The 10 Best Chess Players in the World

The current World Chess Champion, World Rapid Chess Champion, and World Blitz Chess Champion, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. He achieved the status of grandmaster at the young age of 13, and his peak FIDE rating (2882) in 2014 is the highest rating ever achieved by a chess player. The list of accolades goes on. 

Carlsen is a deeply versatile player who constantly varies his openings, making him an extremely difficult opponent for even the world’s greatest contenders. His style has developed immensely over his career; he was a famously aggressive player in his youth, committed to sacrificing material to create more activity, but his playstyle has become more universal as he’s aged. 

The 2016 film, Magnus, chronicles his meteoric rise and gives some insight into the inner machinations of one of the world’s most incredible minds. It’s a great watch for chess enthusiasts or anyone who wants to learn about how geniuses push themselves to be better every day.

Caruana became a grandmaster at the age of 14, making him the youngest American player to achieve the title at the time. Growing up in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Caruana played for the US until 2005, after which he transferred to Italy. He’s one of the greatest American players since Bobby Fischer, but he’s never managed to knock the king Magnus off his throne. His peak rating of 2844 in 2014 is the third highest in history, after only Carlsen and Garry Kasparov.

Another player who achieved the title of grandmaster by the age of 14, Vachier-Lagrave, is the highest-ranked player in France. MVL’s peak FIDE rating of 2819 makes him the 7th highest-ranked player of all time. He’s still the number four in the world (tied with Ian Nepomniachtchi) and one of the greatest French players in history.

The highest-ranked Russian player in the world right now, Nepomniachtchi’s classical rating of 2184 ties him for the 4th spot with MVL. Among his numerous accolades, Nepomniachtchi won the World Team Chess Championship as a member of the Russian team in both 2013 and 2019, in addition to winning the 2015 European Team Chess Championship.

Aronian, the number six player in the world, has been a grandmaster since 2000 and has been one of the world's top players for most of his career. In 2014, the Armenian achieved a FIDE rating of 2830, making him the 4th highest rated player in history. He was the World Rapid Chess Champion and World Blitz Chess Champion in 2009 and 2010, respectively. 

Although So is currently ranked 8th, the Filipino-American player’s March 2017 ELO rating of 2822 makes him the fifth highest-rated chess player in history. Last year, he beat Magnus Carlsen in the first World Fischer Random Chess Championship to take the title. Fischer Random Chess is a form of the game that utilizes the same board and pieces, but their initial position is randomized, making it an extremely creative form of chess. So is another prodigy on the list, who earned the title of grandmaster at the young age of 14.

Mamedyarov’s personal best rating of 2820 (in September 2018) gives him the position of sixth highest-rated player of all time. The Azerbaijani player has a long list of accolades, and he even beat Magnus Carlsen for the title during the 2018 Biel Chess Festival.

Radjabov is another Aizerbaijjani player to make the top ten list; he was actually born in the same city as all-time great Garry Kasparov. He famously beat Kasparov in the Linares tournament in 2003 at the young age of 16, launching his status to that of an internationally-renowned player.