List of chess players by peak FIDE rating

This list of chess grandmasters is ordered by their peak FIDE rating, an implementation of the Elo rating introduced by FIDE in 1971. The cut-off value is 2700 for men (players with a rating at or above this value are colloquially known as super grandmasters) and 2500 for women.

Only six players achieved their over-2700 peak before the year 2000 and twenty-one players achieved their respective peak between 2000 and 2009 (inclusive).

Classical

FIDE players ordered by peak Elo rating ^{[1] [2]}

	Country	Player	Peak rating	Achieved	Birth year	Death year	Notes
1	Norway	Magnus Carlsen	2882	2014-05	1990		Highest-ranked player (2013–), world no. 1 (2010, 2011, 2011–), former World Chess Champion (2013–2023), highest-ranked Norwegian player (2006–)
2	Soviet Union Russia	Garry Kasparov	2851	1999-07	1963		Highest-ranked Russian player, former world no. 1 (1984–1993, 1995–2006), former world champion (1985–2000), first player to achieve 2800+ rating (1990), 4th player to achieve 2700+ rating (1984), former highest-ranked player (1990–2012)
3	Italy United States	Fabiano Caruana	2844	2014-10	1992		Former highest-ranked American player (2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2022, 2022, 2023-2024, 2024-2025), former highest-ranked Italian player (2007–2015)
4	Armenia Germany United States	Levon Aronian	2830	2014-03	1982		Former highest-ranked Armenian player (2005–2021), former highest-rated American player (2022)
5	Philippines United States	Wesley So	2822	2017-02	1993		Former highest-ranked Filipino player (2009–2014), former highest-rated American player (2015, 2017, 2018, 2022)
6	Azerbaijan	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2820	2018-09	1985		Highest-ranked Azerbaijani player (2006, 2007–2008, 2010–2011, 2017–)
7	France	Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	2819	2016-08	1990		Former highest-ranked French player (2013, 2013–2021, 2021)
8	India	Viswanathan Anand	2817	2011-03	1969		Highest-ranked Indian player (1987–2023, 2023–2024), former world champion (2007–2013, FIDE 2000–2002), former world no. 1 (2007, 2008, 2010, 2011), 7th player to achieve 2700+ rating (1993)
	Soviet Union Russia	Vladimir Kramnik	2817	2016-10	1975		Former world champion (2000–2007), former world no. 1 (1996, 2008), former youngest player to achieve 2800+ rating, 8th player to achieve 2700+ rating (1993)
10	Bulgaria	Veselin Topalov	2816	2015-07	1975		Highest-ranked Bulgarian player (since 1993), former world champion (FIDE 2005–2006), former world no. 1 (2006–2007, 2008–2009)
	United States	Hikaru Nakamura	2816	2015-10	1987		Highest-ranked American player (2009-2011, 2011-2012, 2013-2015, 2015-2016, 2022-2023, 2024, 2025-)
	China	Ding Liren	2816	2018-11	1992		Former highest-ranked Chinese player (2014-2024), former World Chess Champion (2023–2024)
13	Russia	Alexander Grischuk	2810	2014-12	1983		Former highest-ranked Russian player (2013, 2014-2015)
14	Iran France	Alireza Firouzja	2804	2021-12	2003		Highest-ranked Iranian-born player, former highest-ranked Iranian player (2019), youngest player to achieve 2800+ rating, highest rated French player (2021, 2021-)
15	India	Arjun Erigaisi	2801	2024-12	2003		Former highest-rated Indian player (2024, 2024–2025)
16	Russia Netherlands	Anish Giri	2798	2015-10	1994		Highest-ranked Dutch player (since 2011)
17	Russia	Ian Nepomniachtchi	2795	2023-03	1990		Two-time World Championship challenger, highest-rated Russian player (2019, 2020-)
18	India	Gukesh Dommaraju	2794	2024-10	2006		Current World Chess Champion, former highest-rated Indian player (2023, 2024, 2025)
19	Azerbaijan	Teimour Radjabov	2793	2012-11	1987		Former highest-ranked Azerbaijani player (2002–2005, 2006, 2009–2010, 2011–2017)
