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Three years ago Przemek Jahr of Pila, Poland, sent us a list of all players who had reached a rating of 2700 or higher, giving their highest ever ratings and the year and the FIDE list in which it was achieved. Chess fan Kostantin Ikonomovski of Jankovec, Macedonia, has been updating this list meticulously and sent us the latest version that incorporates all list up to the January 1st 2010 FIDE rankings.
Konstantin is a member of the amater team of Alkaloid for many years; "That meant that I used to have four extra vacations every year on company expences," he writes, "always in some wonderful places throughout the former Yugoslavia. I carry beautiful memories of this."
Addendum: the publication of this list under the original front page title "The strongest players of all time" has led to some furious messages from readers who blame "rating inflation" for putting Bobby Fischer in place nine. We have sought to placate them with a title change ("highest rated players") and understand that we will have to (sigh) come back to this subject again soon.
Addendum 2: We have made some corrections in the list. Carlsen has switched places with Kramnik, whose highest rating was 2809, not 2811. Grischuk was corrected and is now one place lower, and Sergey Tiviakov was removed from the list, since his 2700 rating in October 2005 was corrected to 2699.
The highest rating ever, by Garry Kasparov, is 38 points more than any other player in history. Five players have crossed the 2800 mark, five players have come within twenty points of it. Here's the complete table.
| # |
Surname, Name | Nat. |
Born |
Max |
When |
01.10 |
| 1 |
Kasparov, Garry | RUS |
1963 |
2851 |
1999.07 |
2812 |
| 2 |
Topalov, Veselin |
BUL |
1975 |
2813 |
2006.07 |
2805 |
| 3 |
Carlsen, Magnus |
NOR |
1990 |
2810 |
2010.01 |
2810 |
| 4 |
Kramnik, Vladimir |
RUS |
1975 |
2809 |
2002.01 |
2788 |
| 5 |
Anand, Viswanathan |
IND |
1969 |
2803 |
2006.04 |
2790 |
| 6 |
Morozevich, Alexander |
RUS |
1977 |
2788 |
2008.07 |
2732 |
| 7 |
Ivanchuk, Vassily |
UKR |
1969 |
2787 |
2007.10 |
2749 |
| 8 |
Aronian, Levon |
ARM |
1982 |
2786 |
2009.11 |
2781 |
| 9 |
Fischer, Robert |
USA |
1943 |
2785 |
1972.04 |
2785 |
| 10 |
Karpov, Anatoly | RUS |
1951 |
2780 |
1994.07 |
2619 |
| 11 |
Svidler, Peter |
RUS |
1976 |
2765 |
2006.01 |
2744 |
| 12 |
Leko, Peter |
HUN |
1979 |
2763 |
2005.04 |
2739 |
| 13 |
Radjabov, Teimour |
AZE |
1987 |
2761 |
2009.01 |
2733 |
| 14 |
Gelfand, Boris |
ISR |
1968 |
2761 |
2010.01 |
2761 |
| 15 |
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar |
AZE |
1985 |
2760 |
2008.01 |
2741 |
| 16 |
Jakovenko, Dmitry |
RUS |
1983 |
2760 |
2009.01 |
2730 |
| 17 |
Gashimov, Vugar |
AZE |
1986 |
2759 |
2010.01 |
2759 |
| 18 |
Shirov, Alexei |
ESP |
1972 |
2755 |
2008.01 |
2723 |
| 19 |
Adams, Michael |
ENG |
1971 |
2755 |
2000.07 |
2694 |
