Best players on the planet
| World Chess Champions | |
 | |
| The best players on the planet - past and present |
| Unofficial | ||
|---|---|---|
| Louis-Charles de La Bourdonnais | France | 1834 |
| Howard Staunton | England | 1843 |
| Adolf Anderssen | Germany | 1851,1862 |
| Paul Morphy | USA | 1858 |
| William (Wilhelm) Steinitz | Bohemia/England | 1866,1872 |
| Succession | ||
| William Steinitz | Bohemia/USA | 1886-1894 |
| Emanuel Lasker | Germany | 1894-1921 |
| Jose Raul Capablanca | Cuba | 1921-1927 |
| Alexander Alekhine | Russia/France | 1927-1935 1937-1945 |
| Max Euwe | Netherlands | 1935-1937 |
| Mikhail Botvinnik | USSR | 1948-1957 1958-1960 1961-1963 |
| Vasily Smyslov | USSR | 1957-1958 |
| Mikhail Tal | USSR | 1960-1961 |
| Tigran Petrosian | USSR | 1963-1969 |
| Boris Spassky | USSR | 1969-1972 |
| Robert Fischer | USA | 1972-1975 |
| Anatoly Karpov | USSR | 1975-1985 |
| Garry Kasparov | USSR | 1985-2000 |
| Vladimir Kramnik | Russia | 2000-2006 |
| FIDE | ||
| Anatoly Karpov | Russia | 1993-1998 |
| Alexander Khalifman | Russia | 1999 |
| Viswanathan Anand | India | 2000 |
| Ruslan Ponomariov | Ukraine | 2002 |
| Rustam Kasimdzhanov | Uzbekistan | 2004 |
| Veselin Topalov | Bulgaria | 2005 |
| FIDE (Unified Title) | ||
| Vladimir Kramnik | Russia | 2006- |
| Women | ||
| Vera Menchik | Britain | 1927-1944 |
| Liudmila Rudenko | USSR | 1950-1953 |
| Elizaveta Bikova | USSR | 1953-1956 1958-1962 |
| Olga Rubtsova | USSR | 1956-1958 |
| Nona Gaprindashvili | USSR | 1962-1978 |
| Maya Chiburdanidze | USSR | 1978-1991 |
| Xie Jun | China | 1991-1996 1999-2000 |
| Zsusza (Susan) Polgar | Hungary | 1996-1999 |
| Zhu Chen | China | 2001 |
| Antoaneta Stefanova | Bulgaria | 2004 |
| Xu Yuhua | China | 2006 |