20	Russia	Alexander Morozevich	2788	2008-07	1977		Former highest-ranked Russian player (2008, 2009)
	Ukraine Russia	Sergey Karjakin	2788	2011-07	1990		Highest-ranked Ukrainian-born player, former youngest Grandmaster (2002–2021), former highest-ranked Russian player (2011)
22	Soviet Union Ukraine	Vasyl Ivanchuk	2787	2007-10	1969		Highest-ranked Ukrainian player (1992–2002, 2005-2006, 2006-2009, 2009-2010, 2010-2013, 2014, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2019), 5th player to achieve 2700+ rating (1991)
23	United States	Bobby Fischer	2785	1972-07	1943	2008	Former world champion (1972–1975), former highest-ranked player (1971–1989), former highest-ranked American player (1971–2008), former world no. 1 (1971–1975), former youngest Grandmaster (1958–1991), first player to achieve 2700+ rating
	India	Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa	2785	2025-09	2005		Current highest ranked Indian player (2025–)
25	Uzbekistan	Nodirbek Abdusattorov	2783	2024-10	2004		Highest-ranked Uzbekistani player (since 2023)
26	Soviet Union Russia	Anatoly Karpov	2780	1994-07	1951		Former world champion (1975–1985, FIDE 1993–1999), former world no. 1 (1976–1983, 1985, 1994), former highest-ranked Soviet player (1974–1986), second player to achieve 2700+ rating (1974)
27	Soviet Union Belarus Israel	Boris Gelfand	2777	2013-11	1968		Highest-ranked Israeli player (since 1999), former highest-ranked Belarusian player (1993–1998)
28	Hungary Romania	Richárd Rapport	2776	2022-04	1996		Highest-ranked Hungarian player (2021–2022, since 2024), former highest-ranked Romanian player (2022-2024)
29	India	Pentala Harikrishna	2770	2016-12	1986
30	Soviet Union Russia	Peter Svidler	2769	2013-05	1976		Former highest-ranked Russian player (2006)
31	Cuba United States	Leinier Domínguez	2768	2014-05	1983		Highest-ranked Cuban-born player, former highest-ranked Cuban player (1998–2001, 2001–2003, 2004–2005, 2007–2018)
32	Ukraine	Pavel Eljanov	2765	2016-03	1983		Former highest-ranked Ukrainian player (2010, 2013, 2014-2015, 2015, 2015-2017, 2021, 2022-2025)
	China	Yu Yangyi	2765	2018-09	1994
34	Ukraine	Ruslan Ponomariov	2764	2011-07	1983		Former world chess champion (FIDE 2002–2004), former youngest Grandmaster (1997–1999), former highest-ranked Ukrainian player (2002–2004, 2006, 2009, 2013)
35	Hungary	Peter Leko	2763	2005-04	1979		Former youngest Grandmaster (1994–1997), former highest-ranked Hungarian player (1999–2021, 2022–2024)
	Soviet Union United States France	Gata Kamsky	2763	2013-07	1974		Former highest-ranked American player (1990-1991, 1992-2000, 2005-2009, 2008–2010, 2011)
	China	Wang Hao	2763	2020-04	1989		Former highest-ranked Chinese player (2010, 2011-2014)
	China	Wei Yi	2763	2024-10	1999		Youngest player to achieve 2700+ rating, highest-rated Chinese player (2024-)
39	Azerbaijan	Vugar Gashimov	2761	2012-01	1986	2014
	England	Michael Adams	2761	2013-09	1971		Former highest-ranked English player (1994-1995, 1997-2009, 2010-2019, 2019-2023)
	Russia	Vladislav Artemiev	2761	2019-06	1998
42	Russia	Dmitry Jakovenko	2760	2009-01	1983		Former highest-ranked Russian player (2009)
	Poland	Jan-Krzysztof Duda	2760	2021-12	1998		Highest-ranked Polish player (since 2019)
44	Russia	Evgeny Tomashevsky	2758	2015-09	1987
	China	Li Chao	2758	2016-06	1989
46	China	Wang Yue	2756	2010-11	1987		Former highest-ranked Chinese player (2007, 2007–2008, 2008–2010, 2010-2011)
47	Soviet Union Latvia Spain	Alexei Shirov	2755	2008-01	1972		Highest-ranked Spanish player (1995–2011, since 2018), former highest-ranked Latvian player (1992–1994, 2011–2018), 6th player to achieve 2700+ rating (1992)
