FIDE ratings – February 2026

The season of top tournaments traditionally begins each year with the event in Wijk aan Zee. This year’s tournament did conclude on Sunday, but by the end of the month on 31 January the results were, naturally, not yet available, and therefore the event could not be taken into account for the FIDE rating list for February. However, even before the Tata Steel tournament there were several tournaments and matches involving top players. Thus, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave lost a match against Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus by 2.5–3.5, which cost the Frenchman 11 rating points as the clearly higher-rated player.

Vachier-Lagrave lost a little over two additional points in the Bundesliga and, as a result, dropped seven places in the world rankings (to 23rd). Erdogmus picked up the 11 points for his rating account and climbed to 46th place. With his excellent result at the tournament in Wijk, Erdogmus will rise further in the next list, and in any case it is only a matter of time before the 14-year-old is rated above 2700 Elo. Most likely quite soon.

Most of the players at the top of the rating list, however, were inactive at the board before Wijk, and so nothing has changed in the rankings up to Anand in 13th place. With a gain of eight points, Jan-Krzysztof Duda has moved up to 14th place.

Top 100

Top 100 Women

In the women’s world rankings, Hou Yifan remains the world’s top player, but lost 17 rating points in the Chinese League — including two defeats against Lu Miaoyi — and thus fell below the 2600 mark for the first time since 2013.

Zhu Jiner, Lei Tingjie and Ju Wenjun also lost a number of points, but their order at the top of the women’s world rankings remained unchanged.

Tan Zhongyi gained 11 points and climbed to fifth place, meaning that the top five places in the women’s list are occupied by Chinese players. Humpy Koneru, in sixth place, is the “best of the rest”.

Top 100 Juniors

The world’s top junior remains World Champion Gukesh, who leads the junior ranking by a clear margin, as Praggnanandhaa, Sindarov and Sadhwani are no longer listed as juniors for age reasons. In the places immediately behind Gukesh now come Erdogmus, Volodar Murzin and Ediz Gürel — meaning that two young Turkish players are among the top four.

The biggest rating gains were recorded by the Israeli Yahli Sokolovsky (+30), the Indian Aarav Dengla (+35) and the Chinese Meng Yihan (+47).

Top 100 Female Juniors

The 15-year-old Lu Miaoyi leads the girls’ junior world rankings after a slight rating gain from the Chinese League. Anna Shukhman of Russia is in second place, ahead of Kazakhstan’s Afruza Khamdamova, who has swapped places with Alice Lee (USA). Amina Kairbekova, also from Kazakhstan, recorded a gain of 31 points and moved up to sixth place. Other major rating gainers in the upper part of the list include Rachael Li (USA, +36), Rose Atwell (USA, +47), and Switzerland’s Or Shatil (+75).   

Ratings at FIDE…