GM Nils Grandelius 2661 | #47
Nils Grandelius is a Swedish grandmaster and the top-ranked player in that country (as of February 2021). He won the Swedish Chess Championship in 2015 and as a junior took the under-18 World Youth Chess Champions in 2010. In 2019, Grandelius spent several months ranked among the world’s top-50...
GM Peter Leko 2660 | #48
GM Peter Leko is a Hungarian super grandmaster who played for the classical world championship in 2004, losing to GM Vladimir Kramnik (under the terms of the match, despite drawing it by score). Born in 1979, he was already an IM by 1992. GM came two years later, making him the youngest ever. Early...
GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek 2660 | #48
GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek is a super GM and six-time Polish chess champion (2005, 2014, 2016, 2021, 2022, 2024). He worked closely with GM Viswanathan Anand during Anand’s world championship matches. Wojtaszek is married to fellow chess player IM Alina Kashlinskaya. Early Career Polish Champion...
GM Ivan Saric 2660 | #48
Ivan Saric was born on August 17, 1990, in Split, Croatia. He is currently the highest-rated Croatian grandmaster (as of February 2021) and has been on Croatia's Olympic team since 2010. He reached his peak FIDE rating of 2703 in 2019. Saric won the Under-18 European Championship in 2007, a year before...
GM Grigoriy Oparin 2660 | #48
Grigoriy Oparin is a Russian chess player who earned his grandmaster title in 2013. He was Russia's 2014 junior champion. Oparin nearly qualified for the 2022 Candidates Tournament by tying GM Fabiano Caruana for second place at the 2021 Riga Grand Swiss. However, he finished in third place because...
GM Kirill Alekseenko 2659 | #52
Kirill Alekseenko is a young Russian GM who earned his wild card to the 2020 FIDE Candidates Tournament after taking third place at FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss in 2019. In 2023, he changed federations to Austria. Early Life And Career Adult Career The Road to Candidates Present And Future Early...
GM Nikita Vitiugov 2657 | #53
Nikita Vitiugov is a Russian-born grandmaster who plays under the English flag. He was the Russian chess champion in 2021 and coach of GM Ian Nepomniachtchi at two FIDE World Championship matches. He is a two-time winner of World Team Chess Championships and a three-time European Club Cup winner. He...
GM Ray Robson 2657 | #53
Ray Robson is an American grandmaster from Guam who had one of the country’s most successful youth careers, achieving his GM norms and 2500 rating in 2009 when he was still just 14 years old. As an adult, Robson’s tournament highlights include the 2015 U.S. Championship, where he finished...
GM Nikolas Theodorou 2656 | #55
Nikolas Theodorou is a Greek grandmaster. According to the St. Louis Chess Club, he won his age group five times at the Greek Chess Championships. On July 22, 2022, Theodorou qualified for the 2022 Chess.com Global Championship Knockout.
GM Pavel Eljanov 2656 | #55
Pavel Eljanov is a Ukrainian grandmaster who has served as a second (assistant) for many elite players, including GMs Magnus Carlsen, Boris Gelfand, and Mariya Muzychuk. Early in his career, Eljanov was on the team that won the U16 Chess Olympiad in 1999. Years later, he won two team...
GM Gawain Maroroa Jones 2655 | #57
Gawain Jones is an English grandmaster and two-time British Chess Champion. He had an illustrious youth career. At nine years old, he became the youngest player ever at the time to defeat an international master in an official tournament game. A few years later, at the age of 12, he won the British...
GM Volodar Murzin
Volodar Murzin is a Russian chess grandmaster who qualified for the 2021 FIDE World Cup. He is from Nizhny Tagil, a town 125 km north of Yekaterinburg, Russia but now lives in Khimki, in the Moscow region. He is the 2018 European U12 champion. In December 2024, Murzin won the World Rapid Championship...
GM Alexander Grischuk 2654 | #58
Alexander Grischuk is a Russian super grandmaster who is consistently among the world’s best players. While he’s an elite professional chess player, Grischuk is well-known for being one of the top blitz players. He’s a three-time World Blitz Champion, making him only one of two players...
GM Ernesto Inarkiev 2653 | #59
Ernesto Inarkiev is a Russian grandmaster who won the 2016 European Individual Chess Championship. Earlier in his career, he was European U16 Champion (2001) and Russian Junior (under-20) Champion (2002). Inarkiev earned his GM title in 2002, becoming the first-ever from Kalmykia, a republic of Russia....
GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac 2652 | #60
Bogdan-Daniel Deac is a Romanian grandmaster. He earned the title at 14 years, seven months, and 27 days of age, placing him on the list of the youngest grandmasters in history. At the 2017 Tradewise Gibraltar Tournament, the 15-year-old prodigy finished in the top 25 of the elite, 250-player open event....
GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen 2652 | #60
Thai Dai Van Nguyen is a Czech chess grandmaster who qualified for the 2021 FIDE World Cup.
GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus 2651 | #62
Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus is a Turkish chess grandmaster, one of the youngest grandmasters ever, and the youngest player ever to reach a 2600 FIDE rating. Erdogmus won the U-8 European Chess Championship in 2019, a year before he had to stop playing over-the-board chess due to the COVID-19 pandemic....
GM Alexander Morozevich 2650 | #63
GM Alexander Morozevich is one of only a few chess players who can claim to have been the world’s number-two player. In July 2008, his rating of 2788 put him second behind only GM Viswanathan Anand and also made Morozevich Russia’s number-one player. Twice, in 1998 and 2007, he won...
GM Sam Shankland 2649 | #64
Samuel L. “Sam” Shankland was born October 1, 1991 in Berkeley, California. He has represented the country of his birth his entire chess career, a relative rarity for American grandmasters of the past 40 years. Making IM and GM 2016 Chess Olympiad 2018 U.S. Championship Other Tournaments Present...
GM Jeffery Xiong 2649 | #64
American GM Jeffery Xiong has completed an impressive career as an elite junior chess player. For starters, he’s the third-youngest U.S. player to qualify for the grandmaster title. His array of accomplishments spans winning the world under-10 championship in 2010, taking the world junior championship...
GM David Navara 2648 | #66
David Navara may be the strongest Czech player ever. Not only is he the country’s highest rated player, but he has won nine national titles, which is more than anyone in the tournament’s 114-year history. Navara became an IM at 14 and a GM at 16. At Wijk aan Zee in 2007, he beat Magnus Carlsen...
GM David Anton Guijarro 2646 | #68
David Anton Guijarro is a grandmaster and one of the best players in Spain. In March 2020 he crossed the 2700-rating mark, a feat that only a few players ever achieve. Anton Guijarro won the bronze medal at the 2012 U-16 European Championship and silver at the 2013 U-18 World Championship. He has won...