Who are the players whose highest ever ranking was 8th in the world?

Where to look if one wants to find out the answer to this kind of a question?

Is there a list somewhere which contains highest ever rankings of top players? ( Not rating! Ranking. )

Yes, there is a list for 1972 and on, but I can't remember where...

I'm interested in players who managed to brake into the top 10, but never made it to the very top.

I think I found it: http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo196706e.html

But you will have to do a lot of research. :D

I have already done some...

Look at this list:

Two hungarians in the top 10, Portisch and Ribli. Portisch is only behind Karpov, Tal and Korchnoi.

Leko and Rapport, please wake up!

"Portisch is only behind Karpov, Tal and Korchnoi"

You should take a look at the January 1981 list :-)

Thank you all for the infos, MSC157 especially for the link.

It seems that the lists only cover a certain period ( and I'm not even certain that this period is covered fully ), so even if I managed to process them somehow, I would be unfair to a lot of players.

12 times a year.

That's great. This format is just superb for scripting.

I have already processed it ( in brackets you see the highest ranking ). Hungary's Ribli just fits my definition... If only the lists were available in this format for all time!

Kasparov Gary ( 1 )

Kramnik Vladimir ( 1 )

Fischer Robert James ( 1 )

Karpov Anatoly ( 1 )

Tal Mikhail ( 2 )

Petrosian Tigran ( 2 )

Timman Jan ( 2 )

Spassky Boris ( 2 )

Kortchnoi Viktor ( 2 )

Portisch Lajos ( 2 )

Ivanchuk Vassily ( 2 )

Anand Viswanathan ( 2 )

Ljubojevic Ljubomir ( 3 )

Polugaevsky Lev ( 3 )

Shirov Alexei ( 3 )

Larsen Bent ( 3 )

Salov Valery ( 3 )

Beliavsky Alexander ( 3 )

Sokolov Andrei ( 3 )

Yusupov Arthur ( 3 )

Vaganian Rafael ( 3 )

Mecking Enrique ( 3 )

Short Nigel ( 3 )

Gelfand Boris ( 3 )

Topalov Veselin ( 4 )

Keres Paul ( 4 )

Bareev Evgeny ( 4 )

Huebner Robert ( 4 )

Speelman Jonathan ( 4 )

Andersson Ulf ( 4 )

Geller Efim ( 4 )

Kamsky Gata ( 4 )

Gurevich Mikhail ( 5 )

Ehlvest Jaan ( 5 )

Hort Vlastimil ( 6 )

Nikolic Predrag ( 6 )

Botvinnik ( 6 )

Yusupov Artur ( 7 )

Yudasin Leonid ( 8 )

Ribli Zoltan ( 8 )

Adams Michael ( 9 )

Georgiev Kiril ( 9 )

Andersson ( 9 )

Nunn John ( 9 )

Khalifman Alexander ( 10 )

Seirawan Yasser ( 10 )

Polgar Judit ( 10 )

Polgar got to number eight i think, that was her highest.

You hit the nail on the head. I was just wondering to what male players is Judit's achievement comparable. This is why I asked about the 8th place.

If this thread was in the Puzzle section I would say that grats, you have solved the puzzle.

Here is a list for 1970 - 2009 :

www.shakki.net/history/elotopten.htm

According to this list ( there were only 67 players who made into the top 10 for this 39 year period ) :

Kasparov ( 1 )

Topalov ( 1 )

Karpov ( 1 )

Kramnik ( 1 )

Anand ( 1 )

Fischer ( 1 )

Spasski ( 2 )

Kortshnoi ( 2 )

Petrosjan ( 2 )

Tal ( 2 )

Shirov ( 2 )

Timman ( 2 )

Portisch ( 2 )

Ivantshuk ( 2 )

Morozevitsh ( 2 )

Polugajevski ( 3 )

Larsen ( 3 )

Salov ( 3 )

Vaganjan ( 3 )

Aronian ( 3 )

Gelfand ( 3 )

Beljavski ( 3 )

Short ( 3 )

Ljubojevic ( 3 )

A. Sokolov ( 3 )

Jusupov ( 3 )

A.Sokolov ( 3 )

Svidler ( 3 )

Carlsen ( 3 )

Hübner ( 3 )

Mecking ( 3 )

Adams ( 4 )

Leko ( 4 )

Andersson ( 4 )

Geller ( 4 )

Kamsky ( 4 )

Speelman ( 4 )

Mamedjarov ( 4 )

Barejev ( 4 )

Ponomariov ( 5 )

M. Gurevitsh ( 5 )

Radzhabov ( 5 )

P. Nikolic ( 6 )

Hort ( 6 )

Botvinnik ( 6 )

Grishtshuk ( 6 )

Ehlvest ( 6 )

Psahis ( 7 )

Jakovenko ( 7 )

Kir. Georgiev ( 8 )

Judasin ( 8 )

J. Polgar ( 8 )

Ribli ( 8 )

Movsesian ( 9 )

Nunn ( 9 )

Miles ( 9 )

Bacrot ( 9 )

Smyslov ( 9 )

van Wely ( 10 )

Stein ( 10 )

Jepishin ( 10 )

Krasenkow ( 10 )

Kavalek ( 10 )

Gheorghiu ( 10 )

Halifman ( 10 )

Seirawan ( 10 )