Top 10 Chess Players

Introduction

It has been over 1500 years, and other people love chess worldwide. In the 6th century AD, the story moves from northern India to Persia. The Muslim world adsorbed chess after the Arab conquest of Persia.

Chess is an authentically Indian game, and it originates from the times of Gupta empire. It is a testament to Indian brilliance. It was historically known as Chaturanga in India, which refers to the ancient Indian army's four arms or diversions: infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariots.

This game expanded throughout Asia and Europe in the coming decades. Over the years this game became popular and we know it as chess today. Ruy Lopez, a Spanish priest, was among the first champions of the game.

 It promotes the everlasting development of the human intellect. Chess offers significant advantages, improving a person's ability to learn, think, and make sound decisions. Chess helps a person's analytical power by helping them frame better strategies not only while playing the game but also in other aspects of life. Chess also teaches a person the importance of planning ahead of time and taking appropriate measures. Chess teaches the values of consistency, patience, concentration, and hard work.

Situation of checkmate

The goal of chess is to remove the opponent's pieces from their domain while making strategic advancements that drive the opponent's king to an unavoidable checkmate situation. Checkmate condition arises whenever one of the players challenges the other's king, blocking it from moving to other squares, being protected by another piece, or being captured by the checking segment. Chess is very helpful to improve a person's mental ability, logical thinking and sharpen the brain.

How to play chess board game?

Chess is played among two-players. Chess is a board game. The board has 8 x 8 grids with 64 squares. In chess, both the players have their own pieces. One player is given white pieces. The second player gets black ones. The player who gets the white pieces starts the game with his first move.

As the player with white piece has the advantage of starting first, it has more chances of winning. But the player with black pieces gets an edge of knowing the white player’s move and can play defensive or attack whenever required.

This board game requires a total of 16 pieces. Both the players are given equal number of pieces. The pieces include one king, one queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights, and eight pawns. Each piece has its distinct personality and specialty. The game is all about making correct move at the appropriate time.

Chess is a brain sharpening game and hence it is popular worldwide. There are various chess competitions held. Chess is the national game of Russia.

Major Titles and Ranks in Chess

FIDE provides players with lifetime titles-

• Grandmaster (GM) or International Grandmaster (IGM)
• International Master (IM)
• FIDE Master (FM)
• Candidate Master (CM)

There are some titles reserved exclusively for women, such as Woman Grandmaster (WGM).

Here is a list of the top 10 chess players across the globe.

1. Magnus Carlsen

Grand Master (GM) Magnus Carlsen is the current renowned chess champion. He is from Norway.

He is 30 years old. He is bagging the place of a five-time world chess champion. He owns the title of three-time champion in the world-rapid chess tournament.

Talking more about his laurels, he is also has a title of being a five-time champion in the World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen proved himself as the World Champion in the year 2013, when he defeated Vishwanathan Anand. In the coming years he consecutively won the year 2014’s World Rapid and World Blitz Championships. His hard work paid off as he became the first player to own all these titles.

2. Ding Liren

Ding Liren is from China and regarded as chess grandmaster. He is China’s highest rated chess champ. He is 29 years old. From 2012 to 2018, he represented China in all four Chess Olympiads. In these Olympiads, he won team gold medals for the years 2014 and 2018. He also got individual bronze and gold medals in the same years. In the year 2015, he won gold for his team and silver for himself in the World Team Championships.

After Wang Yue, Ding Liren is the second citizen of China to make place in the top ten rankings of the FIDE world rankings in the year August 2015. He was one of the highest-rated Blitz players in the world as per the reports of July 2016. He had a Blitz rating of 2875. Against Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Levon Aronian, Ding was a finalist in the 2019 for the Grand Chess Tour. By beating Vachier-Lagrave in the finals Ding made the Grand Chess Tour’s title his.

3. Alireza Firouzja

Alireza Firouzja has a title of chess grandmaster. He is a French-Iranian player. He has got the third position in the FIDE global chess rankings since May 1, 2022.  He is known as the world's youngest ever 2800-rated player. He gets into limelight when he breaks Magnus Carlsen's previous record by more than five months. He is 18 years old. When he was 12 years old, he won the 2016 Iranian Chess Championship. He became the youngest person to win this title by scoring a whole point.

He won the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament at the age of 18. He got an individual gold medal at the European Team Chess Championship in November 2021. He got bronze in the World Blitz Chess Championship in 2021.

He left the Iranian Chess Federation in the year 2019 because of the anti-Israeli policies. He represented FIDE until mid-2021.

