German GM Vincent Keymer shared his opinion on the elite grandmaster rating list in SchachMagazin64. Keymer says ratings change fast, points to the importance of current form, and notes the difficulty of qualifying for the Candidates Tournament.

Vincent Keymer

Vincent Keymer

Germany's No. 1

“It makes no sense to claim that Abdusattorov is now much better than Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh or Erigaisi. Three months ago Abdusattorov had 2730, and they had almost 2800 — everything changes very fast!

This also applies to me. I’m not clearly better than those players who are 20-30 points behind me right now. I would say this is a new young generation that works hard, and all of them are very talented. A lot depends on current form.

Soon the focus will return to the fight for qualification for the next Candidates Tournament. It is always incredibly difficult because in the end everything usually depends on individual tournaments and how well they go.”

The official FIDE rating list updates on the first day of each month and includes calculations from all completed tournaments during the previous month. The platform 2700chess.com calculates ratings live.

5 players out of 33 with a rating above 2700 remained unchanged in the live ratings for April. Uzbek GM Javokhir Sindarov gained 30.6 points and moved up to 5th place (+6). American GM Hans Moke Niemann gained 13.8 points and moved into the Top-12 (+8). Turkish GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus became the youngest 2700 player, adding 21.0 points and moving up to 31st place (+8).

German GM Vincent Keymer dropped from 5th to 7th place, losing 2.7 points. The ratings and position of Uzbek GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Reigning World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju did not change.

Credit: Michal Walusza / FIDE