively.
(Photo: John Saunders)
In the juniors’ list Alireza Firouzja, Jeffery Xiong and Parham Maghsoodloo got closer to Wei Yi who is still reigning on the top, whereas Nodirbek Abdusattorov made it to the top-10 for the first time in his career.
In the girls’ list, Zhansaya Abdumalik overtook Zhu Jiner and became a new #1, whereas Polina Shuvalova, the winner of both U-18 and U-20 championships took a giant leap and broke into the top-3.
Source: fide.com