4. Fabiano Caruana

Fabiano Luigi Caruana is a chess player of Italian and American descent. Caruana was a chess prodigy who became a grandmaster when he was 14 years old, making him the youngest grandmaster in Italy and American history. Caruana made his place in the Candidates Tournament after he won the FIDE Grand Prix in 2014–15. He won the second place to Sergey Karjakin. Caruana put the US Chess Championship’s title too in his bag in the year 2016. He won league points and bronze (individual) for the United States. He won the title of winner for the London Chess Classic tournament in the year 2017. In the coming year he won the Candidates Tournament too. This win made him the first American after Bobby Fischer in 1972 to challenge for the uncontested World Chess Championship. After drawing all these twelve classical games, Caruana lost his game to Magnus Carlsen in a rapid head to heads.

5. Wesley So

His full name is Wesley Barbossa So. Wesley is an half American and half Filipino chess grandmaster. We know Wesley as the champion and current player to have the first position for the World Fischer Random Chess. He also has the titles of the three-time and current Chess Champion of the United States (2017, 2020, and 2021). He has also won the Philippine Chess Championship three times. In march 2017, he got the second place in the world in the FIDE rating list as his Elo rating is 2822. He secured the position of the fifth-highest rated player in history.

Further in his Chess journey, Wesley won the Bilbao Chess Masters in 2015.  He also won the Grand Chess Tour championship in 2016. He won the team as well as an individual gold for the United States on board 3 in the 42nd Chess Olympiad.

On November 2, 2017, Wesley became the first recognized and known Fischer Random world champion. He managed to write his name on this title by defeating Carlsen in the FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship.

6. Levon Aronian

Levon Grigori Aronian  is a chess grandmaster from the United States. He has now become the representative of the US chess Federation. He was one of those players who got their title of grandmaster at a very early age. He became GM at the age of 17 in the year 2000. In march 2014, Aronian secured his place of second position in the FIDE world chess rankings. In the Armageddon, he beat GM Arjun Erigaisi to take first place.

From December 26 to 28, 2021, Aronian participated in the 2021 FIDE World Rapid Championship. In this championship he got the seventh place. In the World Blitz Chess Championship, Aronian got the fifth place. This competition took place from December 29 to 30. In April 2022, for the American Cup, he won the elimination bracket and got second place to Fabiano Caruana.

7. Ian Nepomniachtchi

Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi is a grandmaster of Russia. He was also a commentator for Russian chess.

In the years 2010 and 2020, Nepomniachtchi won the Russia’s Chess Super finals. In the years 2010 and 2016, he got the title of European Individual and Tal Memorial respectively. As per the sources of the year 2016, Nepomniachtchi managed to make the fourth place in the world, by winning silver medals at Rapid and one silver medal at Blitz chess championships. After getting the second place in the FIDE’s Grand Prix of the year 2019 he made his way for the Candidate Tournament for the year 2020-2021. He got the title of World Chess Challenger after he won the 2021 FIDE Candidates tournament. The match was a tough call with a round to spare. In the following year, the current Chess champion Magnus Carlsen beat him in December 2021. Our seventh chess star Nepomniachtchi, was also a semi-professional Dota player before.

8. Richard Rapport

Richard Rapport is 26 years old. Richárd Rapport is a chess grandmaster from Hungary. He got his title of chess grandmaster at the age of 13. He was called to be Hungary’s youngest chess grandmaster in their history. In 2017 he won the Hungarian Chess Championship as of May 2022. He is the world's fifth highest-rated player.

In January 2017, he won his first game with just 33 moves. At the Tata Steel Competition, Richard had the advantage of opening the game with white pieces against Magnus Carlsen. In the year 2017, May, he got himself the title of Champion for the Hungarian Chess Championship. Richard won the tournament-show of GM Simon Williams’ show Checkmate. Rapport competed with Sam Shankland in their match as part of the US vs. World tournament and defeated him.

He owns the prestigious title of The 11th Danzhou Tournament. For that tournament Richard was the only unbeaten player. In the year 2022, Richard Rapport won the second league of the FIDE Grand Prix.

9. Anish Giri

Anish Kumar Giri is a Dutch-Russian chess champ. At the age of 14, Anish Giri got his chess grandmaster title. Anish won the Corus Chess four times in the Netherlands. He has participated in five consecutive Chess Olympiads for the Netherlands (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018). In the year 2019, he won the Shenzhen Masters’ Third Edition. In Netherlands, Anish Giri is one of the excellent and skilled chess players.

   10. Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura is 34 years old. Hikaru Nakamura is a chess grandmaster. He belongs to the United States. He got the title of grandmaster in 2003 when he was 15. He is the youngest America to get this title. The US Open is won by Nakamura five times.

Out of all the ratings, 2816, is Hikaru’s highest FIDE rating. In the year 2014, May, Nakamura made his way to conquer the first position in the Rapid and Blitz chess ratings respectively. He has managed to be in the top lists after getting these ratings. In the year 2021, December, competitions of Chess.com and Speed Chess Championships were held. For these competitions, he won the title of winner.