Hall of Fame | The 50 Greatest Chess Players of All Time

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GM Jan Gustafsson

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Who are the greatest chess players of all time?

Check out the full list from 1-50!

Grandmasters and Carlsen-trainers Peter Heine Nielsen and Jan Gustafsson got together to compile their own list of the 50 best players ever. Neither is a big expert on chess history, so what could go wrong? 50 players, 50 videos! Let us know what they got right. Who did they miss?

50: Aron Nimzowitsch

Aron Nimzowitsch is best known for his book 'My System'. But does he belong here as a player?

11 min

3 Challenges

49: Sergey Karjakin

Sergey Karjakin held Magnus Carlsen to a 6-6 tie in classical games in their World Championship match.

9 min

3 Challenges

48: Lajos Portisch

Hungary's Lajos Portisch had a long and distinguished career.

7 min

3 Challenges

47: Lev Polugaevsky

Lev Polugaevsky is a representative of an incredibly strong generation of Soviet players. Never in a title match, but very much a top player for 20+ years.

9 min

2 Challenges

46: Gata Kamsky

Gata Kamsky emerges as a prodigy in the 1990s, takes time off from chess from 1996-2004, but returns in 2004 and goes on to win the 2007 World Cup.

10 min

3 Challenges

45: Geza Maroczy

Maroczy was born in 1870 and was one of the leading players of his time. Enough?

8 min

2 Challenges

44: Peter Leko

After becoming the youngest grandmaster in the world in 1994, Peter Leko played a World Championship match against Vladimir Kramnik in 2004, coming as close to the title as it gets.

15 min

3 Challenges

43: Szymon Winawer

Winawer is one of the premier players a looong time ago. Where does that rank him?

7 min

2 Challenges

42: Miguel Najdorf

Miguel Najdorf was one of the world's best players in the 1940s and 1950s.

9 min

2 Challenges

41 Jan Timman

The Dutch legend was considered "Best in the West" and was an absolute top player throughout the 1980s and early 1990s.

9 min

2 Challenges

40: Mikhail Chigorin

"The Founder of the Soviet School of Chess"

10 min

2 Challenges

39: Boris Gelfand

Gelfand came close to the World Championship title in 2012, when he lost to Vishy Anand by the smallest of margins.

12 min

2 Challenges

38: Efim Geller

An amazing tournamemnt player, Geller never got to a World Championship match, but had + scores against the likes of Fischer, Botvinnik and Petrosian.

9 min

3 Challenges

37: Harry Pillsbury

Harry Nelson Pillsbury only had a brief career, but his highs were incredibly high.

8 min

3 Challenges

36: Carl Schlechter

Schlechter was the first player to seriously challenge Lasker in a World Championship match.

9 min

2 Challenges

35: Vasyl Ivanchuk

Widely considered a chess genius, Ivanchuk enters the list.

11 min

2 Challenges

34: Siegbert Tarrasch

Dr. Tarrasch was maybe the world's best player in the 1890s.

10 min

2 Challenges

33: Levon Aronian

The Armenian Superstar requires no introduction

10 min

3 Challenges

32: Reuben Fine

He did just fine in 1938.

9 min

2 Challenges

31: Efim Bogoljubov

Another veteran, who played two World Championship matches.

7 min

2 Challenges

30: Samuel Reshevsky

Reshevsky was a contender for the World Championship from the mid-1930s to the mid-60s.

13 min

2 Challenges

29: Bent Larsen

The Great Dane makes the Top 30. Another Great Dane explains why.

21 min

2 Challenges

28: Louis Charles Mahe de la Bourdonnais

The French master was considered to be the strongest player in the world in the early 1800s.

10 min

2 Challenges

27: Johannes Zukertort

Zukertort lost to Steinitz in the first World Championship match in 1886, but was a dominant player in the 1870s and 1880s.

14 min

3 Challenges

26: Adolf Anderssen

Anderssen won two big tournaments in 1851 and 1862, as well as giving the world the "Immortal Game".

12 min

2 Challenges

25: David Bronstein

David Bronstein is best known for tying the 1951 World Championship match against Botvinnik, while also giving the chess world some highly influential books.

14 min

2 Challenges

24: Howard Staunton

Howard Staunton was considered the world's leading player from 1843-1851. He also gave us the Staunton chess set and the "Chess players handbook".

11 min

2 Challenges

23: Akiba Rubinstein

Akiba Rubinstein was one of the world's best players in the early 20th century and leaves behing an impressive legacy of endgame technique and ideas.

17 min

2 Challenges

22: Paul Keres

The Estonian master never got to the World Championship, but had an amazingly long and successful career.

13 min

2 Challenges

21: Veselin Topalov

Veselin Topalov was the FIDE World Champion in 2005 and lost World Championship matches against Vladimir Kramnik in 2006 and Vishy Anand in 2010.

18 min

2 Challenges

20: Viktor Korchnoi

Viktor Korchnoi is widely considered one of the greatest players to never become World Champion.

20 min

2 Challenges

19: Fabiano Caruana

Fabiano Caruana is the current World Number 2.

15 min

2 Challenges

18: François-André Danican Philidor

Philidor is by far the greatest player of the 18th century.

15 min

2 Challenges

17: Max Euwe

Max Euwe is the fifth official World Champion.

13 min

3 Challenges

16: Boris Spassky

Boris Spassky is the 10th World Champion.

15 min

2 Challenges

15: Mikhail Tal

Mikhail Tal is the eighth World Champion.

14 min

3 Challenges

14: Vasily Smyslov

Smyslov is the 7th World Champion.

13 min

2 Challenges

13: Wilhelm Steinitz

Wilhelm Steinitz is the first undisputed World Champion.

11 min

3 Challenges

12: Tigran Petrosian

Tigran Petrosian was the World Champion from 1963 to 1969.

12 min

3 Challenges

11: Vladimir Kramnik

Kramnik defeated Kasparov in 2000 to become the Classical World Champion.

16 min

3 Challenges

10: Paul Morphy

Paul Morphy is one of the biggest phenomena the chess world has ever seen.

16 min

2 Challenges

9: Viswanathan Anand

Vishy Anand has won everything there is to win in chess.

17 min

2 Challenges

8: Mikhail Botvinnik

Mikhail Botvinnik won or drew 4 World Championships and stayed at or near the top of chess for 30 years.

14 min

2 Challenges

7: José Raúl Capablanca

Jose Raul Capablanca is remembered as a great champion and one of the most accurate players ever.

15 min

2 Challenges

6: Anatoly Karpov

Anatoly Karpov dominated chess throughout much of the 70s and early 80s.

17 min

2 Challenges

5: Alexander Alekhine

Alexander Alekhine defeated Capablanca in 1927 to become the 4th World Chess Champion.

12 min

2 Challenges

4: Emanuel Lasker

Emanuel Lasker remained World Champion for 27 years.

14 min

2 Challenges

3: Bobby Fischer

Robert James Fischer.

13 min

2 Challenges

2: Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen was the reigning World Champion when this series was recorded.

15 min

2 Challenges

1: Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov was the world number 1 for 225 months.

14 min

2 Challenges