Sindarov Rises To No. 5, Erdogmus Becomes Youngest-Ever 2700 On May FIDE Rating List

If 2024 was the golden year for India, with double gold in the Olympiad and GM Gukesh Dommaraju crowned world champion, 2026 is shaping up to be a golden year for Uzbekistan so far. The nation's number-one GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov has already been highlighted in two of our monthly updates, and now number-two GM Javokhir Sindarov is undoubtedly the star player of the last month, after winning the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament and rising to world number-five with the largest rating gain in the world top-100.

It's been a busy month, with 14-year-old GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus becoming the youngest to break 2700. GM Vaishali Rameshbabu, who won the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates, also had the biggest rating gain on the women's list. 

FIDE Classical Ratings Top 100: May 1, 2026

Sindarov's rating has only gone up as he's jumped from world number-31 in May 2025, when he had a rating of 2706, to world number-five. The reality is that there's not much more "up" left to go; with a rating of 2776 he is knocking on the 2800-door. Only 16 players have ever crossed that line.

Sindarov put up the best performance in the modern Candidates format with an otherworldly +6 score, improving on GM Ian Nepomniachtchi's record from 2022 by half a point. Surprisingly, there is not one Indian player in the world top-10, while two of the top-five are Uzbek.

As discussed in our Candidates conclusions article, apart from Sindarov, of all participants in the event, only GM Anish Giri (+14 points) can be happy with the rating gain. Other elite players, like number-two GM Hikaru Nakamura (-18) and number-three Fabiano Caruana (-5) lost rating. 

April wasn't just a comeback month for Giri; we saw the return of GMs Ding Liren, Viswanathan Anand, and Veselin Topalov. Ding played his first classical games since losing the 2024 FIDE World Championship, picking up four rating points at the 2026 Chinese Chess Team Championship. Anand, on the other hand, made three draws at the Bundesliga and lost four rating points. It was his first time playing since February 2025, also at the Bundesliga.

Topalov, on the other hand, came back after a longer break to play against the formidable teenager, and now super-grandmaster, Erdogmus.

It was Topalov's first time playing since the WR Masters Cup in 2024, and with four losses and two draws he dropped 22 points. Erdogmus, on the other hand, rose 21 points—the second-highest gain of the month among the top-100—to finally cross the 2700 threshold. For the Turkish prodigy, it wasn't really a question of if but when, and he's beaten GM Wei Yi's record by almost a year. As we potentially look to the 2800 mark, he has another four years to beat GM Alireza Firouzja's record as the youngest 2800 in history.

Other notable increases were GM Amin Tabatabaei gaining 14 points by winning the 2026 Reykjavik Open with an impressive 8/9 score, GM Aydin Suleymanli gaining 12 points at the 2026 European Individual Chess Championship (which was won by a 17-year-old IM!), and GM Abhimanyu Mishra, who returned to the top-100 with a 15-point rating gain in a Spanish open tournament.

FIDE Classical Ratings Top 25 Juniors | May 1, 2026

Whatever division there used to be between the world top-100 and the junior lists hardly seems to exist anymore, especially as the reigning world champion is also still a junior. Erdogmus remains at number-two, though he has extended his lead over GM Pranav Venkatesh. We've also already mentioned Mishra.

The biggest gain was by GM Tong Xiao, who gained 31 points after playing 35 classical games in a single month, across four events. GM Jan Malek gained 27 points, playing "only" 23 games in three events and jumping into the top-25. GM Leon Luke Mendonca had the third-highest gain, +18 after playing in the Bundesliga and the Menorca Open.

GM Denis Lazavik, who is an elite online player and just recently finished third in the 2026 Chess.com Open, isn't quite as active over-the-board. Returning to classical chess for the first time since September 2025, he gained 16 points after winning a round-robin tournament in Russia.

FIDE Classical Ratings Top 100 Women | May 1, 2026

The biggest story in women's chess last month was that of Vaishali, who on her way to winning the 2026 FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament also had the biggest jump of the top-100, 26 points. She is now number 13 in the world and will challenge world number-three GM Ju Wenjun for the world championship title.

GM Bibisara Assaubayeva had the highest gain in the top-10, +11, and a second-place finish in the same tournament. Former Women's World Champion Tan Zhongyi suffered one of the biggest losses in the month, tumbling 18 points and three spots down to number nine, after finishing last with GM Divya Deshmukh (-10).

The highest gain in the top-100 was by WGM Xiao Yiyi (+28) after scoring 8.5/11 in the 2026 Women's Chinese Chess Team Championship, the highest in the event. She jumped thirty spots to world number 53. Other players who gained more than 20 points were IM Savitha Shri B (+23) and IM Teodora Injac (+21). Unfortunately IM Irina Bulmaga had the biggest drop on the list: -33 points and 34 spots in a single month. 

Tai's Prodigy Watch section will be added to this article as soon as possible!

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. You can read more about Prodigy Watch here.

Chess.com also tracks the largest rating gains each month—for all FIDE-rated players. The most impressive jump was by 14-year-old Kazakh CM Alisher Abdsattar, who skyrocketed from a rating of 2185 to 2429 in the month of April. That's 244 points! In the Menorca Open, he had a 2655 performance but was ineligible for a norm because his final two wins were secured by forfeit when opponents didn't arrive at the board.

All data courtesy of FIDE.