| 20 |
Movsesian, Sergei |
SVK |
1978 |
2751 |
2009.01 |
2704 |
| 21 |
Wang, Yue |
CHN |
1987 |
2749 |
2010.01 |
2749 |
| 22 |
Grischuk, Alexander |
RUS |
1983 |
2748 |
2009.04 |
2736 |
| 23 |
Kamsky, Gata |
USA |
1974 |
2745 |
1996.07 |
2693 |
| 24 |
Ponomariov, Ruslan |
UKR |
1983 |
2743 |
2002.04 |
2737 |
| 25 |
Bareev, Evgeny |
RUS |
1966 |
2739 |
2003.10 |
2643 |
| 36 |
Eljanov, Pavel |
UKR |
1983 |
2736 |
2010.01 |
2736 |
| 27 |
Polgar, Judith |
HUN |
1976 |
2735 |
2005.07 |
2682 |
| 28 |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
USA |
1987 |
2735 |
2009.09 |
2708 |
| 29 |
Karjakin Sergey |
RUS |
1990 |
2732 |
2008.01 |
2720 |
| 30 |
Bacrot, Etienne |
FRA |
1983 |
2731 |
2005.04 |
2713 |
| 31 |
Vachier-Laqrave, Maxime |
FRA |
1990 |
2730 |
2010.01 |
2730 |
| 32 |
Navara, David |
CZE |
1985 |
2725 |
2006.10 |
2708 |
| 33 |
Alekseev, Evgeny |
RUS |
1985 |
2725 |
2009.09 |
2703 |
| 34 |
Ni, Hua |
CHN |
1983 |
2724 |
2009.04 |
2657 |
| 35 |
Dominguez Perez, Lenier |
CUB |
1983 |
2721 |
2009.04 |
2712 |
| 36 |
Malakhov, Vladimir |
RUS |
1980 |
2716 |
2009.09 |
2716 |
| 37 |
Salov, Valery |
RUS |
1964 |
2715 |
1995.01 |
2644 |
| 38 |
Wang Hao |
CHN |
1989 |
2715 |
2010.01 |
2715 |
| 39 |
Van Wely, Loek |
NED |
1972 |
2714 |
2001.10 |
2652 |
| 40 |
Bu, Xiangzhi |
CHN |
1985 |
2714 |
2008.10 |
2682 |
| 41 |
Akopian, Vladimir |
ARM |
1971 |
2713 |
2006.07 |
2700 |
| 42 |
Cheparinov, Ivan |
BUL |
1986 |
2713 |
2008.01 |
2660 |
| 43 |
Short, Nigel |
ENG |
1965 |
2712 |
2004.04 |
2707 |
| 44 |
Sasikiran, Krishnan |
IND |
1981 |
2711 |
2009.01 |
2664 |
| 45 |
Vellejo-Pons Francisco |
ESP |
1982 |
2711 |
2009.11 |
2711 |
| 46 |
Beliavsky, Alexander |
SLO |
1953 |
2710 |
1997.07 |
2657 |
| 47 |
Motylev Alexander |
RUS |
1979 |
2710 |
2009.07 |
2697 |
| 48 |
Almasi Zoltan |
HUN |
1976 |
2710 |
2010.01 |
2710 |
| 49 |
Tomashevsky Evgeny |
RUS |
1987 |
2708 |
2009.11 |
2705 |
| 50 |
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter |
ROM |
1976 |
2707 |
2005.10 |
2681 |
| 51 |
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam |
UZB |
1979 |
2706 |
2001.10 |
2702 |
| 52 |
Sokolov, Ivan |
BIH |
1968 |
2706 |
2004.01 |
2649 |
| 53 |
Tal, Mikhail | LAT |
1936 |
2705 |
1980.01 |
2705 |
| 54 |
Dreev, Alexey |
RUS |
1969 |
2705 |
2003.10 |
2650 |
| 55 |
Milov, Vadim |
SUI |
1972 |
2705 |
2008.07 |
2644 |
| 56 |
Jobava Baadur |
GEO |
1983 |
2704 |
2010.01 |
2704 |
| 57 |
Rublevski, Sergei |
RUS |
1974 |
2703 |
2009.07 |
2697 |
| 58 |
Krasenkow, Michal |
POL |
1963 |
2702 |
2000.07 |
2656 |
| 59 |
Smirin, Ilia |
ISR |
1966 |
2702 |
2001.07 |
2668 |
| 60 |
Khalifman, Alexander |
RUS |
1968 |
2702 |
2001.10 |
2616 |
| 61 |
Azmaiparashvili, Zurab |
GEO |
1960 |
2702 |
2003.07 |
2637 |
| 62 |
Bologan, Viktor |
MDA |
1971 |
2700 |
2005.04 |
2692 |
| 63 |
Naiditsch Arkadij |
GER |
1985 |
2700 |
2008-04 |
2687 |
Colour codes: Veteran active, Retired, Deceased
