Currently, who are the best players in chess?

Table of the best chess players today

#1 - Magnus Carlsen / Norway
Full name: Magnus Carlsen
Born: Nov 30, 1990 (33 years old)
Place of birth: Tønsberg, Norway
Federation: Norway

Biography:
Magnus Carlsen is the reigning World Chess Champion. He is considered by many to be the best player in history, although Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer cannot be eliminated from the equation. In any case, it is evident that even before turning 30 years of age, he has earned a place among the greatest.

#2 - Hikaru Nakamura / United States
Full name: Hikaru Nakamura
Born: Dec 9, 1987 (36 years old)
Place of birth: Hirakata, Japan
Federation: United States

Biography:
Hikaru Nakamura was born on December 7, 1987 in Hirakata, Japan. His family moved to the United States when he was only two years old, and the only flag he has represented as a chess player is the stars and stripes.Nakamura has been ranked among the best players in the world for more than a decade, and for much of that time he was also by far the best American player. His contribution to the chess of his country at present, one of the references in the international panorama, is absolutely decisive.

#3 - Fabiano Caruana / United States
Full name: Fabiano Caruana
Born: Jul 30, 1992 (31 years old)
Place of birth: Miami, Florida, U.S.A.
Federation: United States

Biography:
The child prodigy who broke Hikaru Nakamura's record for youngest US GM, Fabiano Caruana, has climbed the chess mountain and reached the top. This young grandmaster has risen to world no. 2 and has won a number of tournaments in his career. In 2018, the American faced Magnus Carlsen in the 2018 World Chess Championship in London, which he lost in the rapid games of the tiebreaker.

#4 - Arjun Erigaisi / India
Full name: Arjun Erigaisi
Born: Sep 3, 2003 (20 years old)
Place of birth: Warangal, India
Federation: India

Biography:
Arjun Erigaisi is an Indian grandmaster, one of a quartet of star Indian players born between 2003 and 2006 (the others being GMs Gukesh D, Praggnanandhaa R and Nihal Sarin), who made great leaps into the world elite in the 2022-23 season. period.

#5 - Ian Nepomniachtchi / Ukraine
Full name: Ian Nepomniachtchi
Born: Jul 14, 1990 (33 years old)
Place of birth: Bryansk, RSFSR of Russia, Soviet Union
Federation: Russia

Biography:
Ian Nepomniachtchi ("Nepo" in its short version) is a Russian super grandmaster and one of the contenders to become Carlsen's next challenger should he be proclaimed winner of the Candidates Tournament, to be played in March 2020. In fact, as of February 2020 he is ranked 5th in the world rankings.

#6 - Nodirbek Abdusattorov / Uzbekistan
Full name: Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Born: Sep 18, 2004 (19 years old)
Place of birth: Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Federation: Uzbekistan

Biography:
Nodirbek Abdusattorov is an Uzbek grandmaster who won the 2021 World Rapid Championship and played on the first board of the Uzbekistan team that won the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad. He did both when he was 17, becoming the youngest player to do so. In March 2024, he rose to fourth in the world in live FIDE rating. Abdussatorov's first major success was the 2012 World Youth U-8 Championship, which he won. Two years later, at the age of nine, he defeated two grandmasters, Andrey Zhigalko and Rustam Khusnutdinov, in a single tournament. In the April 2015 FIDE rating list, the 11-year-old prodigy set a record by becoming the youngest player to enter the junior top 100.

#7 - Gukesh Dommaraju / India
Full name: Gukesh Dommaraju
Born: May 29, 2006 (18 years old)
Place of birth: Chennai Tamil Nadu, India
Country: India

Biography:
The player's full name is Gukesh Dommaraju and he confirmed to Chess.com that he prefers to be called by his given name, Gukesh.
Indian GM Gukesh Dommaraju is a chess prodigy, the second youngest grandmaster in history, and became the challenger to the FIDE 2024 World Championship on April 21, 2024 by winning the FIDE 2024 Candidates Tournament with a score of 9/14. He is the youngest winner in Candidates history (17 years old) and will be the youngest championship challenger in history (18 years old). A win in the World Championship against GM Ding Liren would make Gukesh by far the youngest classical world champion in history.

#8 - Wesley So / United States
Full name: Wesley So
Born: Oct 9, 1993 (30 years old)
Place of birth: Bacoor, Cavite, Philippines
Federation: United States

Biography:
Wesley So is a Filipino-American super grandmaster and one of the best players in the world. He stood out from a very early age as a child prodigy, and at the age of 9 began competing in tournaments. At 14 he became the ninth youngest GM in history, and at 15 he became the youngest player to cross the 2600 Elo point barrier, breaking Magnus Carlsen's record.
In March 2017 he rose to world number two, closely following Carlsen, after placing with a career-high Elo of 2822. This jump was also to allow him to become the fifth highest Elo player of all time, surpassed only by Carlsen, Garry Kasparov, Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian. In addition to other successes, including several national championships and an extensive record in top-level tournaments, the 26-year-old chess player could still have a promising future ahead of him.

#9 - Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu / India
Full name: Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
Born: Aug 10, 2005 (18 years old)
Place of birth: Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Federation: India

Biography:
GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu is an Indian grandmaster who had one of the best youth careers in chess history. Praggnanandhaa, who turned 18 in 2023, is one of the youngest grandmasters and world championship candidates in history.
He is the first of a historic quartet of young contemporary Indian players (which also includes GMs Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin) to qualify for the Candidates Tournament, months before Gukesh qualified for the 2024 Candidates itself.

#10 - Wei Yi / China
Full name: Wei Yi
Born: Jun 2, 1999 (25 years old)
Place of birth: Yancheng, Jiangsu, China
Federation: China

Biography:
Chinese GM Wei Yi is an elite chess player and one of the greatest chess prodigies in history. At the age of 15, he managed to break GM Magnus Carlsen's record as the youngest player to reach 2700 Elo, an achievement he still holds. Two years earlier, he had become the fourth youngest GM of all time up to that point (currently eighth). And from January 2015 until the end of his time as a junior (at the end of 2019), Wei has consistently ranked first or second on FIDE's list of the top 100 juniors in the world.
Only 20 years old at the time of publication, Wei has a very promising future ahead of him. Since February 2017, he has consistently been among the top 30 players in the world. Will he be able to live up to the expectations generated during his time as a junior and take another step in his rise to the top of the world? We will have the answer to that question in the coming years.

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