10 Greatest Chess Players of All-Time The Ultimate List

This means that you don’t necessarily have to have a high IQ to be a chess grandmaster. I am sorry but Topalov cannot possibly, by any stretch of the imagination, count as one of the greatest. Never forget that when when he won his FIDE title, there were many allegations that his manager was signalling him as to computer moves. That automatically takes him out of any “Best of….” lists.

Reykjavík, IcelandTitleGrandmaster World Champion1972–1975Peak rating2785 Peak rankingNo. 1 Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008) was an lincoln 3350 series welding helmet American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14.

Finally, he lost the title in 1963 to Tigran Petrosian. Botvinnik retired in 1970 and devoted himself to the development of chess programs and training young Soviet Players. He continued his reign for the next 8 years, defeating Gunsberg and Chigorin but eventually lost to Emanuel Lasker in 1894. Unfortunately, the great contributor to chess died in 1900 due to poverty. When they played in a rapid tournament in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2004, Carlsen was only 13 years old. Being good at chess was a path to becoming more comfortable in life and a viable career option.

Fischer vs. Boris Spassky, 1992; 1st match game, Ruy Lopez, Breyer Variation , 1–0; annotated on the 1992 match page. Fischer’s “fine” victory in his first competitive game in 20 years “made a great impression on the chess world”, although in Kasparov’s view, Spassky’s play was below the standard of the leading grandmasters of the time. Fischer played 752 tournament games in his career, winning 417, drawing 251, and losing 84. These include, however, games when he was very young; if only the games after he turned 20 are considered, he played 311 tournament games and lost 23, a 7.4% loss percentage. International Master Jeremy Silman listed him as one of the five best endgame players (along with Emanuel Lasker, Akiba Rubinstein, José Raúl Capablanca, and Vasily Smyslov), calling Fischer a “master of bishop endings”.

His sister taught him the rules of the game which helped him acquire all her skills in a short time. He became obsessed with playing chess at the age of six, but he was playing alone and aloof. When that demand was turned down, Fischer instead gained the recognition of a “Class B” player by FIDE, but dropped out of sight again in Yugoslavia.