Top Players

As the Annad-Topalov chess World Championship match is well under way (currently 2.5-1.5 in Annad’s favor), I’ve decided to compile the most up to date list of the top twenty players in the world along with some commentary. This list is based on the most up to date FIDE ratings.

1. Magnus Carlson

Well atop the chess pinnacle with an amazing rating of 2813 at only 19, the Norwegian prodigy is clearly the current dominant player in the game today.

2. Veslin Topalov

Topalov has a fierce attacking style and has rebounded greatly since the “bathroom-controversy” in the second to last world championship match, he is again competing, and has a rating of 2805. However, according to numerous chess polls, he is the underdog.

3. Vladmir Kramnik

Kramnik is known as a positional player who tries to draw with black and win with white. In a match, he is difficult to beat. It’s amazing that he won the match against Topalov a few years ago considering he forfeited one of the games.

4. Viswanathan Annad

The current world champion and heavily favored in the match now taking place, Annad has been a top player for years. Recently, he has improved greatly and won the world championship.

5. Levon Aronian

The winner of the 2008-2009 FIDE Grand Prix, Aronian has secured his spot in the next candidates tournament, Aronian has been on the rader since he was twelve in 1994 when he won the under 12 junior championship, Aronian is a top contender.

6. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov

Since becoming the only player to win the Junior Chess Championship twice (2003 and 2005), Mamedyarov has cooled off, but is till one of the top world players.

7. Alexander Grischuk

Since getting to the semi-finals in the 2000 FIDE World Chess Championship, Alexander has stayed at pretty much the same place. He has a reputation as one of the best blitz players in the world, once holding the highest rating on ICC, the Internet Chess Club.

8. Peter Svidler

Svidler has been a top player for years now. He learned to play chess at six. Ten years later, he tied for first in the USSR Junior Open Chess Championship and became grandmaster two years after that. He is especially skilled at Fischer Random Chess, or Chess 960. He held the title from 2003-2005.

9. Boris Gelfand

Gelfand was born in the Soviet Union in 1968, making him a part of the Soviet Chess School. He won the USSR Junior Championship at 17 and, two years later, won the European Junior Championship. He is one of the only players to become a GM without becoming an IM. He won the 2009 World Chess Cup.

10. Yue Wang

The highest ever Chinese grandmaster, crossing the 2800 barrier in 2007, the first Chinese to do so. He has been steadily climbing up the ranks for years, and will compete in the final Grand Prix tournament to join Levon Aronian as an automatic qualifier for the next Candidates tournament.

11. Vassily Ivanchuk

Ivanchuk is a renowned opening expert and has been one of the top world players since 1988, at times reaching the number two world spot. However, he was never won the World Chess Championship. He was the 2007-2008 World Blitz Champion and won the Amber blindfold and rapid chess championship in 1992 and 2010. His results have been erratic, since 2007 ranging from the number 30 to the number 2 spot on the world list.

12. Vugar Gashimov

Gashimov won the Cappelle-la-Grande open and is especially strong in bullet chess. He won the Azerbaijani Chess Championship in 1995, 1996, and 1998. He is just at bit off his peak from January at 2740.

13. Teimour Radjabov

Radjabov is also from Azerbaijan, and has the exact same rating as Gashimov! In 2001, at the age of fourteen, he became the second youngest GM at the time. He is known for being attacking and tactical. In 2003, he defeated Garry Kasparov, Viswanathan Anand, and Ruslan Ponomariov with the black pieces, making him one of the only players in history to defeat three reigning FIDE world champions with the black pieces in one year.

14. Alexei Shirov

Shirov beacme the under sixteen champion in 1988 and tied for first in the under twenty championship in 1990. That same year, at 18, he earned the GM title. Shirov won the qualifiers in 1998 to play Kasparov via a ten game match in which he held 2 wins, 0 losses, and 7 draws. However, the match fell through when sufficient funding was not provided. When Kramnik faced Kasparov in 2000, Shirov maintained that he was the rightful challenger. He reached the FIDE World Championship in 2000, but lost to Annad.

15. Ponomariov, Ruslan

By winning the 2002 FIDE World Chess Championship at 18 against Vasily Ivanchuk, Ponomariov became the youngest ever world chess champion. However, because of the world championship split, he his not the youngest undisputed world champion (that title belongs to Garry Kasparov). On his twentieth birthday, he became the first high-profile player to lose the game due to his phone ringing.

16. Pavel Eljanov

Pavel has a reputation as an agressive positional player, almost always opening the game with 1. d4. He is a product of Kharokov chess school, and his father is a well known IM, who opened up a printing house just so his son and others could get Russain versions of chess books. In 2007, he won Corus B with a score of 9/13.

17. Hikaru Nakamura

Nakamura is the young American chess prodigy who captured the GM title at 16. He is the current American Chess Champion and has fallen in the rankings lately, in large part due to his no-win performance at the London Chess Classic.

18. Peter Leko

In 1994, Leko became the youngest grandmaster at the time at fourteen. In 2004, he faced Kramnik in the Classical World Chess Championship. He led by one point going into the final round, but lost, and, therefore, as Kramnik was the reigning champion, lost the match. He is also the son-in-law of Armenian grandmaster Arshak Petrosian (not related to 1963-1968 World Chess Champion Tigran Petrosian).

19. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

In 2005, Lagrave became one of the youngest ever grandmasters at the age of 14 years, 4 months, in 2005. In 2009, he won the Junior World Chess Championship.

20. Dmitry Jakovenko

Jakoveno learned the game of chess from his father at age three, and was coached by former Kasparov trainer Alexander Niktin. In 2006, he tied for first in the Russian Championship. In July, 2009, he overtook Kramnik in the rankings to become the top Russian player. However, Kramnik took back the honor in September of that year.

So hopefully this has been an interesting and informative post for you. Who do you think will win this year’s World Chess Championship? Of these people, who do you think will challenge them next year?

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