48	Georgia Czech Republic Slovakia Armenia	Sergei Movsesian	2751	2009-01	1978		Former highest-ranked Czech player (1999–2002), former highest-ranked Slovak player (2002–2010), highest-ranked Armenian player (since 2021)
	Czech Republic	David Navara	2751	2015-05	1985		Former highest-ranked Czech player (2005-2024, 2025)
	Russia England	Nikita Vitiugov	2751	2019-11	1987		Highest-ranked English player (2023-2024, 2025-)
	Germany	Vincent Keymer	2751	2025-09	2004		Highest-ranked German player (since 2023)
52	Poland	Radosław Wojtaszek	2750	2017-01	1987		Former highest-ranked Polish player (2010–2019)
53	France	Étienne Bacrot	2749	2013-11	1983		Former highest-ranked French player (2004–2013, 2013–2014), former youngest Grandmaster (1997)
	India	Aravindh Chithambaram	2749	2025-04	1999
55	India	Vidit Gujrathi	2747	2024-02	1994
56	Russia	Dmitry Andreikin	2743	2016-06	1990
57	Iran	Parham Maghsoodloo	2742	2023-12	2000		Highest-ranked Iranian player (2018–2019, since 2019)
58	Vietnam	Lê Quang Liêm	2741	2024-08	1991		Highest-ranked Vietnamese player (since 2009)
59	Soviet Union Russia Canada	Evgeny Bareev	2739	2003-10	1966		Former highest-ranked Canadian player (2015-2017, 2018-2024)
	Russia Slovenia	Vladimir Fedoseev	2739	2025-03	1995		Highest-ranked Slovenian player (since 2023)
61	Russia	Maxim Matlakov	2738	2017-11	1991
62	Latvia Germany Azerbaijan Bulgaria	Arkadij Naiditsch	2737	2013-12	1985		Former highest-ranked German player (2006–2008, 2009–2015)
63	United States	Hans Niemann	2736	2025-04	2003
64	Hungary	Judit Polgár	2735	2005-07	1976		Highest-ranked female player; first and only female player to achieve 2700+ rating, only female player to be ranked in the world's top 10, former youngest Grandmaster (1991–1994), former highest-ranked Hungarian player (1996–1998)
65	Soviet Union Moldova	Viktor Bologan	2734	2012-08	1971		Highest-ranked Moldovan player
	Georgia	Baadur Jobava	2734	2012-09	1983		Highest-ranked Georgian player (since 2010)
67	Russia	Vladimir Malakhov	2732	2010-07	1980
	Kyrgyzstan Russia	Ernesto Inarkiev	2732	2016-09	1985
69	China	Bu Xiangzhi	2731	2019-02	1985		Former youngest Grandmaster (1999–2002), former highest-ranked Chinese player (2005-2006, 2008)
	United States	Samuel Shankland	2731	2019-02	1991
71	Hungary	Zoltán Almási	2726	2011-07	1976
	Ukraine	Alexander Moiseenko	2726	2011-09	1980
73	Russia Israel	Evgeny Alekseev	2725	2009-09	1985
	Ukraine	Andrei Volokitin	2725	2013-03	1986
75	China	Ni Hua	2724	2009-04	1983
	Spain	Francisco Vallejo Pons	2724	2011-07	1982		Former highest-ranked Spanish player (2012–2018)
77	Ukraine	Anton Korobov	2723	2014-01	1985		Former highest-rated Ukrainian player (2020, 2021-2022, 2022)
	Russia	Andrey Esipenko	2723	2022-03	2002
79	Uzbekistan	Javokhir Sindarov	2722	2025-07	2005
80	India	Krishnan Sasikiran	2720	2012-05	1981
	Russia	Alexander Riazantsev	2720	2012-07	1985
	Ukraine	Alexander Areshchenko	2720	2012-12	1986		Former highest-rated Ukrainian player (2020, 2021)
	France	Laurent Fressinet	2720	2015-06	1981
	Russia	Daniil Dubov	2720	2021-12	1996
85	Bulgaria Georgia	Ivan Cheparinov	2718	2018-08	1986
	Iran	Amin Tabatabaei	2718	2024-07	2001
87	Cuba United States	Lázaro Bruzón	2717	2012-10	1982		Former highest-ranked Cuban player (2001, 2003–2004, 2005–2007, 2018–2020)
	Ukraine	Yuriy Kryvoruchko	2717	2015-11	1986		Former highest-ranked Ukrainian player (2018, 2019, 2020-2021)
	Russia Serbia	Alexey Sarana	2717	2024-07	2000		Highest-ranked Serbian player (since 2023)
90	Soviet Union Russia	Valery Salov	2715	1995-01	1964		9th player to achieve 2700+ rating (1994)
	Uzbekistan	Rustam Kasimdzhanov	2715	2015-05	1979		Former world chess champion (FIDE 2004–2005), former highest-ranked Uzbek player (2000–2023)
	Russia Austria	Kirill Alekseenko	2715	2019-11	1997		Highest-ranked Austrian player (2023-)
	Netherlands	Jorden van Foreest	2715	2022-05	1999
