The two-player strategy board game played on a checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 square grid, known as the Chess is considered as the game of intellects. Millions of people around the globe play this board game and are believed to be derived from the 7th-century Indian game chaturanga. The first recognized World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz, claimed his title in 1886. From 1948 onwards, the World Championship has been regulated by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE). FIDE is the game’s international governing body. FIDE also awards life-time master titles to skilled players, the highest of which is Grandmaster (GM). When we tried to remember the top chess players in the world, Grand Master Vishwanath Anand from India tops our list. Today, Mr Anand’s rank has been dropped to 16 in the FIDE list. Let’s try to understand the Grand Master eligibility and the list of top Chess players in the world.
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Chess Players in the World
The world chess organization, FIDE awards the chess title Grand Master (GM) to the eminent chess players. Being a Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can reach. Other official FIDE titles are Candidates Master (CM), FIDE Master (FM) and International Master (IM). Once a player becomes a chess grandmaster, the title is held for life. The Grandmaster title is open to men and women.
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How to become a Grand Master in Chess Game?
To achieve a Grand Master (GM) title, chess players usually need to achieve norms in internationally rated tournaments. To get 1 GM-norm, a player has to fulfil the following criteria:
- The player must play at least 9 games in the tournament (with some exceptions).
- The player has to play against at least two players from federations other than his/ her own federation (with some exceptions you can find in the FIDE Handbook).
- At least 50% of the player’s opponents have to be titled-players.
- At least 1/3 (with a minimum of 3 opponents) of the opponents have to be Grandmasters.
- The minimum rating of the player’s opponents is 2380.
- The Performance Rating of the player who wants to achieve the GM-norm has to be at least 2600.
These five criteria are the most important ones, a Player needs to fulfil to reach 1 Grand Master (GM) norm. There are some more detailed regulations in the FIDE Handbook for the selection, with detailed account for the exceptions. To get the Grandmaster title, a player usually needs to get 3 GM-norms (with some exceptions again). On top of that, the Player’s FIDE rating has to have passed 2500 at some point to become a Grandmaster. Achieving a performance rating of 2600 or more if the rating of your opponents is 2380 means that you need to score at least 7 points out of 9 games. The record for the youngest grandmaster is currently held by nobody else than the former World Chess Championship Contender Sergey Karjakin, who earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 12 years and 7 months.
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Top Chess Players in the World
Among the World Champions, many players and experts selected the following players as the greatest Chess Players of all the time. Of course, this list is subjective only.
- Magnus Carlsen: Reigning World Champion from 2013
- Garry Kasparov: World Champion from 1985 – 2000
- Bobby Fischer: World Champion in 1972
- Anatoly Karpov: World Champion from 1975 – 1985
- Vishy Anand: World Champion from 2007 – 2013
Let’s familiarize with the top 10 Chess Players in the world as on October 2020. The below-given order is based on the latest FIDE rankings,
- Grand Master Magnus Carlsen is the current world chess champion. Carlsen is a 29-year-old Norwegian chess grandmaster. He is the current World Chess Champion, World Rapid Chess Champion, and World Blitz Chess Champion. Magnus Carlsen first reached the top of the FIDE world rankings in 2010, and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world.
- GM prodigy who broke the record held by Hikaru Nakamura for America’s youngest chess grandmaster. This Italian and American chess player became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days—the youngest grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United States at the time.
- GM is a Chinese super grandmaster who many people consider to be a primary contender for Magnus Carlsen’s world title. Ding won his first Chinese Chess Championship at the age of 16, making him the youngest to ever do so. He is the highest-rated Chinese chess player in history and is also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion.
- GM also known as “MVL”) is a French super grandmaster. MVL became a Grandmaster in 2005, at age 14. Vachier-Lagrave is also a skilled player of the rapid and blitz chess formats. Vachier has a rating of 2784.
- GM a candidate for the world championship in March 2020. In 2016, Nepomniachtchi was ranked fourth in the world in both rapid chess and blitz chess. Nepomniachtchi defeated GM Alexander Grischuk in FIDE Grand Pix Tournament 2019 (16-player event.).
- GM While he’s an elite professional chess player, Grischuk is well-known for being one of the top blitz players a three-time World Blitz Champion.
- M is a super-grandmaster from Azerbaijan. He was the number-two ranked player in the world in the FIDE rating list of February 2018. Mamedyarov’s two sisters, Zeinab Mamedyarova and Turkan Mamedyarova, are Woman Grandmasters. He was entitled with the Grand Masters title in 2002.
- GM is a Filipino-American super grandmaster who is among the world’s best chess players. He began as a chess prodigy who entered tournaments at nine years old. At 14, Wesley became the ninth youngest Grand Master in history. He is the youngest player to pass a 2600 Elo rating in October 2008, breaking the record previously held by Magnus Carlsen. He is the current World Fischer Random Chess Champion. On November 2019, Wesley So became the first official Fischer Random world champion after defeating Carlsen.
- GM is an Armenian super grandmaster who has long been among the world’s best players. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2000. With his Elo rating of 2830, Levon Aronian is the fourth-highest rated player in history.
- GM is an Azerbaijani chess player, currently ranked as No 9 in the world rankings. A former child prodigy Radjabov earned the title of Grandmaster in 2001 at the age of 14, making him the second-youngest grandmaster in history at the time.
- GM undisputed chess champion and the greatest Indian chess player of all time. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988 and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating of 2800, a feat he first achieved in 2006. Anand is a five-time world chess champion, and the first recipient of India’s highest sporting honour, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1992. On October 2020, Viswanathan Anand is ranked in 16th position with 2753 points.
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