There are fifteen women in the world with 2500 or more. Two of these, Dzagnidze and Wenjun, have returned to this elevated status, the latter being one of five players who have their career best at present.
Nine of the fifteen in the table gained rating points over the summer period, suggesting perhaps that there is an overall rise in progress. The majority are quite youthful which lends further evidence to my premise that the general standard is going up.
Tatiana Kosintseva and her elder sister Nadezhda seem to be going from strength-to-strength and these two plus Hou Yifan could well break the 2600 barrier in the next twelve months.
| Ranking | Name | Country | Age | Rating 1/9/10 | Rating 1/7/10 | Rating 1/5/10 | rating 1/3/10 | Career Highest |
| 1 | Judit Polgar | HUN | 34 | 2682 | 2682 | 2682 | 2682 | 2735 |
| 2 | Humpy Koneru | IND | 23 | 2593 | 2600 | 2622 | 2622 | 2623 |
| 3 | Hou Yifan | CHN | 16 | 2578 | 2577 | 2589 | 2570 | 2590 |
| 4 | Tatiana Kosintseva | RUS | 24 | 2573 | 2562 | 2534 | 2524 | 2573 |
| 5 | Nadezhda Kosintseva (IM) | RUS | 25 | 2565 | 2551 | 2553 | 2554 | 2565 |
| 6 | Antoaneta Stefanova | BUL | 31 | 2551 | 2560 | 2560 | 2555 | 2560 |
| 7 | Kateryna Lahno | UKR | 20 | 2539 | 2535 | 2527 | 2518 | 2539 |
| 8 | Anna Muzychuk (IM) | SLO | 20 | 2535 | 2527 | 2529 | 2533 | 2542 |
| 9 | Nana Dzagnidze | GEO | 23 | 2534 | 2498 | 2478 | 2479 | 2547 |
| 10 | Alexandra Kosteniuk | RUS | 26 | 2524 | 2519 | 2519 | 2524 | 2540 |
| 11 | Wenjun Ju (WGM) | CHN | 19 | 2516 | 2496 | 2500 | 2500 | 2516 |
| 12 | Dronavalli Harika (IM) | IND | 19 | 2515 | 2504 | 2491 | 2473 | 2515 |
| 13 | Viktorija Cmilyte | LTU | 27 | 2513 | 2527 | 2514 | 2485 | 2527 |
| 14 | Pia Cramling | SWE | 47 | 2509 | 2517 | 2536 | 2523 | 2550 |
| 15 | Maia Chiburdanidze | GEO | 49 | 2500 | 2514 | 2514 | 2514 | 2560 |
The players are all considered to be 'GMs' except for four of the above (marked in brackets) who have yet to achieve this title. Two players dropped out of the list, Marie Sebag (France) and Natalija Pogonina (Russia) after showing mediocre form.
In terms of age, Hou Yifan is the youngest (still only 16) and Chiburdanidze the senior woman at 49.
Overall, there are three teenagers (Hou Yifan and Wenjun Ju both of China, plus Harika from India), two in their thirties (Polgar and Stefanova), two in their forties (Cramling and Chiburdanidze) and eight between 20 and 29 years old which is also the peak age group amongst the top male players.