94	Netherlands	Loek van Wely	2714	2001-10	1972		Former highest-ranked Dutch player (2001–2011)
	Russia	Denis Khismatullin	2714	2014-03	1984
96	Soviet Union Armenia United States	Vladimir Akopian	2713	2006-07	1971		Former highest-ranked Armenian player (1995–2005)
	England	Luke McShane	2713	2012-07	1984
98	England	Nigel Short	2712	2004-04	1965		Former highest-ranked English player (1986–1993, 1996-1997, 2009-2010)
	England	David Howell	2712	2015-08	1990		Former highest-rated English player (2019, 2023, 2024-2025)
	Egypt	Bassem Amin	2712	2019-01	1988		Highest-ranked Egyptian player (since 2012), highest-ranked African player (since 2012)
	United States	Jeffery Xiong	2712	2019-11	2000
	Russia Hungary	Sanan Sjugirov	2712	2022-11	1993
103	Soviet Union Russia	Alexey Dreev	2711	2011-07	1969
	Armenia	Gabriel Sargissian	2711	2022-09	1983
105	Soviet Union Ukraine Slovenia	Alexander Beliavsky	2710	1997-07	1953		Former highest-ranked Slovenian player (1996–2023)
	Russia Romania	Alexander Motylev	2710	2009-07	1979
	Israel	Maxim Rodshtein	2710	2016-03	1989
	Romania	Bogdan-Daniel Deac	2710	2022-09	2001		Highest-ranked Romanian player (2021–2022, since 2024)
109	Azerbaijan	Rauf Mamedov	2709	2017-12	1988
	England	Gawain Jones	2709	2019-06	1987		Former highest rated English player (2019)
111	Ukraine	Zahar Efimenko	2708	2011-03	1985
	Armenia	Haik M. Martirosyan	2708	2023-11	2000
113	Romania Germany	Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu	2707	2005-10	1976		Former highest-ranked Romanian player (1998–2000, 2003–2014), former highest-ranked German player (2015–2023)
	Russia	Evgeny Najer	2707	2017-08	1977
115	Yugoslavia Bosnia and Herzegovina Netherlands	Ivan Sokolov	2706	2004-01	1968		Former highest-ranked Bosnian-Herzegovinian player (1993–1994, 1996–2002, 2009–2010)
	Hungary	Ferenc Berkes	2706	2011-09	1985
	Soviet Union Russia	Sergei Rublevsky	2706	2013-11	1974
118	Soviet Union Latvia	Mikhail Tal	2705	1980-01	1936	1992	Former world champion (1960–1961), former highest-ranked Latvian player (1992), 3rd player to achieve 2700+ rating (1980)
	Soviet Union Russia Israel   Switzerland	Vadim Milov	2705	2008-07	1972		Highest-ranked Swiss player (since 2008)
	Russia	Boris Grachev	2705	2012-03	1986
	Norway	Jon Ludvig Hammer	2705	2016-02	1990
122	Czech Republic	Viktor Láznička	2704	2012-01	1989
	United States	Ray Robson	2704	2023-04	1994
124	Soviet Union Israel	Emil Sutovsky	2703	2012-01	1977
	Austria	Markus Ragger	2703	2017-02	1988		Former highest-ranked Austrian player (2010–2023)
	Belarus	Vladislav Kovalev	2703	2019-02	1994		Highest-ranked Belarusian player (since 2019)
	Croatia	Ivan Šarić	2703	2019-03	1990		Highest-ranked Croatian player (since 2011)
	Spain	David Antón Guijarro	2703	2020-03	1995
	United States	Samuel Sevian	2703	2022-05	2000
130	Soviet Union Russia Poland	Michał Krasenkow	2702	2000-07	1963		Former highest-ranked Polish player (1996–2010)
	Soviet Union Israel	Ilya Smirin	2702	2001-07	1968
	Soviet Union Germany Russia	Alexander Khalifman	2702	2001-10	1966		Former world chess champion (FIDE 1999–2000), former highest-ranked German player (1991–1992)
	Soviet Union Bosnia and Herzegovina Georgia	Zurab Azmaiparashvili	2702	2003-07	1960		Former highest-ranked Georgian player (1992–1994, 1996–2009)
	France	Romain Edouard	2702	2014-06	1990
	Ukraine Latvia	Igor Kovalenko	2702	2015-08	1988		Former highest-ranked Latvian player (2018–2021), highest-rated Ukrainian player (2025-)
136	Soviet Union Ukraine United States	Alexander Onischuk	2701	2010-07	1975		Former highest-rated American player (2002-2005)
	India	Adhiban Baskaran	2701	2019-04	1992
138	Denmark	Peter Heine Nielsen	2700	2010-07	1973		Former highest-ranked Danish player (2004-2022)
	Russia	Igor Lysyj	2700	2015-01	1987

