Judit Polgár is a Hungarian chess grandmaster, widely regarded as the strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the youngest to have done so, breaking the record previously held by former world champion Bobby Fischer. She was the youngest player ever to break into the FIDE top 100 players rating list, ranking No. 55 in the January 1989 rating list, at the age of 12.
Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand is an Indian chess grandmaster, a former five-time World Chess Champion and a record two-time Chess World Cup Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and he has the eighth-highest peak FIDE rating of all time. In 2022, he was elected the deputy president of FIDE.
Jørgen Bent Larsen was a Danish chess grandmaster and author. Known for his imaginative and unorthodox style of play, he was the second-strongest non-Soviet player, behind only Bobby Fischer, for much of the 1960s and 1970s. He is considered to be the strongest player born in Denmark and the strongest from Scandinavia until the emergence of Magnus Carlsen.
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Champion, the reigning five-time World Rapid Chess Champion, the reigning seven-time World Blitz Chess Champion, and the reigning Chess World Cup Champion. He has held the No. 1 position in the FIDE world chess rankings since 1 July 2011 and trails only Garry Kasparov in time spent as the highest-rated player in the world. His peak rating of 2882 is the highest in history. He also holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak at an elite level in classical chess at 125 games.
Joel Lawrence Benjamin is an American chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). In 1998, he was voted "Grandmaster of the Year" by the U.S. Chess Federation.
Vasyl Mykhailovych Ivanchuk, is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1988. A leading chess player since 1988, Ivanchuk has been ranked at No. 2 on the FIDE world rankings three times.
Claude Frizzell BloodgoodIII was a controversial American chess player. As a young man, he got into trouble with the law and was arrested several times. He was sentenced to death in 1970 after having been convicted of murdering his mother, although this sentence was later commuted to life in prison. While in prison, he remained a very active chess player, playing a large number of correspondence games and rated games with other inmates. Over time, he achieved a very high ranking in the United States Chess Federation (USCF) by playing in a closed pool, which allowed rating manipulation. He died in prison in 2001.
Boris Gelfand is a Belarusian-Israeli chess player.
Lubomir (Lubosh) Kavalek was a Czech-American chess player. He was awarded both the International Master and International Grandmaster titles by FIDE in 1965. He won two Czechoslovak and three U.S. championships, and was ranked as the world's No. 10 player in 1974. He was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in 2001. Kavalek was also a chess coach, organizer, teacher, commentator, author and award-winning columnist.
Benjamin Philip Finegold is an American chess grandmaster and YouTuber/Twitch streamer. He had previously been nicknamed the "strongest International Master in the United States" until receiving his Grandmaster (GM) title in 2009.
Wang Yue is a Chinese chess player. In 2004, he became China's 18th grandmaster at the age of 17. He is China's first player ever to break into the top 10 of the FIDE world rankings and was the highest-ever rated Chinese player, with a peak rating of 2756, until August 2015, when this record was broken by Ding Liren.
Ni Hua is a Chinese chess grandmaster and the national team captain. He is three-time national champion. In 2003, he became China's 15th Grandmaster at the age of 19. In April 2008, Ni Hua and Bu Xiangzhi both became the second and third Chinese players to pass the 2700 Elo rating mark, after Wang Yue.
Tamaz Gelashvili is a Georgian chess grandmaster.
Vugar Gasim oghlu Hashimov, known internationally as Vugar Gashimov, was an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster. He was a noted player of blitz chess. At his peak ranking, he was No. 6 in the world, achieved in November 2009.
Gawain Christopher Bernard Jones is an English chess grandmaster and three-time British Chess Champion. He was awarded the grandmaster title by FIDE in 2007. He competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2013, 2017 and 2019.
Anish Kumar Giri is a Dutch chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he completed the requirements for the grandmaster title in 2009 at the age of 14 years, 7 months and 2 days. Giri is a five-time Dutch champion and won the Corus Chess B Group in 2010. He has represented the Netherlands at seven Chess Olympiads. He has also won major international tournaments, including the 2012 Reggio Emilia tournament, 2017 Reykjavik Open, 2023 Tata Steel Chess, and shared 1st place in the 2015 London Chess Classic. In 2019 he won clear first at the Third Edition of the Shenzhen Masters.
Gilles Andruet was a French chess player, an International Master and a former national champion. He was the son of rally driver Jean-Claude Andruet.
Arturs Neiksans is a Latvian chess player who has held the FIDE title of Grandmaster since 2012. He is a four-time Latvian champion, one of the leading Latvian chess players, an FIDE-accredited chess trainer, author and a commentator of high-level chess tournaments.
Samuel L. Shankland is an American chess grandmaster. He won the U.S. Chess Championship in 2018.
Boris Katalymov was a Soviet (Ukrainian) and later Kazakhstani chess player. He spent in youth in Lviv playing in the same junior tournaments and for the same junior team as legendary Leonid Stein. He was awarded the title of International Master by FIDE in 1996. Katalymov was multiple times champion of Kazakhstan. He took the silver medal in the 1995 World Senior Chess Championship, held in Bad Liebenzell, Germany. The Katalymov Variation of the Sicilian Defence is named after him.. Boris Nikolaevich spent his later years teaching chess to young children and teenagers at the 'School Palace' in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
