2025 Women's Top 25 Rankings: Fear Goryachkina!

The new rankings for 2025 are finally here! This time, let's take a look back at how things have changed not just from the last set of rankings released in October, but also from the very first set a whole year ago!

If you’re new or you haven’t seen my previous sets of rankings, these are the Top 25 women’s chess players based on both results and performance across all OTB formats in the past two years, with emphasis on classical and the most recent 12 months. (Check out here for the full methodology.)

New rankings (January 2025)

This set of rankings includes everything through the end of 2024. The big highlight was the World Rapid & Blitz Championship, but there was also the second leg of the 2024-25 FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Kazakhstan as well as Tata Steel India right after. Other key tournaments included the European Club Cup and a whole bunch of big open tournaments that coincided with the World Championship match.

The biggest tournaments that no longer count towards the most recent year are the Grand Swiss and the 2023 editions of the Qatar Masters and World Rapid & Blitz.

Here are the new rankings!

The January 2025 Top 25. Credit: @OnTheQueenside.

Since October

If you read that list of tournaments above and thought “Wow, that’s a lot of tournaments!”, well you’re right! A lot has changed since the last rankings, even with only three new months covered.

The biggest development was Aleksandra Goryachkina. The recent World Championship challenger had been rather quiet since her 2023 World Cup triumph, most notably struggling at the Grand Swiss and the Candidates. But in the last few months of 2024, she flipped a switch back to the terror she once was. She totally annihilated the 2nd leg of the Women’s Grand Prix, with a five-game win streak and a 2691 performance that was on par with Ju Wenjun’s world-best in 2024. It also put a stop to Tan Zhongyi’s spectacular run of four consecutive tournament wins even though Tan didn’t play badly and came in second just half a point back. If that wasn’t enough, Goryachkina followed it up by winning Tata Steel India Rapid immediately after. Team Death Stare is back!

Goryachkina in the Monaco Grand Prix this year, which she also won. Credit: FIDE / Niki Riga.

The other big highlight was Polina Shuvalova. She actually had a terrible first part of the year plummeting more than 50 Elo in a span of several months, but turned it around and gained it all back and more. Shuvalova’s best stretch of 2024 came at the end when she tied for first place in back-to-back open tournaments. At the Annemasse Masters in particular, she was unlucky not to earn a GM norm. She had a 2600+ performance, played three 2500s, met all the requirements, except only two of her three 2500+ opponents were GMs. Unfortunately, the last one was not, even though he was 2544 and won the tournament. Still, Shuvalova was easily the best woman in opens in 2024 and with that form, wouldn’t be far from challenging for the world title.

But enough about how things have changed since October. Let’s take a look at what you really want to see: how things have changed since a year ago!

Look out below

Two of the biggest Top 10 surprises in 2023, Nurgyul Salimova and Dinara Wagner, couldn’t keep it up in 2024. They fell from Nos. 9 & 10 to just barely staying in the rankings at Nos. 23 & 24. Neither had much in terms of accomplishments this past year, but there may be hope on the horizon. Nurgyul will get a chance at redemption in the Women’s Grand Prix, while Dinara just got a full-time sponsor to help her pursuit of the GM title.

The other biggest decliners were the veterans Alexandra Kosteniuk and Kateryna Lagno. They weren’t a surprise to make the Top 10 last year, but they were a surprise to fall out this year. They both still excelled in speed chess, with Kosteniuk winning the European Rapid & Blitz double and Lagno getting double bronze at the World Rapid & Blitz to go along with the Tata Steel India Blitz title. But neither had similar success in classical, a bit backwards from what one might expect for veteran players.

Top 25 players from January 2024 no longer ranked now:
GM Bella Khotenashvili (16), GM Elisabeth Pähtz (17), IM Meri Arabidze (18), GM Antoaneta Stefanova (20), GM Mariya Muzychuk (21), IM Gunay Mammadzada (25)

Staying put

Some of the best players that have held steady after the past year were Ju Wenjun, Aleksandra Goryachkina, and Vaishali, who are all ranked exactly where they started at Nos. 1, 3, and 8. For Ju Wenjun, she’s been No. 1 the whole year. But Goryachkina had fallen to No. 7, while Vaishali — the other biggest Top 10 surprise from 2023 — actually rose to No. 3 before ending up where she started.

Moving up in the world

It was a great year for some of the top young stars, particularly Zhu Jiner and Divya Deshmukh. Zhu Jiner, the youngest woman with the GM title, climbed from No. 15 to No. 7, highlighted by her Olympiad Board 1 gold and double gold at the European Club Cup. And Divya, who wasn’t even ranked at the start of last year, finishes 2024 in the Top 10 at No. 9, and was even No. 6 on the previous list. Other young stars Bibisara Assaubayeva and Polina Shuvalova did moderately well, inching up slightly in the rankings. Further down the list, Teodora Injac and Stavroula Tsolakidou — both still only 24 years old — both jumped a big chunk up to make it into the Top 20.

Often drowned out by her compatriots, Zhu Jiner should not be overlooked. Credit: European Club Cup.

Rising in the ranks isn’t just for the young. Alina Kashlinskaya is back in the rankings at No. 12, courtesy of her Grand Prix leg win & GM norm, after taking a year off to become a mom. Nana Dzagnidze, also after having another kid, had a great bounce-back year with an Olympiad Board 1 silver and a European Club Cup double gold. But perhaps the biggest comeback of all came from all-time legend Humpy Koneru, who claimed a second World Rapid Championship and finished runner-up at the Candidates, taking her up to No. 5, a seven-spot rise from where she started last year.

Top 25 players now who weren’t ranked in January 2024:
IM Divya Deshmukh (9), IM Alina Kashlinskaya (12), IM Sara Khadem (20), IM Olga Badelka (21), IM Leya Garifullina (22), IM Yuliia Osmak (25)

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Take a look at the Top 25 list now. One year from now, you can expect about five to drop out, five new names, and one or two new names in the Top 10. Who knows, maybe we’ll see a new name in Top 5 too!

Think you know who it’s going to be? There’s only one way to find out!

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