Highest-rated female players

FIDE women players ordered by peak Elo rating

	Country	Player	Peak rating	Achieved	Birth year	Death year	Notes
1	Hungary	Judit Polgár	2735	2005-07	1976		Highest-ranked female player (since 1992), highest-ranked Hungarian female player (since 1989), formerly youngest grandmaster (1991–1994), formerly youngest female grandmaster (1991–2002), formerly female world no. 1 (1989–2015)
2	China	Hou Yifan	2686	2015-03	1994		Former women's world champion (2010–2012, 2013–2015, 2016–2017), youngest female grandmaster (since 2008), female world no. 1 (since 2015), highest-ranked Chinese female player (since 2008)
3	India	Koneru Humpy	2623	2009-07	1987		Highest-ranked Indian female player (since 2001), formerly youngest female grandmaster (2002–2008)
4	Russia	Aleksandra Goryachkina	2611	2021-08	1998		Formerly highest-ranked Russian female player (2020–2023)
5	Ukraine Slovenia	Anna Muzychuk	2606	2012-07	1990		Highest-ranked Ukrainian female player (since 2014), formerly highest-ranked Slovenian female player (2004–2014)
6	China	Ju Wenjun	2604	2017-03	1991		Current Women's World Chess Champion (since 2018)
7	Russia	Tatiana Kosintseva	2581	2010-11	1986		Highest-ranked Russian female player (2010–2020, since 2023)
8	China	Zhao Xue	2579	2013-09	1985
9	Hungary United States	Susan Polgar	2577	2005-01	1969		Former women's world champion (1996–1999), formerly youngest female grandmaster (1991), formerly female world no. 1 (1984–1985, 1986), formerly highest-ranked Hungarian female player (1984–1988), formerly highest-ranked American female player (2003–2019)
10	Russia	Nadezhda Kosintseva	2576	2010-11	1985
11	China	Xie Jun	2574	2008-01	1970		Former women's world champion (1991–1996, 1999–2001), formerly highest-ranked Chinese female player (1990–2008)
12	Georgia	Nana Dzagnidze	2573	2015-06	1987		Highest-ranked Georgian female player (since 2011)
13	China	Lei Tingjie	2565	2025-08	1997
14	Ukraine	Mariya Muzychuk	2563	2016-03	1992		Former women's world champion (2015–2016)
	Ukraine Russia	Kateryna Lagno	2563	2022-10	1989		Formerly highest-ranked Ukrainian female player (2003–2014)
16	Russia   Switzerland	Alexandra Kosteniuk	2561	2018-01	1984		Former women's world champion (2008–2010), highest-ranked Swiss female player (since 2023)
	China	Tan Zhongyi	2561	2024-12	1991		Former women's world champion (2017–2018)
18	Soviet Union Georgia	Maia Chiburdanidze	2560	1988-01	1961		Former women's world champion (1978–1991), formerly highest-ranked female player (1985–1992), formerly youngest female grandmaster (1984–1991), formerly female world no. 1 (1980–1982, 1983, 1985–1986, 1987–1988), formerly highest-ranked Soviet female player (1985–1992), formerly highest-ranked Georgian female player (1992–2011)
	Soviet Union Ukraine Russia	Alisa Galliamova	2560	1998-07	1972		Formerly highest-ranked Ukrainian female player (1992–1996), formerly highest-ranked Russian female player (1996–2010)
	Bulgaria	Antoaneta Stefanova	2560	2003-01	1979		Former women's world champion (2004–2006), highest-ranked Bulgarian female player (1994, since 1995)
21	Sweden	Pia Cramling	2550	2008-10	1963		Formerly female world no. 1 (1983, 1984), highest-ranked Swedish female player (since 1981)
