The main chess competitions in April had little impact on the top 10 Open and Women. The only exception was the American Cup 2023, won by Hikaru Nakamura. The American picked up 7 rating points and returned into The top 5 Open. Ironically, the runner-up, Wesley So, dropped one rating point in this event.

Photo: St-Louis Chess Club | Crystal Fuller

On the other hand we see some significant shifts in the lower echelons of top 100.

Biggest gains in top 100 Open and Women

Photo: Madelene Belinki

The winner in this nomination Vantika Agrawal of India (pictured above), scored impressive 40 rating points following her successful tour in Hungary, where she performed strongly at GM tournaments in Vezerkepzo and Budapest. 

Alice Lee made a strong showing in the 2023 American Cup, making all the way to the final, where he lost to the eventual champion Irina Krush. This result translates into 29 rating points accumulated by the talented teenager in March. 

Photo: St-Louis Chess Club | Lennart Ootes

The top finishers of the European Championship (Open), Alexey Sarana and Kirill Shevchenko, earned 17 and 16 points, respectively, and both moved 20 positions up in the rating list. 

It is encouraging to see that this event became a springboard for several talented youngsters outside of the top 100 open who substantially increased their rating: Daniel Dardha (+15, pictured below), Volodar Murzin (+23), Nikolozi Kacharava (+19), Frederik Svane (+17) and Ediz Gurel (+35). 

Photo: eicc2023.com/ 

As for the Europeans Women’s Championship, the primary rating beneficiaries of this competition are the runner-up Oliwia Kiolvasa (+23), the bronze-winner Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (+22) and Stavroula Tsolakidou (+15).

Just like in the Open section, several female youngsters – Mariam Mkrtchyan, who returned into the top 100 Women (+17), Yelyzaveta Hrebenshchykova (+14) and Nadya Toncheva (+85)! – picked up quite a few rating points following the European Women's Championship.