Van Foreest Enters Top-20 In March Rating List

Tata Steel Chess Masters 2026 and the Challengers, which started in mid-January and ended at the start of February, were responsible for most of the rating changes among the world's top players. GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov followed up his 19-point gain at the London Chess Classic 2026, the previous month, by winning this event and jumping another 20 points. Though it's not the topic of this article, which reviews February, he is still going strong in the Prague Chess Festival 2026 and has risen to world number-four by live rating.

Other standouts at the top of the list are GMs Javokhir Sindarov and Jorden van Foreest, who respectively finished in second and third, behind Abdusattorov, and are both at their all-time highest ratings. Van Foreest, already number-11 by live rating, leads the Prague Chess Festival at the time of writing and looks to be in the form of his life.

FIDE Classical Ratings Top 100: March 1, 2026

Two months of the year are in the books, and Abdusattorov is showing no signs of slowing down. Having gained another 20 points on the March rating list, he is the world number-five by published rating. His victory in Wijk aan Zee was worth much more than 20 rating points, however, as he said, "I was very close every time and I failed year after year. I’m extremely happy to finally be able to win this tournament and win in a very nice style."

The Uzbek number-one scored an impressive 9/13 to win the super-tournament outright. He leads the 2026-27 FIDE Circuit, which, after two years, will determine one player in the 2028 FIDE Candidates Tournament.

Uzbek number-two Sindarov is the other standout at the top of the list, gaining 19 points and moving to number-11 in the world. He finished second in Wijk aan Zee, just a half-point behind his countryman—and a point ahead of everyone else. More than two individual achievements, their progress is also a sign of the phenomenon that will surprise nobody: Uzbekistan is a chess superpower, and it's still growing in strength.

Just under world number-17 GM Hans Niemann, who gained 10 rating points in the same tournament, Dutch number-two Van Foreest made the biggest gains of anyone in the top-50. He gained 14 points in Wijk and another 10 by winning his match against Turkish GM Ediz Gurel, scoring 4.5 out of six games (more on his fellow Turkish prodigy, GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, later).

Like Abdusattorov, the Dutchman has shown that whether he's playing in Wijk or in Prague, his form is still the same: fearsome. With four wins out of five games, and one loss, he is at the top of the leaderboard.

Prague Chess Festival Standings After 5 Rounds

The biggest gainer on the top-100 was Azerbaijani GM Aydin Suleymanli, jumping 25 points after performances in the Tata Steel Chess Challengers and Azerbaijan Men's Chess Championship 2026.

It is also impossible to ignore a trend we rarely see: all Indian players who participated in Wijk aan Zee lost rating, with GM Arjun Erigaisi dropping 30 points—the biggest loss in the top-100 in February. Cumulatively, the four Indian players lost 69 rating points in the Netherlands.

Indian Players In Tata Steel Chess Masters

On the live rating list, the slide continues for World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, who is down to number 16 in the world at the time of writing. But nobody will be surprised if (or when) the top Indian players make their comebacks.

Finally, GM Sergey Karjakin briefly re-entered the rating list as world number-10 after playing a privately organized match in Russia against an eight-year-old opponent rated 1549. FIDE made a correction and removed his name from the list, setting his status back to inactive. Karjakin has been inactive from official rated events since 2022.

FIDE March 2026 Rating List – Correction❗️

According to Article 0.2.1 of the FIDE Rating Regulations, a tournament and its playing schedule must be registered:

0.2.1 Not later than 30 days before the tournament starts, if one of the players in the tournament is rated in excess… pic.twitter.com/HrI5qaoC8A

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) March 2, 2026

FIDE Classical Ratings Top 25 Juniors: March 1, 2026

Fourteen-year-old Erdogmus, who was our featured player last month, continues to surge and approach the 2700 super-grandmaster mark. He is on course to become the youngest 2700 in history, and we have more on that in our Prodigy Watch section.

With a 7/13 score, he gained 18 rating points in his debut at the Tata Steel Chess Masters. He is number 37 in the world, and on the junior list, only second to the reigning world champion.