22	China Qatar	Zhu Chen	2548	2008-01	1976		Former women's world champion (2001–2004), highest-ranked Qatari female player (since 2006)
	Russia	Valentina Gunina	2548	2015-06	1989
	China	Zhu Jiner	2548	2025-09	2002
25	India	Harika Dronavalli	2543	2016-11	1991
26	Lithuania	Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen	2542	2017-06	1983		Highest-ranked Lithuanian female player (since 1999)
27	Ukraine United States	Anna Zatonskih	2537	2011-05	1978		Highest-ranked American female player (since 2019)
	France	Marie Sebag	2537	2013-03	1986		Highest-ranked French female player (since 2007)
29	Georgia	Bella Khotenashvili	2531	2013-06	1988
30	Georgia	Nino Batsiashvili	2528	2018-03	1987
31	Armenia	Elina Danielian	2521	2011-07	1978		Highest-ranked Armenian female player (1994–2002, 2004–2005, since 2008)
32	Soviet Union Georgia	Nana Ioseliani	2520	1997-07	1962
33	Kazakhstan	Dinara Saduakassova	2519	2020-01	1996		Highest-ranked Kazakhstani female player (2014–2016, 2017–2018, since 2018)
34	China	Xu Yuhua	2517	2006-04	1976		Former women's world champion (2006–2008)
35	Russia	Polina Shuvalova	2516	2021-12	2001
36	Germany	Elisabeth Pähtz	2513	2018-09	1985		Highest-ranked German female player (since 2008)
37	China	Wang Lei	2512	2001-10	1975
38	Vietnam Hungary	Hoang Thanh Trang	2511	2013-11	1980		Formerly highest-ranked Vietnamese female player (1992–2006)
39	Kazakhstan Russia	Bibisara Assaubayeva	2509	2025-06	2004
40	Russia	Natalia Pogonina	2508	2014-07	1985
41	Russia	Ekaterina Kovalevskaya	2507	2001-07	1974
	Kazakhstan	Zhansaya Abdumalik	2507	2021-10	2000		Formerly highest-ranked Kazakhstani female player (2017, 2018)
43	Soviet Union Georgia Scotland	Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant	2506	2009-07	1968		Highest-ranked Scottish female player (since 2008)
	China	Wang Pin	2506	2000-10	1974
	India	Vaishali Rameshbabu	2506	2024-08	2001
46	Hungary	Sofia Polgar	2505	1998-07	1974
	Poland	Monika Soćko	2505	2008-04	1978		Highest-ranked Polish female player (1999–2001, since 2005, shared since 2022)
	Russia	Olga Girya	2505	2017-09	1991
	Russia Poland	Alina Kashlinskaya	2505	2022-06	1993		Highest-ranked Polish female player (shared since 2022)
50	Armenia	Lilit Mkrtchian	2503	2010-01	1982		Formerly highest-ranked Armenian female player (2002–2003, 2005–2007)
	China	Ruan Lufei	2503	2014-01	1987
52	Soviet Union Kyrgyzstan Russia	Svetlana Matveeva	2502	2004-01	1969		Formerly highest-ranked Russian female player (1992, 1994–1996), formerly highest-ranked Kyrgyzstani female player (1993)
	Ukraine	Anna Ushenina	2502	2007-07	1985		Former women's world champion (2012–2013)
	United States	Irina Krush	2502	2013-10	1983		Formerly highest-ranked American female player (2002)
55	China	Qin Kanying	2501	2000-07	1974
	Moldova France	Almira Skripchenko	2501	2003-01	1976		Formerly highest-ranked Moldovan female player (1995–2001), highest-ranked French female player (2002–2007)
	India	Divya Deshmukh	2501	2024-10	2005
58	Georgia	Lela Javakhishvili	2500	2010-03	1984

Highest ratings by decade

This section lists the top 20 active ^[a] players by peak FIDE rating achieved in every decade since 1971, when FIDE started officially publishing rating lists.

