April 2025 FIDE Ratings: Arjun Overtakes Caruana, Aravindh 11th

GM Arjun Erigaisi is back to world number-four on the April 2025 FIDE rating list after two wins in the German League saw him leapfrog GM Fabiano Caruana, who lost to GM Hikaru Nakamura in The American Cup. The truly spectacular Indian achievement, however, was 25-year-old GM Aravindh Chithambaram climbing to world number-11 by winning the Prague Masters. The late-developing star is also now third in the 2025 FIDE Circuit.

GM Magnus Carlsen's reign as world number-one continues as he played three, won three in the Norwegian Team Championship to climb four points to 2837, while second-placed GM Hikaru Nakamura is the only other player in the 2800 club after being the only one to win classical games in the open section of The American Cup.

Nakamura took down both GMs Leinier Dominguez and Caruana, with that latter win seeing Caruana slip to world number-five. Arjun seized his chance to return to the fourth place where he started the year with Chess Bundesliga wins over GMs Jergus Pechac and Valery Kazakouski.

The big mover, however, was Aravindh, a child prodigy who is only now, in his mid-twenties, beginning to fulfil his promise. He won the Prague Masters by a full point ahead of GMs Anish Giri, Wei Yi, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and, when combined with two wins in the German League, gained 18 points to climb 11 places to world number-11. He's now gained an astonishing 87 points in a year, from 2662 to 2749.

The other event to make waves, a little further down the rankings, was the 11-round European Individual Championship. The month saw big gains for the players who tied for first, GMs Matthias Bluebaum (+19), Frederik Svane (+14), and Maxim Rodshtein (+24), but also losses for favorites who struggled, including top-seed GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (-24), GM David Anton (-24), and second-seed GM Alexey Sarana (-17), who cut his losses after eight tough rounds.

FIDE Classical Ratings (Top 100) | April 1, 2025

Another focus for the top players is the FIDE Circuit. In 2024, Caruana clinched the first available spot in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament, while a second spot is available in 2025. Once again, the best of up to seven results will be counted.

The big move in the leaderboard is again Aravindh, whose 24.34 points for sole first place in Prague have catapulted him into third place. Praggnanandhaa is second, with his 25 points for winning in Wijk aan Zee now combined with 11.06 points for tying for second place in Prague. GM Ding Liren still leads with 40.64 points from the 2024 World Championship match, but he's said it's unlikely he'll play enough events to qualify for the Candidates via the Circuit, while as world champion, GM Gukesh Dommaraju isn't actually in the race.

Another interesting detail, however, is that for the first time we got to see the impact of the new FIDE regulation which penalizes tournaments for having more than one round a day. GM Ian Nepomniachtchi would have scored 22.51 points for sole first in the Aeroflot Open, but instead he got 18.01 due to a 0.8 multiplier for three days with multiple rounds. An eight-way tie for second saw players scoring in the range of 10.13 for GM Richard Rapport (second after tiebreaks) to 5.22 for GM Hans Niemann (eighth after tiebreaks).   

I’m here to let the chess speak for itself. I have no tournaments to play and Aeroflot is a part of the FIDE circuit. End of story. May the best player win.

— Hans Niemann (@HansMokeNiemann) February 27, 2025

FIDE Circuit 2025 (Top 10) | April 1, 2025

The Junior FIDE Rating List saw high activity, with multiple players gaining or losing around 15 points. Two standouts were the Turkish stars, 13-year-old GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus and 16-year-old GM Ediz Gurel, who both tied for fourth place in the European Championship, booked spots in the upcoming FIDE World Cup, and climbed to personal best ratings—2636 for Gurel and 2618 for Erdogmus. Gurel is also back in the overall top-100.

Another noteworthy mention is for 18-year-old GM Pranav Venkatesh, who has entered the top-10 list of juniors after winning the World Junior Championship. 

Junior FIDE Classical Ratings (Top 25) | April 1, 2025

The April list is the one that will count for the 2025 Women's World Chess Championship, starting in Shanghai, China, this Thursday, April 3. The match is perfectly set up, with defending champion GM Ju Wenjun (2561), the highest-rated active women's chess player (GM Hou Yifan has played three league games in the last year), while challenger GM Tan Zhongyi is next, just six points behind her.

The main changes at the top in March were GMs Anna Muzychuk and Zhu Jiner overtaking GM Kateryna Lagno as they vied for first place in the Nicosia Women's FIDE Grand Prix. Muzychuk ultimately took the title and remained ahead of Zhu, who was just one win short of making it five Chinese players in the women's top-six!

IM Bibisara Assaubayeva had the biggest gain in the top-30 after picking up 18 points for drawing an unusual match against GM Daniil Yuffa 4-4, while 16-year-old WIM Anna Shukhman became Girls World Junior Champion and world number-34 (+48 points).

WGM Alicja Sliwicka reentered the top-100 in 66th place after a wild month that saw her lose 18 points in an event in Italy before picking up 36 points for winning the 3rd International Women's Chess Championship in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and 16 points for second place in the Menchik Memorial in London, U.K.      

Women's FIDE Classical Ratings (Top 100) | April 1, 2025

All data courtesy of FIDE.