Top 3 chess players in 2021
GM Magnus Carlsen. 2847 | #1
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen[a] (born 30 November 1990)[1][2] is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the current World Chess Champion, World Rapid Chess Champion, and World Blitz Chess Champion. 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. His peak classical rating of 2882 is the highest in history. Carlsen also holds the record for the longest unbeaten run in classical chess.[3]
A chess prodigy, Carlsen finished first in the C group of the Corus chess tournament shortly after he turned 13, and earned the title of grandmaster a few months later. At age 15, he won the Norwegian Chess Championship, and at 17, he finished joint first in the top group of Corus. He surpassed a rating of 2800 at age 18 and reached number one in the FIDE world rankings aged 19, becoming the youngest person ever to achieve those feats.
Carlsen became World Chess Champion in 2013 by defeating Viswanathan Anand. In the following year, he retained his title against Anand, and won both the 2014 World Rapid Championship and World Blitz Championship, thus becoming the first player to hold all three titles simultaneously, a feat he repeated in 2019. He defended his classical world title against Sergey Karjakin in 2016 and Fabiano Caruana in 2018.
Known for his attacking style as a teenager, Carlsen has since developed into a universal player. He uses a variety of openings to make it more difficult for opponents to prepare against him and reduce the effect of computer analysis. He has stated the middlegame is his favorite part of the game as it "comes down to pure chess". His positional mastery and endgame prowess have drawn comparisons to former world champions Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov, José Raúl Capablanca, and Vasily Smyslov.
GM Fabiano Caruana. 2806 | #2
Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an Italian-American chess player. A chess prodigy, he 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.
Born in Miami to Italian-American parents, Caruana grew up in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He played for the United States until 2005 when he transferred to Italy. He earned his grandmaster title in 2007, and in the same year won his first Italian Chess Championship, a feat he repeated in 2008, 2010, and 2011. He won the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting in 2012, 2014, and 2015. He also won the Sinquefield Cup 2014, recording a historic 3103 performance rating and improving his Elo rating to 2844, becoming the third-highest-rated player in history. He transferred back to the US in 2015.
Having won the FIDE Grand Prix 2014–15, Caruana qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2016, where he was runner-up to Sergey Karjakin. He won the 2016 US Chess Championship, and represented the US on board one at the 42nd Chess Olympiad, winning team gold and individual bronze. He won the London Chess Classic in 2017. He won the Candidates Tournament 2018, becoming the first American challenger for the undisputed World Chess Championship since Bobby Fischer in 1972. In the run-up to the championship match, Caruana won the 5th Grenke Chess Classic, the 6th Norway Chess, and the 6th Sinquefield Cup. He lost the match to Magnus Carlsen in the rapid tiebreaks after drawing 6–6 in the classical games.
GM Ding Liren. 2799 | #3
Ding Liren (born 24 October 1992) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. He is the highest-rated Chinese chess player in history and is also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion. He is the winner of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final and won the Sinquefield Cup in 2019 as the first player since 2007 to beat Magnus Carlsen in a playoff.[2][3] Ding is the first Chinese player ever to play in a Candidates Tournament and pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE world rankings.[4] In July 2016, with a Blitz rating of 2875, he was the highest-rated Blitz player in the world.[5]
Ding was undefeated in classical chess from August 2017 to November 2018, recording 29 victories and 71 draws. This 100-game unbeaten streak was the longest in top-level chess history,[6] until Magnus Carlsen surpassed it in 2019.[7]