1970s

Chess players ordered by peak FIDE rating in 1970s

	Country	Player	Peak rating in 1970s	Achieved
1		Bobby Fischer	2785	1972-07
2		Anatoly Karpov	2725	1978-01
3		Viktor Korchnoi	2695	1979-01
4		Boris Spassky	2690	1971-07
5		Bent Larsen	2660	1971-07
		Mikhail Tal	2660	1973-07
7		Lajos Portisch	2650	1973-07
8		Tigran Petrosian	2645	1972-07
		Lev Polugaevsky	2645	1972-07
10		Henrique Mecking	2635	1977-01
11		Mikhail Botvinnik	2630	1971-07
12		Lubomir Kavalek	2625	1974-05
		Jan Timman	2625	1979-01
14		Vassily Smyslov	2620	1971-07
		Leonid Stein	2620	1972-07
		Ljubomir Ljubojević	2620	1976-01
		Efim Geller	2620	1976-01
		Vlastimil Hort	2620	1977-01
19		Paul Keres	2615	1971-07
		Robert Hübner	2615	1974-05
		Jan Smejkal	2615	1976-01

1980s

Chess players ordered by peak FIDE rating in 1980s

	Country	Player	Peak rating in 1980s	Achieved
1		Garry Kasparov	2775	1989-01
2		Anatoly Karpov	2755	1989-07
3		Mikhail Tal	2705	1980-01
4		Viktor Korchnoi	2695	1980-01
5		Jan Timman	2675	1988-01
6		Nigel Short	2665	1988-07
7		Artur Yusupov	2660	1986-07
		Vasyl Ivanchuk	2660	1989-07
9		Lajos Portisch	2655	1980-01
		Alexander Beliavsky	2655	1988-07
11		Ljubomir Ljubojević	2645	1983-01
		Rafael Vaganian	2645	1986-01
		Andrei Sokolov	2645	1987-01
		Jonathan Speelman	2645	1988-07
		Valery Salov	2645	1989-07
16		Robert Hübner	2640	1981-07
		Ulf Andersson	2640	1983-07
		Mikhail Gurevich	2640	1989-07
19		Lev Polugaevsky	2635	1980-01
		Boris Spassky	2635	1981-01

1990s

Chess players ordered by peak FIDE rating in 1990s

	Country	Player	Peak rating in 1990s	Achieved
1		Garry Kasparov	2851	1999-07
2		Viswanathan Anand	2795	1998-07
3		Vladimir Kramnik	2790	1998-01
4		Anatoly Karpov	2780	1994-07
5		Alexander Morozevich	2758	1999-07
6		Veselin Topalov	2750	1996-07
7		Gata Kamsky	2745	1996-07
8		Alexei Shirov	2740	1994-07
		Vasyl Ivanchuk	2740	1995-07
10		Michael Adams	2716	1999-01
11		Valery Salov	2715	1995-01
12		Peter Svidler	2713	1999-01
		Boris Gelfand	2713	1999-07
14		Alexander Beliavsky	2710	1997-07
15		Peter Leko	2701	1999-07
16		Evgeny Bareev	2698	1999-07
17		Nigel Short	2697	1999-01
18		Sergei Rublevsky	2685	1998-07
19		Zurab Azmaiparashvili	2681	1999-01
20		Jan Timman	2680	1990-01
		Artur Yusupov	2680	1995-07

