What are you looking for? The complete list? The top 10?
Wikipedia says:
In 1970, FIDE adopted Elo's system for rating current players, so one way to compare players of different eras is to compare their Elo ratings. The best-ever Elo ratings are tabulated below.[3]
That would make getting complete lists for earlier dates impossible. However, people like Elo studied the top players' performance and did some retroactive rating.
Anything really. What did fide use before elo? My favorite player is Petrosian and I'm mainly interested in his ratings from the 50's & 60's.
Anything really. What did fide use before elo? My favorite player is Petrosian and I'm mainly interested in his ratings from the 50's & 60's.
There are a number of authors who have attempted to retroactively figure these things out. There is controversy over their accuracy.
That said, the best known is "The Rating of Chess Players- Past and Present" by Arpad Elo.
There is a graphic in the book that compares players over time. Elo's chart of lifetime ratings of selected grandmasters.
I am guessing Petrosian at his peak would be about the same as Spassky at his peak = 2680 .
there were rating systems before ELO rating http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_rating_system
Are there any international ratings lists for the 50's and 60's?