Keymer Storms To No. 4, Gukesh Back in Top 10: November 2025 FIDE Ratings

GM Vincent Keymer gained 18 points across the 2025 European Team Chess Championship and 2025 European Club Cup to break into the top five for the first time in his career on the November 2025 FIDE rating list. GM Anish Giri is up to fifth, while World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju is back in the top 10, in place of GM Wei Yi. 15-year-old GM Andy Woodward became one of the youngest players ever to cross 2600, while women's number-two GM Zhu Jiner is now among the top-10 highest-rated female players of all time.    

Only GM Magnus Carlsen (who has topped every list since July 2011) and GM Alireza Firouzja were inactive in another busy month for the world's top 10. 

FIDE Classical Ratings Top 100: November 1, 2025

The big rating news a month ago was that FIDE had introduced a special rule to stop Nakamura "farming" rating by gaining 0.8 rating points for wins against opponents rated more than 400 points below him. We saw the first consequence of that as a 5.5/6 winning performance in the Maritime Chess Festival in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada, cost Nakamura 3.4 rating points.  

Nakamura has no reason to complain, however. Farming rating was never the point, and he's now just another five rated games away from qualifying for the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. The relatively quick draw that cost him a few rating points gave him time to qualify for the Finals and go on to win the online Comet Open 2025 and its $45,000 top prize. There was also a trophy to take back from the Canada trip!  

One of the most beautiful trophies I've won at a chess tournament! That's why I play in Canada! pic.twitter.com/vNO0unQGUT

— Hikaru Nakamura (@GMHikaru) October 13, 2025

The main events to shake up the top rankings, however, were team events in Europe. First came the European Team Championship for national teams in Batumi, Georgia, which was won by Ukraine, with GMs Igor Kovalenko (+15 rating points) and 16-year-old Ihor Samunenkov (+16) starring with gold medals on boards four and five, respectively. GM Richard Rapport (+12) took gold on board one.

Then came the European Club Cup on the island of Rhodes, Greece. The European clubs could field players from around the world, and winners SuperChess boasted none other than the world champion. It was a welcome comeback for Gukesh, who took gold on board one with a 2927 4/5 performance that included wins over GMs Sergei Movsesian, Max Warmerdam, and Arjun Erigaisi.

Gukesh gained 10 points to return to the top 10 in ninth place, while Arjun dropped to sixth after being overtaken by two players. One was Dutch number-one, Giri, who took bronze on board one in both team events to move to fifth place. That was eclipsed by 20-year-old German number-one Keymer, however, who took silver in both events, with 2838 and 2882 performances—the latter despite a loss to Arjun.

Keymer picked up 18 points to reach a career-best 2773 and world number four.

Other notable players to climb during the team events were GMs Alexey Sarana (+14), Gawain Maroroa Jones (+12), Nils Grandelius (+16), David Anton (+17), Ediz Gurel (+14), Eltaj Safarli (+14), and Aleksandar Indjic (+17).      

FIDE Circuit 2025 Top 10: November 1, 2025

One of the drawbacks of the FIDE Circuit is that it doesn't take into account performances in team events, which means that Keymer's heroics leave him no closer to qualifying via that route, though he remains the highest scoring player after GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu who is not yet qualified for the Candidates. If Praggnanandhaa qualifies via the FIDE World Cup, that may become very relevant. 

The event which did affect the Circuit standings was the U.S. Chess Championship. GM Fabiano Caruana became the first player since GM Bobby Fischer to win four titles in a row. The world number-three also gained 23.90 Circuit points for sole first place, though that's irrelevant since he's already qualified via the 2024 Circuit. GM Wesley So's 17.38 points for sole second place may matter, however, placing the world number-six just behind Keymer.

   

FIDE Classical Ratings Top 25 Juniors: November 1, 2025

GM Abhimanyu Mishra's 71-game unbeaten streak was finally ended by GM Hans Niemann in round five of the U.S. Championship, with two more losses costing the 16-year-old 10 rating points. Two Turkish prodigies took advantage to move up, with 16-year-old Gurel winning his final three games at the European Team Championship to gain 14 points and climb to sixth place. 14-year-old GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus took a break but still climbed to fifth place.

As well as Samunenkov's starring role for Ukraine, another big mover on the Junior list was 15-year-old Woodward, who scored three wins in the U.S. Championship to gain 15 points and become the 17th youngest player ever to cross the 2600 barrier.

FIDE Classical Ratings Top 100 Women | November 1, 2025

It wasn't for a lack of activity, but the top-11 rankings on the Women's list are unchanged on the November list.

That didn't mean there were no significant results. 22-year-old Zhu continued her climb, scoring 5/6 and an individual gold on board one of the Women's European Club Cup.

She remained the world number-two behind GM Hou Yifan but has now joined the top-10 list of highest-rated female players ever on an official rating list.

The European Club Cup was won by Cercle d'echecs de Monte Carlo, with many of the team members having a great month. 

GM Divya Deshmukh returned to the 2500-club, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk gained 14 points, and GM Alina Kashlinskaya gained 25 points, half of which came from helping Poland to win the European Women's Team Championship. The biggest climber in the top 100, however, was Greek IM Stavroula Tsolakidou, who at one point posted a seven-game winning streak across the two events as she picked up 26 points.

Prodigy Watch: Barcelo, Charvi Join Names To 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, while here's this month's update:

Prodigy Watch Top 15: November 1, 2025

IM Faustino Oro and Erdogmus enter the FIDE World Cup as the highest-rated players ever for their ages, while the addition of an exact date of birth, and a new peak rating, places Spanish Under-10 Champion Marc Barcelo Melnyk as the second-highest-rated player ever at his age. We already noted the impressive performances of Woodward and Gurel in October, and they continue to improve their prodigy ranks.

There were also three new members of the 2000-before-the-age-of-10 club, with Nurmukhamed Elemes (2032, Kazakhstan), Sattwik Swain (2029, India), and Martin Guillevic (2020, France) all born in 2016.  

Prodigy Watch Top 10 Girls: November 1, 2025

WFM Bodhana Sivanandan features on both the overall and Girls lists, and her first-round win over former Women's World Champion GM Mariya Muzychuk is one of the most impressive wins by a 10-year-old of all time. She climbed to a new peak rating and climbed to a girls' prodigy rank of four. 

15-year-old IM Lu Miaoyi got back on track with a win over another former Women's World Champion, GM Tan Zhongyi, in the Chinese League before scoring 4.5/6 in the European Club Cup.

The biggest climber on the list, however, is 11-year-old WFM Charvi Anilkumar from India, who bounced back to a new peak rating after beating a grandmaster on the way to gaining over 100 points and finishing tied for ninth place in the Fagernes International in Norway.

Only 13 female players have ever been rated higher than her 2174 at the same age.

All data courtesy of FIDE.