2000s

Chess players ordered by peak FIDE rating in 2000s

	Country	Player	Peak rating in 2000s	Achieved
1		Garry Kasparov	2851	2000-01
2		Veselin Topalov	2813	2006-07
3		Vladimir Kramnik	2811 [b]	2002-01
4		Viswanathan Anand	2803	2006-04
5		Magnus Carlsen	2801	2009-11
6		Alexander Morozevich	2788	2008-07
7		Vasyl Ivanchuk	2787	2007-10
8		Levon Aronian	2786	2009-11
9		Peter Svidler	2765	2006-01
10		Peter Leko	2763	2005-04
11		Teimour Radjabov	2761	2009-01
12		Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2760	2008-01
		Dmitry Jakovenko	2760	2009-01
14		Vugar Gashimov	2758	2009-11
		Boris Gelfand	2758	2009-11
16		Alexei Shirov	2755	2008-01
		Michael Adams	2755	2000-07
18		Sergei Movsesian	2751	2009-01
19		Alexander Grischuk	2748	2009-04
20		Ruslan Ponomariov	2743	2002-04

2010s

Chess players ordered by peak FIDE rating in 2010s

	Country	Player	Peak rating in 2010s	Achieved
1		Magnus Carlsen	2882	2014-05
2		Fabiano Caruana	2844	2014-10
3		Levon Aronian	2830	2014-03
4		Wesley So	2822	2017-02
5		Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2820	2018-09
6		Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	2819	2016-08
7		Viswanathan Anand	2817	2011-03
		Vladimir Kramnik	2817	2016-10
9		Veselin Topalov	2816	2015-07
		Hikaru Nakamura	2816	2015-10
		Ding Liren	2816	2018-11
12		Alexander Grischuk	2810	2014-12
13		Anish Giri	2798	2015-10
14		Teimour Radjabov	2793	2012-11
15		Sergey Karjakin	2788	2011-07
16		Vasyl Ivanchuk	2779	2011-03
17		Boris Gelfand	2777	2013-11
18		Ian Nepomniachtchi	2776	2019-09
19		Alexander Morozevich	2770	2012-07
		Pentala Harikrishna	2770	2016-12

2020s

Chess players ordered by peak FIDE rating in 2020s

	Country	Player	Peak rating in 2020s	Achieved
1		Magnus Carlsen	2872	2020-01
2		Fabiano Caruana	2842	2020-02
3		Ding Liren	2811	2022-10
4		Hikaru Nakamura	2807	2025-07
5		Alireza Firouzja	2804	2021-12
6		Arjun Erigaisi	2801	2024-12
7		Ian Nepomniachtchi	2795	2023-03
8		Gukesh Dommaraju	2794	2024-10
9		Levon Aronian	2785	2022-03
		Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa	2785	2025-09
11		Maxime Vachier-Lagrave	2784	2020-10
12		Nodirbek Abdusattorov	2783	2024-10
13		Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	2782	2021-07
14		Anish Giri	2780	2021-05
15		Alexander Grischuk	2778	2021-07
		Wesley So	2778	2021-09
17		Richárd Rapport	2776	2022-04
18		Teimour Radjabov	2765	2020-01
19		Wang Hao	2763	2020-04
		Wei Yi	2763	2024-10

List of rating peaks throughout history

Player	Rating	Achieved
Bobby Fischer	2760	1971-07
	2785	1972-07
Garry Kasparov	2800	1990-01
	2805	1993-01
	2815	1993-07
	2820	1997-07
	2825	1998-01
	2851	1999-07
Magnus Carlsen	2861	2013-01
	2872	2013-02
	2881	2014-03
	2882	2014-05

See also

• Comparison of top chess players throughout history
• FIDE world rankings
• List of FIDE chess world number ones

Notes

1. FIDE considers a player active if they played a rated game within the past 12 months. ^[3]
2. The chart on Kramnik's FIDE profile gives his January 2002 rating as 2811. ^[4] The top 100 list for January 2002 gives 2809. ^[5] The discrepancy appears to be due to a delay in including the rating change of +2 from Kramnik's four draws with Garry Kasparov in the Botvinnik Memorial Match in December 2001 in the top 100 lists, where it only appears in October 2002.

References

1. "All time Top 100 by Highest ELO Rating". Chess-db.com. Archived from the original on 9 December 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
2. "Records". 2700chess.com. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
3. "FIDE Rating Regulations". FIDE . Retrieved 25 July 2025.
4. "Profile Info – Kramnik, Vladimir". FIDE . Retrieved 5 August 2021.
5. "Top 100 Players January 2002 - Archive". FIDE . Retrieved 5 August 2021.

External links

• A list of chess players by peak FIDE rating on 2700chess.com