Fifteen-year-old GM Andy Woodward had the biggest rating gain on the junior list, rising 23 points with his tournament win at the Tata Steel Chess Challengers. More importantly than the rating, which can come and go, he has secured his seat in next year's Tata Steel Chess Masters, which will be an invaluable experience to play with the world's elite.

FIDE Classical Ratings Top 100 Women: March 1, 2026

While ratings for the world's top-eight have remained unchanged, world number-nine GM Bibisara Assaaubayeva added 19 points to her rating and jumped into the world top-10. She scored 7.5/13 in the Tata Steel Chess Challengers.

World number-14 IM Carissa Yip had the biggest gain on the women's list, jumping 20 points by scoring a half-point less than Assaubayeva in the same event. Peeking ahead to her latest events, which were not included in this list, she won the top women's prize with 4.5/8 ($2,500) at the Saint Louis Masters 2026 (though she lost two rating points) and will play in the Women's American Cup 2026 starting on Tuesday.

Other notable gains were made by WIM Rachael Li (+17) and WGM Alua Nurman (+15). The biggest loss in the top-100 was by Bella Khotenashvili, who fell 19 points and six places to world number-36.

Prodigy Watch 

The Prodigy Watch by Chess By The Numbers founder Tai Pruce-Zimmerman tracks the progress of young chess superstars, with his "prodigy rank" a measure of how a player's current rating at their current age compares historically. If there are 11 players in chess history who have been rated higher at or before the player's age, then the player would have a prodigy rank of 12. You can read more about Prodigy Watch here.

Prodigy Watch Top 16: March 1, 2026

At the top of Prodigy Watch, our number-ones, IM Faustino Oro and Erdogmus, both once again set new personal high rating marks this month. These perennial highlights of our list each are potentially on the cusp of major achievements. Next up for Oro is the Aeroflot Open 2026, where he gets his final chance to chase the record of youngest GM ever. Erdogmus, meanwhile, is now just 13 rating points away from becoming the youngest 2700+ rated player of all time—a mark he still has a year to work on.

FM Bram Ten Dam is a youngster we've been watching for years, when he posted a debut rating of 1993 at the age of eight, but he hadn't quite fully realized that potential and established himself in the top-50 of our Prodigy Watch list... until now! In the last two months, his rating shot up 171 points, and all of a sudden he sits at number-14 on our list! And that's with us not knowing his birthdate. If a reader out there can help us out, his rank might be even higher if he's younger than we realize!

Updated on March 3: We have received his birthday since publishing and can confirm his Prodigy Rank is number-nine!

An even younger player who rejoined the top-20 this month is CM Marc Melnyk, whose rating is back up to 2157 at just nine-and-a-half years old. Amazingly, that still isn't his career peak, but it's enough for a number-16 Prodigy Rank.

Prodigy Watch Top 14 Girls: March 1, 2026

WIM Bodhana Sivanandan hit a new personal rating record, gaining over 100 rating points at the Graz Open and jumping to 2268, a Prodigy Rank of number-31, and number-3 rank on the Girls list. But that's just the beginning because she gained almost 100 more rating points at the Cannes Open, which ended just barely too late to be included on this month's list. Her live rating of 2386 is now higher than GM Judit Polgar's at the same age, and would have been enough for a top-10 Prodigy Rank on the open list if we used live ratings in these calculations. Next up may be her chase of the 2400 rating mark.

Congratulations to 10-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan on earning the FM title after crossing 2300 across the Graz Open (+102) and now the first 4 rounds of the Cannes Open (+51.2)! 🤯 https://t.co/Fwm9QoM37T pic.twitter.com/TCwpHkJpcb

— chess24 (@chess24com) February 25, 2026

We also have a new entry to the top-20 on the girls list: WIM Devindya Gunawardhana, whose rating hit a then-peak mark four months ago and has since risen another 210 points! She now sits at 2347 at age 14, for a number-13 Prodigy Rank.

All data courtesy of FIDE.