Biggest Elo Gainers of 2024
The year 2024 was one of the most exciting years in the late history of chess as it was a turning point for various aspects of the sport. A historic Indian Double at Budapest – Chess Olympiad, a surge of Freestyle Chess with Magnus Carlsen as its face, massive strides made by the wave of new generation players into the Elite, historic shared victors of the World Blitz Championship, and the list goes on. Let’s shed some light on the biggest classical rating changes in the last 12 months amongst the top-ranked players.
The biggest of all was the Indian talent, Aravindh Chithambaram who made a giant leap with +64 on the rating list. Aravindh not only became the 10th Indian to have crossed 2700 in live ratings but also established himself at 2720+ after winning the very strong “Chennai Grand Masters 2024” ahead of the likes of Erigaisi and Aronian. Currently, the 25-year-old stands strong at 2726 as World #23.
Not far behind Aravindh was another Indian, who arguably looked the most impressive player in the last 12 months – Arjun Erigaisi. Missing the FIDE Circuit by a whisker, Arjun managed to perform exceptionally well during the last calendar year, gaining 63 Elo ratings which put him from 2738 to 2801. Arjun became the 2nd and youngest Indian to cross the 2800 elo mark. In addition to Individual and Team Gold Medals at Budapest, Arjun’s WR Chess Masters Cup victory was one of his most impressive achievements last year.
Finishing the Indian trifecta at the top of the biggest gainers’ list is our new undisputed World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju! Gukesh, on paper, gained +52 Elo ratings while also managing to hit his peak rating at 2794 which later came down to 2777, still cementing the World Champion currently at World #5. Gukesh was another catalyst for the Indian Olympiad success, winning yet another Individual Gold on Board 1 for his medal-winning team. Even though Gukesh spent a significant chunk of time preparing for the big match, he made huge leaps into the World Top 10!
Some other highlights include Hans Niemann who made his way to 2734 (gaining +42) with the help of dominating his strong opposition in self-organized 1v1 Matches, Vladimir Fedoseev with +27 who has shown time and again that he belongs to the 2700 club. The second half of the year was unfortunate for Nodirbek Abdusattorov who also hit his peak rating of 2783 only to drop back down to 2768, still gaining +41 overall. It was however a continuum of disaster for the 17th World Chess Champion Ding Liren who bled the most Elo out of the World’s top. Ding Liren lost a massive 46 Elo ratings, throwing him from World #4 at 2780 in January 2024 to World #17 at 2734.
Here’s how the World’s top 10 looks as of January 2025:
Photo courtesy: Lennart Ootes/FIDE (International Federation of Chess)
