ELO ratings
Top Ten Elo performers of all time
| Garry Kasparov |
|
I've been taking a look at the highest ratings achieved by some well know stars.
One should be careful about comparing ELO ratings from one generation to another, and naturally be cautious about making any conclusions about relative playing strengths. However chess players are interesting by Elo ratings and we all know our own personal highest, don't we?
As a reminder, here is the May 2011 rating list.
| Present rank | Name | Country | Present rating |
| 1 | Anand, Viswanathan | IND | 2817 |
| 2 | Carlsen, Magnus | NOR | 2815 |
| 3 | Aronian, Levon | ARM | 2808 |
| 4 | Kramnik, Vladimir | RUS | 2785 |
| 5 | Ivanchuk, Vassily | UKR | 2776 |
| 6 | Karjakin, Sergey | RUS | 2776 |
| 7 | Topalov, Veselin | BUL | 2775 |
| 8 | Nakamura, Hikaru | USA | 2774 |
| 9 | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | AZE | 2772 |
| 10 | Gashimov, Vugar | AZE | 2760 |
| 11 | Ponomariov, Ruslan | UKR | 2754 |
| 12 | Grischuk, Alexander | RUS | 2747 |
| 13 | Radjabov, Teimour | AZE | 2744 |
| 14 | Svidler, Peter | RUS | 2739 |
| 15 | Vitiugov, Nikita | RUS | 2733 |
| 16 | Gelfand, Boris | ISR | 2733 |
| 17 | Jakovenko, Dmitry | RUS | 2732 |
| 18 | Kamsky, Gata | USA | 2732 |
| 19 | Wang, Hao | CHN | 2732 |
| 20 | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | FRA | 2731 |
On the present 'top twenty' list we notice that three players are above 2800. Two others, Kramnik and Topalov have been there before, but have dipped below it. Very few players in history have achieved 2770+ and yet there are nine at present!
The only other player to have ever been above 2800 is Garry Kasparov who is retired and, as most of you will know, has the highest ever Elo rating.
The table below show the highest Elo ratings achieved by players who have been active in the last decade, plus (for comparitive purposes) those of former World Champions Anatoly Karpov and Bobby Fischer, as well as the present Candidates-series Champion Boris Gelfand.
| All-time ELO rank | Name | Country | Age |
Career highest ELO |
When first achieved | Present ELO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garry Kasparov | RUS | 48 | 2851 | October 1999 | (2812 inactive) |
| 2 | Magnus Carlsen | NOR | 20 | 2826 | July 2010 | 2815 |
| 3 | Viswanathan Anand | IND | 41 | 2817 | March 2011 | 2817 |
| 4 | Veselin Topalov | BUL | 36 | 2813 | July 2006 | 2775 |
| 5 | Vladimir Kramnik | RUS | 35 | 2811 | January 2002 | 2785 |
| 6 | Levon Aronian | ARM | 28 | 2808 | March 2011 | 2808 |
| 7 | Vassily Ivanchuk | UKR | 42 | 2787 | October 2007 | 2776 |
| 8 | Sergey Karjakin | RUS | 21 | 2776 | January 2011 | 2776 |
| 9 | Hikaru Nakamura | USA | 23 | 2774 | March 2011 | 2774 |
| 10 | Alexander Grischuk | RUS | 27 | 2773 | January 2011 | 2747 |
| Boris Gelfand | ISR | 42 | 2761 | January 2010 | 2733 | |
| Anatoly Karpov | RUS | 60 | 2780 | July 1994 | (2617 largely inactive) | |
| Robert Fischer | USA | - | 2780 | FIDE approximation | Deceased |
Published: 08/06/2011 17:34, modified: 13/01/2012 10:13
| Photos | [Top of page] |
