Best Chess Players

While there have been many chess greats throughout the game’s far-reaching history, it is impossible to come up with a definitive ranking system due to rating inflation. For our purposes, we are choosing to focus on those players that can have made the largest overall impact on the game during their reign. These players had their own distinct playing style, understanding of the game, and made some bold moves that have been remembered.

Garry Kasparov

At the young age of 22, Gary Kasparov made a big splash onto the chess scene. In 1985, he was the youngest undisputed World Chess Champion. Imagine such an accolade at such a young age? What is also impressive is that he held that title until 2000.

So how does one become a chess master? For Garry, his training started when he was 10 years old. He studied at Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school, and in 1978, a fortunate accident occurred; he was mistakenly entered into a professional tourney and won.

By 1983, he was holding tight to the title of the world’s second-best chess player, and in 1984, his challenge to Karpov for the World Title ended in defeat. However, the very next year, he won that title and defended it successfully three times over.

After leaving FIDE in 1993, his title was lost to Kramnik in 2000. After winning the Linares tournament for the ninth time, he announced his retirement in 2005. At that time, he was the number-one rated player in the world and had monopolized the game for an impressive 20 years.

Anatoly Karpov

Anatoly Karpov was the Soviet’s youngest national master at the age of 15. In 1969, he was the world junior chess champion. He crushed infamous chess players, Korchnoi and Spassky, in 1974 and even challenged Bobby Fischer for the world title, during which Fishcher’s withdrawal for the match named Karpov the champion by default.

Winner of the prestigious Linares tournament in 1995, he had proven that he could win what was considered the fiercest chess tournament in history. He defended his title against Gata Kamsky in 1996 but conceded it in 1999 in protest how FIDE was ruling how the title was decided. Karpov’s chess tournament victory list is impressive and certainly worthy of inclusion in the category of ‘the top chess players of all time’.

Magnus Carlsen

The chess career of Magnus Carlsen is peppered with impressive achievements. In 2004, at only 13 years of age, he earned his grandmaster title. In 2010, he was ranked the world’s number-one by FIDE.

In 2013, Carlsen defeated Vishy Anand, the world’s reigning chess champion, in an intriguing 12-match game. In 10 games, Carlsen had won the match and become the new World Chess Champion. He defended his title against Anand the following year and won the World Rapid Championship and the World Blitz Championships in 2014.

With his peak rating of 2882 in 2014, he was at the games highest ever rating. In 2016, he defended his title again against Sergey Karjakin.

Carlsen has been hailed as one of the best chess players of all time due to his lack of weakness. He is a master at positional, strategical, and tactical chess. He is ruthless when even the smallest advantage presents itself and is known to turn the smallest opponent error into a victory.

Wilhelm Steinitz

Also known as the ‘Austrian Morphy’, Wilhem Steinitz made huge contributions to modern-day chess, which is one of the reasons we’ve included him in this list. In 1873, he introduced a whole new type of positional play that differed greatly from the dominant all-out attack style of the time. He understand the game from a positional perspective, and his writings on the subject were highly influential in his time; he is currently known as the ‘father of positional play’. This ‘positional play’ strategy became the foundation of the positional themes used in modern chess. Steinitz is seen by many of the chess greats as the consummate teacher and boundary-pusher.

Steinitz defeated Adolf Andersson, at the time the most active player in the world, in 1866. While Steinitz only played one match between 1873-1882, that one match was won against Blackburn with a perfect 7-0 score. This perfect victory set him on a path to championship as he triumphed over his arch nemesis, Zuckertort, in 1886 and became chess champion of the world. Holding his title for the next 8 years, he then lost to Emanuel Lasker in 1894.

For his contributions to the strategic positional theme of chess, a huge part of modern-day chess strategy, he has clearly earned his place in our list.

Bobby Fisher

Certainly one of the world’s most famous chess players, Bobby Fisher started his chess career at 14. He would go on to win 8 United States chess championships and become the youngest grandmaster at the age of 15. He was also the youngest candidate for a World Chess Championship.

In the infamous ‘1970 Interzonal’, he won a staggering 20 consecutive matches. In 1972, in a match that has a special place in chess history, he defeated Boris Spassky and became the World Chess Champion.

In 1975, his title was not defended due to a disagreement on FIDE conditions. After that, his career was coloured by controversies and challenges.

It is said that Fischer has a huge range of talent for the game, and it is that raw talent that has made him undoubtedly one of the top 5 best chess players of all time.