Is Chess Really Getting Younger?
The 16 years-old Alireza Firouzja is arguably the most discussed player in the world chess today. His peer Carissa Yip recently defeated women's world champion Ju Wenjun in a classical game. There are more and more teenage grandmasters cropping up each year, and Sergey Karjakin's record will probably fall sooner or later. So, chess as a whole is getting younger, it seems.
But is elite chess getting younger? Well, that's a whole other question. The average age of the FIDE rating top 10 has been oscillating around 30 years ever since 2005, the year of Garry Kasparov's retirement. Magnus Carlsen, who himself turns 30 this year, is the last player to enter the world's January top 10 at an age younger than 20. The youngest player in FIDE's January 2020 top rating list is Anish Giri, who is 25 years old - he's the oldest "youngest player" (if this makes any sense) since Henrique Mecking in 1978.
There was a very exciting period between 1990 and 2005 - a lot of young players got into top 10 back then, and the average age of top 10 was closer to 28 or even 26 than the current 30. This was a sharp drop in comparison to the "old", pre-computer chess, when the average age of January top 10 was around 35 years.
(As a side note, 1991 was ironically an undisputed triumph of the "Soviet school", even though the Soviet Union itself was already crumbling. The entire (!) top 10 consisted of players who then represented USSR: Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Boris Gelfand, Vassily Ivanchuk, Evgeny Bareev, Mikhail Gurevich, Jaan Ehlvest, Leonid Yudasin, Valery Salov and Alexander Beliavsky).
Average age, youngest and oldest players of the FIDE January Top 10, 1975-2020. Full visualization available here.
So it seems that even though chess players start learning chess at a younger age and become grandmaster at a younger age as well, the peak, "elite" performance years are still closer to the age of 30 than 20.
Interestingly enough, this holds even for the average age of all 2700+ players. It's been around 30 years for a long, long while.
Average age, youngest and oldest players of all 2700+ players in the FIDE January rating lists, 1975-2020
In conclusion, here's a more comprehensive table representing the graph above, with names and numbers.
| Year | Av. age | Youngest player | Oldest player | ||||
| Name | Age | Place | Name | Age | Place | ||
| 1975 | 36.46 | Anatoly Karpov | 23.61 | 2 | Tigran Petrosian | 45.54 | 4 |
| 1976 | 37.54 | Henrique Mecking | 23.94 | 8 | Efim Geller | 50.81 | 9 |
| 1977 | 36.68 | Henrique Mecking | 24.94 | 4 | Tigran Petrosian | 47.54 | 3 |
| 1978 | 39.06 | Henrique Mecking | 25.94 | 3 | Tigran Petrosian | 48.54 | 9 |
| 1979 | 39.26 | Henrique Mecking | 26.94 | 8 | Tigran Petrosian | 49.54 | 10 |
| 1980 | 39.38 | Henrique Mecking | 27.94 | 6 | Tigran Petrosian | 50.54 | 7 |
| 1981 | 34.80 | Garry Kasparov | 17.72 | 6 | Viktor Korchnoi | 49.77 | 3 |
