The World Top Ten in the 21st Century

Veselin Topalov: One of four players to be World No.1 since Kasparov retired
I've been looking at those players who have been in the Top Ten this century and I've come up with 30 names, some of them surprising! A reminder of those players who have made their mark amongst the chess elite, since the decline of Anatoly Karpov.

I've ranked the 30 players in the following order:

1. Highest World Ranking (since January 2000)

2. For those who have achieved the same ranking, the most recent receives preference.

Rank Name Age Country Career highest Elo Highest ever World rank When last achieved
1 Magnus Carlsen 20 NOR 2826 1 September 2011
2 Viswanathan Anand 41 IND 2817 1 May 2011
3 Veselin Topalov 36 BUL 2813 1 November 2009
4 Vladimir Kramnik 36 RUS 2811 1 January 2008
5 Garry Kasparov 48 RUS 2851 1 January 2006
6 Alexander Morozevich 34 RUS 2788 2 October 2008
7 Vassily Ivanchuk 42 UKR 2787 2 October 2007
8 Levon Aronian 28 ARM 2808 3 September 2011
9 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 26 AZE 2772 4 January 2007
10 Peter Svidler 35 RUS 2765 4 October 2006
11 Peter Leko 31 HUN 2763 4 October 2005
12 Evgeny Bareev 44 RUS 2739 4 October 2003
13 Michael Adams 39 ENG 2755 4 October 2002
14 Alexei Shirov 39 ESP 2755 4 January 2000
15 Sergey Karjakin 21 RUS 2788 5 September 2011
16 Dmitry Jakovenko 28 RUS 2760 5 July 2009
17 Teimour Radjabov 24 AZE 2761 5 April 2009
18 Hikaru Nakamura 23 USA 2774 6 July 2011
19 Alexander Grischuk 27 RUS 2773 6 November 2010
20 Pavel Eljanov 28 UKR 2761 6 September 2010
21 Boris Gelfand 43 ISR 2761 6 January 2010
22 Vugar Gashimov 25 AZE 2760 6 November 2009
23 Ruslan Ponomariov 27 UKR 2768 6 April 2006
24 Wang Yue 24 CHN 2756 8 May 2010
25 Judit Polgar 35 HUN 2735 8 October 2005
26 Etienne Bacrot 28 FRA 2731 9 October 2005
27 Gata Kamsky 37 USA 2756 10 September 2011
28 Sergei Movsesian 32 ARM 2751 10 January 2009
29 Loek Van Wely 38 NED 2714 10 October 2001
30 Michel Krasenkow 47 POL 2702 10 October 2000

A  good source of further information is the International Chess Federation site FIDE


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