October's Rating Movers: Turn the Headlines into a Training Habit

Retrospective edition for 2 October 2026, published 11 October 2026.

The October snapshot

FIDE's 1 October rating report highlighted the Olympiad's impact. Nodirbek Abdusattorov gained 18 points, returned to the world's top five, and matched his career-high rating of 2780. Zhu Jiner gained nine points and reclaimed second place in the Women's list. Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş entered the Open top 20 after gaining 15 points; Alice Lee entered the Women's top 20 after gaining 14. Read FIDE's October rating report.

Related viewing: Lichess's interview with Erdoğmuş after his game against Faustino Oro, included in its 27 September Olympiad recap.

Choose a question you can answer

Elite rating movements make compelling headlines. Your own next training step can be much smaller: identify one decision that repeatedly causes trouble.

Look through three recent completed games. Do you miss undefended pieces, overlook an opponent's threat, or spend too much time choosing between similar moves? Choose one pattern that you can point to on the board. Avoid trying to fix every weakness in the same week.

Write a question that would have helped at the relevant moment. For example: which of my pieces would be undefended after this move? Keep it concrete enough to answer before moving.

A seven-day experiment

On the first day, save one position from those games and explain the problem without an engine. List two candidate moves and an expected reply to each. Then check the position and record what your original explanation missed.

Across the next few days, practise a small set of related puzzles. Give yourself time to work out the opponent's reply before revealing the answer. When you get one wrong, record the overlooked idea rather than simply starting another puzzle.

In your next friendly game, use your chosen question when the position becomes complicated. Afterwards, review one moment when the habit helped and one when you forgot it.

At the end of the week, revisit the original position. Can you explain it more clearly? That is something you can assess even if your rating has barely moved.

Share the process

Invite a playing partner to try the same experiment with a different weakness. Compare your questions and one example from each person's games.

Keep comparisons within the same rating system and time control. Most of all, give the exercise enough room to become a habit. A useful review leaves you with a decision to practise next, alongside any number on your profile.