| 1982 | 35.78 | Garry Kasparov | 18.72 | 4 | Viktor Korchnoi | 50.77 | 3 |
| 1983 | 36.61 | Garry Kasparov | 19.72 | 2 | Lev Polugaevsky | 48.11 | 6 |
| 1984 | 37.30 | Garry Kasparov | 20.72 | 1 | Viktor Korchnoi | 52.77 | 3 |
| 1985 | 36.73 | Garry Kasparov | 21.72 | 1 | Viktor Korchnoi | 53.77 | 7 |
| 1986 | 35.49 | Garry Kasparov | 22.72 | 1 | Viktor Korchnoi | 54.77 | 6 |
| 1987 | 36.13 | Nigel Short | 21.58 | 8 | Viktor Korchnoi | 55.77 | 5 |
| 1988 | 34.93 | Nigel Short | 22.58 | 7 | Viktor Korchnoi | 56.77 | 5 |
| 1989 | 30.71 | Vassily Ivanchuk | 19.79 | 6 | Anatoly Karpov | 37.61 | 2 |
| 1990 | 33.85 | Vassily Ivanchuk | 20.79 | 4 | Viktor Korchnoi | 58.77 | 10 |
| 1991 | 29.08 | Vassily Ivanchuk | 21.79 | 4 | Anatoly Karpov | 39.61 | 2 |
| 1992 | 26.08 | Gata Kamsky | 17.58 | 8 | Anatoly Karpov | 40.61 | 2 |
| 1993 | 26.25 | Vladimir Kramnik | 17.52 | 6 | Anatoly Karpov | 41.61 | 2 |
| 1994 | 26.17 | Vladimir Kramnik | 18.52 | 5 | Anatoly Karpov | 42.61 | 1 |
| 1995 | 27.40 | Vladimir Kramnik | 19.52 | 5 | Anatoly Karpov | 43.61 | 2 |
| 1996 | 26.35 | Judit Polgar | 19.44 | 10 | Anatoly Karpov | 44.61 | 3 |
| 1997 | 28.47 | Vladimir Kramnik | 21.52 | 4 | Anatoly Karpov | 45.61 | 3 |
| 1998 | 29.81 | Peter Svidler | 21.54 | 9 | Anatoly Karpov | 46.61 | 6 |
| 1999 | 28.79 | Alexander Morozevich | 21.45 | 5 | Anatoly Karpov | 47.61 | 10 |
| 2000 | 27.84 | Peter Leko | 20.31 | 6 | Garry Kasparov | 36.72 | 1 |
| 2001 | 28.68 | Peter Leko | 21.31 | 5 | Garry Kasparov | 37.72 | 1 |
| 2002 | 28.15 | Ruslan Ponomariov | 18.22 | 7 | Garry Kasparov | 38.72 | 1 |
| 2003 | 28.75 | Alexander Grischuk | 19.17 | 10 | Garry Kasparov | 39.72 | 1 |
| 2004 | 28.95 | Ruslan Ponomariov | 20.22 | 10 | Garry Kasparov | 40.72 | 1 |
| 2005 | 30.49 | Etienne Bacrot | 21.94 | 9 | Garry Kasparov | 41.72 | 1 |
| 2006 | 31.57 | Ruslan Ponomariov | 22.22 | 10 | Garry Kasparov | 42.72 | 1 |
| 2007 | 31.45 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 21.72 | 4 | Boris Gelfand | 38.52 | 10 |
| 2008 | 31.59 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 22.72 | 6 | Vassily Ivanchuk | 38.79 | 9 |
| 2009 | 30.25 | Magnus Carlsen | 18.09 | 4 | Vassily Ivanchuk | 39.79 | 3 |
| 2010 | 31.77 | Magnus Carlsen | 19.09 | 1 | Boris Gelfand | 41.52 | 6 |
| 2011 | 29.94 | Magnus Carlsen | 20.09 | 1 | Vassily Ivanchuk | 41.79 | 9 |
| 2012 | 31.51 | Magnus Carlsen | 21.09 | 1 | Vassily Ivanchuk | 42.79 | 8 |
| 2013 | 29.27 | Fabiano Caruana | 20.42 | 5 | Viswanathan Anand | 43.06 | 7 |
| 2014 | 32.28 | Fabiano Caruana | 21.42 | 6 | Boris Gelfand | 45.52 | 8 |
| 2015 | 30.31 | Anish Giri | 20.51 | 7 | Viswanathan Anand | 45.06 | 5 |
| 2016 | 30.61 | Anish Giri | 21.51 | 3 | Viswanathan Anand | 46.06 | 8 |
| 2017 | 30.13 | Anish Giri | 22.51 | 10 | Viswanathan Anand | 47.06 | 6 |
| 2018 | 31.12 | Wesley So | 24.23 | 6 | Vladimir Kramnik | 42.52 | 7 |
| 2019 | 33.11 | Anish Giri | 24.51 | 5 | Viswanathan Anand | 49.06 | 8 |
| 2020 | 30.22 | Anish Giri | 25.51 | 9 | Levon Aronian | 37.24 | 6 |
