Since September 2023 was a calm month, both the top 10 open and top 10 women saw no changes, which is a very rare case.

Biggest giants in top 100 open and women

Still untitled, Indian prodigy Velpula Sarayu won this nomination for the second straight month. Following her strong performance in the Malaysian Open 2023 she gained “mere” 57 points in September (comparing her 300+ rating increase a month earlier) and made it to the top 30 with 2444.

Photo: Cristian Arcas/ Pontevedra Masters

The most important chess events in September in terms of top GMs' participation were two team competitions: the Spanish Team Championship (Club Division de Honor 2023) and Druzynowe Mistrzostwa Polski - Ekstraliga 2023, which brought together many top players. Subsequently, those who fared well in these events earned some valuable rating points.

18-year-old Praggnanandhaa picked up 11 points in the Spanish Team Championship and climbed to #16 with 2738. The list of overperforming players in this event also includes Meri Arabidze (+16), Antoaneta Stefanova (+14), and Jorden Van Foreest (+8).

Photo: Stev Bonhage

Mateusz Bartel (+30! pictured above), Divya Deshmukh (+23), Etienne Bacrot (+9), and Nataliya Buksa did an excellent job in the Ekstraliga 2023 and substantially increased their rating.

There were some shifts in the rapid open rating list caused by two major rapid events, Tata Steel Chess India Rapid and Levitov Chess Week. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (+16) and Praggnanandhaa R (+11) became the main rating beneficiaries of the former, both moving three positions up.

The winner of Tata Steel Chess India Rapid Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Photo: Vivek Sohani)

The winner of the Levitov Chess Week Ian Nepomniachtchi gained 23 points and entered the top 3 Open Rapid, while the third-place finisher Peter Svidler picked up 15 points.