Christopher Hikaru Nakamura is an American chess grandmaster, streamer, YouTube content creator, five-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he earned his grandmaster title at the age of 15, the youngest American at the time to do so. With a peak rating of 2816, Nakamura is the tenth-highest-rated player in history.
Zhao Xue is a Chinese chess player. She is the 24th Chinese person to achieve the title of Grandmaster. Zhao was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese team at the Women's Chess Olympiad in 2002, 2004 and 2016, and at the Women's World Team Chess Championship in 2007, 2009 and 2011. She has competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2018, reaching the semifinals in 2010.
Levon Grigori Aronian is an Armenian-American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he earned the title of grandmaster in 2000, at age 17. He is a former world rapid and blitz champion and has held the No. 2 position in the March 2014 FIDE world chess rankings with a rating of 2830, becoming the fourth highest-rated player in history.
Alexander Igorevich Grischuk is a Russian chess grandmaster. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion.
Hou Yifan is a Chinese chess grandmaster, four-time Women's World Chess Champion and the second highest rated female player of all time. Once a chess prodigy, she was the youngest female player ever to qualify for the title of grandmaster and the youngest ever to win the Women's World Chess Championship.
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.
Pavel Eljanov is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. He has won two team gold medals and one individual silver medal at the Chess Olympiads.
Tania Sachdev is an Indian chess player, who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is a two-time Indian women's chess champion in 2006 and 2007, one-time Asian women's chess champion in 2007 and three-time and current Commonwealth Women's Chess Champion in 2016, 2018, and 2019. She is also a chess presenter and commentator.
Ju Wenjun is a Chinese chess grandmaster. She is the current Women's World Chess Champion. In March 2017 she became the fifth woman to achieve a rating of 2600. She is a four-time Women's World Chess Champion, having won the title in May 2018. She then defended her title in November 2018, 2020, and 2023.
Harika Dronavalli is an Indian chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). She has won three bronze medals in the Women's World Chess Championship, in 2012, 2015 and 2017. Harika was honored with the Arjuna Award for the year 2007–08 by the government of India. In 2016, she won the FIDE Women's Grand Prix event at Chengdu, China and rose up from world no. 11 to world no. 5 in FIDE women's ranking. Vladimir Kramnik, Judit Polgar and Viswanathan Anand are her chess inspirations. In 2019, she was awarded the Padma Shri for her contributions towards the field of sports.
Surya Sekhar Ganguly, is an Indian chess grandmaster. His peak ELO rating was 2676. Ganguly became an International Master at the age of 16 and a grandmaster at the age of 19.
Ding Liren is a Chinese chess grandmaster and the reigning World Chess Champion. He is the highest-rated Chinese chess player in history and also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion. He was the winner of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the finals and winning the 2019 Sinquefield Cup. Ding is the first Chinese player ever to play in a Candidates Tournament and pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE world rankings. In July 2016, with a Blitz rating of 2875, he was the highest-rated Blitz player in the world. In July 2023, Ding became the No. 1 ranked Rapid player, with a rating of 2830.
Irene Kharisma Sukandar is an Indonesian chess player and a two-time Asian women's champion. She is the first female player from Indonesia to achieve both the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and International Master (IM) titles. She graduated from Gunadarma University. She won two gold medals at the 2013 SEA Games.
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi is an Indian chess grandmaster. He attained the title of grandmaster in January 2013, becoming the 30th player from India to do so. As of November 2023, he is the third highest rated player in India. He is the fourth Indian player to have crossed the Elo rating threshold of 2700.
Sharmin Sultana Shirin is a Bangladeshi chess player and two-time winner of the Women's Bangladeshi Chess Championship. In 2013, she became the sixth female Bangladeshi player to receive the FIDE title of Woman FIDE Master (WFM). She earned the Woman International Master title (WIM) in 2019.
Salem Abdulrahman Mohamed Saleh is an Emirati chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2009. Saleh competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2023.
Sachini D. Ranasinghe, also known as S.D. Ranasinghe, is a Sri Lankan chess player who holds the title of Woman International Master. She is the first Sri Lankan player to get awarded the title of Woman International Master and only Sri Lankan player to win Asian zonal 3.2 chess championship and participate at the World chess Cup in 2012. She is a five-time winner of the Sri Lankan Women's Chess Championship. She is the strongest Sri Lankan women chess player in this era.
Zhu Jiner, is a Chinese chess player and Grandmaster (2023).
Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage also simply known as Ranindu Liyanage is a Sri Lankan chess player and current national champion. In July 2021, he became the first Sri Lankan man to participate at the FIDE Chess World Cup. He is currently coached by Uzbekistani chess grandmaster Alexei Barsov.
Harshana Thilakarathne is a Sri Lankan chess player and International Master. He is currently the no 2 chess player in Sri Lanka. He completed his education at the Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala. He is trained by Dmytro Komarow. He started training in the game under the coaching of former veteran national chess player Romesh Weerawardane.
