Format
VD
van der Merwe, Alexander
🇿🇦FIDE 14323842· Male· South Africa· Born in 2005
Follow Alexander van der MerweTrack his monthly FIDE ratings, games, tournaments and more.
Alexander Van Der Merwe, a 21-year-old South African player, is rated 2174 — his current career high and ranked 20th among South African players, and in the top 4% worldwide. He is on a breakout run, having gained +84 Elo over the past 12 months. 25 rated games in the past year (≈28/year long-term). Recent standard appearances include XXXVI Miedzynarodowy Festiwal Szachowy CRACOVIA 2025 Grupa A, XII International Sunway Sitges Chess Festival - Group A, and Cape Town Chess Federation Club League 2025 (A). He reached South African #14 in Feb 2023.
At junior level, he reached #1, #1, #3, #4 and #3 nationally in U20, U18, U16, U14 and U12.
Current rating
2174
Standard
Rpd—·Blz1852
All-time high
2174
at best
Feb 2026 · age 21
Feb 2026 · age 21
Activity
20
games / yr avg. · ≈2/mo
25 past 12 mo · ≈2/mo
classical only
Moderately active
classical only
Moderately active
Signature stat
#20
#20 · South African players · of 1,773
Career timeline
15 entries2026
All-time peak 2174
at age 21
Feb 2026
2025
Re-crossed 2100
at age 20
Nov 2025
2024
1st South African U20 player
at age 19 · rated 2113
Jan 2024
K-factor lowered to 20
at age 19
Jan 2024
2023
Best 12-month gain (+367 Elo)
1746 → 2113
Aug 2023
Peak South African rank: #14
at age 18 · rated 2113
Feb 2023
Standard rating history
Activity & highlights
Top opponent
Evolution
+84
2090 → 2174
Tournaments
3
25 games
Score
14.5/ 2558.0%
10W9D6L
Top 3 wins
1.[W]vsOleksii KarvatskyiFM2,321·XXXVI Miedzynarodowy Festiwal Szachowy CRACOVIA 2025 Grupa A·R5·+14.0
2.[W]vsBartosz PrzybylskiFM2,268·XXXVI Miedzynarodowy Festiwal Szachowy CRACOVIA 2025 Grupa A·R9·+12.6
3.[W]vsTamer Tarik SelbesFM2,223·XXXVI Miedzynarodowy Festiwal Szachowy CRACOVIA 2025 Grupa A·R2·+11.4
Top 3 losses
2.[L]vsNikolai A. GrebennikovCM2,214·XII International Sunway Sitges Chess Festival - Group A·R10·-7.1
Last 12 months — tournaments
3 events| Event | Date | Score | Rank | Perf | Δ Elo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Open Swiss | Dec 2025 | 6/9 | #9 | 2370 | +65.2 |
Open Swiss | Dec 2025 | 5/10 | #98 | 2122 | +6.2 |
Team | Jul 2025 | 3.5/6 | #57 | 2169 | +12.8 |
Hot streak: 3 tournaments without losing Elo.
Most-Played Opponents
Rankings
/
South Africa
#20
out of 1,842 players
Africa
#147
in continent
World
#9,654
out of 400,000+
National ranking
Europe & World
Europe
World
South Africa
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| ... | ||
| 20 | 2,174 | |
Africa
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| ... | ||
| 147 | 2,174 | |
World
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| ... | ||
| 9654 | 2,174 | |