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Learn about the top chess players of today and the past. Each chess player has their own profile with a biography, best games, photos and most important moments.
- Hikaru Nakamura
The 42nd Chess Olympiad would be held later the same year in...
- Vincent Keymer
Keymer's overall World Cup performance placed him in the top...
- Veselin Topalov
From Grandmaster To World-Class Player. From 1994 to 2004...
- Levon Aronian
Aronian won the World Under-12 Championship in 1994 with 8/9...
- Nikita Vitiugov
Nikita Vitiugov in 2018. Photo: Eric van Reem/Grenke Chess...
- Richard Rapport
Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com. Rapport was the sole...
- Levy Rozman
Chess.com Commentating And Content Creation. Rozman has also...
- Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Nodirbek Abdusattorov is an Uzbek grandmaster who won the...
- Le Quang Liem
He is best known for winning the World Blitz Chess...
- Teimour Radjabov
Early March 2020, shortly before the start, Radjabov...
- Magnus Carlsen - Top Chess Players
- Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | Top Chess Players
- Dommaraju Gukesh | Top Chess Players
- Fabiano Caruana | Top Chess Players
- Ding Liren - Bio & Stats | Top Chess Players
- Arjun Erigaisi | Top Players
- Alireza Firouzja - Bio & Stats | Top Chess Players
- Viswanathan Anand - Bio & Stats | Top Chess Players
- Ian Nepomniachtchi | Top Chess Players
- Pia Cramling | Top Chess Players
- Hikaru Nakamura
People also ask
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- Garry Kasparov. Garry Kasparov was the world number 1 for 225 months. 14 min. 2 Challenges.
- Magnus Carlsen. Magnus Carlsen was the reigning World Champion when this series was recorded. 15 min. 2 Challenges.
- Bobby Fischer. Robert James Fischer. 13 min. 2 Challenges.
- Emanuel Lasker. Emanuel Lasker remained World Champion for 27 years. 14 min. 2 Challenges.
- Honorable Mentions
- Paul Morphy
- Tigran Petrosian
- Viswanathan Anand
- Alexander Alekhine
- Mikhail Tal
- Emanuel Lasker
- Vladimir Kramnik
- Mikhail Botvinnik
- Anatoly Karpov
The following players are all chess legends and are in the conversation for the best players of all time, but for one reason or another ended up just outside of the top 10.
Paul Morphywas the embodiment of romantic attacking chess, the strongest player of the 1850s and the best player of the entire 19th century. There was no official world championship title during his era, but he was light years ahead of his competition and is recognized as an unofficial world champion. Morphy won the 1857 American Chess Congress and...
GMTigran Petrosian, or "Iron Tigran," was the world champion during 1963-1969 and a four-time Soviet champion. Undefeated the entire year leading to his world championship title (1962), he was known for his defensive prowess and his famous exchange sacrifices. According to GM Daniel Naroditsky, he was one of the "first elite players with a truly un...
GM Viswanathan Anand was the FIDE world champion from 2000 to 2002 and the 15th undisputed champion from 2007 to 2013. He lost the Professional Chess Association (PCA) world championship match against GM Garry Kasparov in 1995 and lost to GM Anatoly Karpovin the FIDE world championship match in 1998 (on tiebreaks) before winning the FIDE world cham...
Alexander Alekhinewas the fourth official world champion and held the title from 1927 to 1946 (with an exception during 1935-1937). He was a brilliant and well-rounded player with a special ability for combinational play in complex positions. He also taught the chess world that rules and principles can be broken based on concrete analysis of the sp...
GMMikhail Tal, also known as the "Magician from Riga," was the eighth official world champion. He defeated Botvinnik in 1960 to earn the crown at the age of 23 and a half, becoming the youngest world champion in history at the time (although this record was broken by both Kasparov and Carlsen). Known for his brilliant and unique attacking style, Ta...
Emanuel Lasker was the second official world champion and held the title for 27 years. His reign from 1894 to 1921 is the longest of any world chess champion, and his playing career lasted five decades. Lasker defeated the first official world champion Wilhelm Steinitz in 1894, and he defended his title five times against a host of world-class cont...
GMVladimir Kramnik was world champion from 2000 to 2007. He became the classical world champion by dethroning the legendary Kasparov in 2000, defended his title in 2004 against GMPeter Leko, and in 2006 faced the FIDE world champion Topalov in a title unification match. Kramnik defeated Topalov to become the first undisputed world champion since Ka...
GMMikhail Botvinnikis known as the "father of the Soviet chess school." The sixth world champion reigned from 1948 to 1963 (with two brief intermissions) and was a top player for over 30 years. Botvinnik's style was dictated by iron logic and flexibility, although he was extremely talented with methodical and strategical planning. His flexible styl...
GMAnatoly Karpovwas the 12th world champion and reigned from 1975 to 1985 while also being the FIDE world champion from 1993 to 1999. Karpov was an exceptionally well-rounded player, but his specialty was positional binds, prophylactic play, and wonderful endgame technique. Karpov became world champion by default when Fischer withdrew from their 19...
- Colin Stapczynski
Shatranj Ke Khilari, also subtitled and later internationally released with the translated title The Chess Players, is a 1977 Indian film written and directed by Satyajit Ray, based on Munshi Premchand's short story of the same name.
This list of chess players includes people who are primarily known as chess players and have an article on the English Wikipedia.
In 1970, FIDE adopted Elo's system for rating current players, so one way to compare players of different eras is to compare their Elo ratings. The best-ever Elo ratings are tabulated below. As of September 2023, there are 133 chess players in history who broke 2700, and 14 of them exceeded 2800.
Top Chess Players Ranking list ordered by FIDE Rating. The list contains the top 200 chess players in the database ordered by ELO. Check the statistics and explore the games of the best ranked Grand Masters in the world.
