Chess Grandmasters

With the advances in computer technology, access to latest chess games and theories is quick and easy. This allowed thirteen chess prodigies in the last fifteen years to earn grandmaster titles before their fifteenth birthday. Playing chess to earn the chess grandmaster title is a challenging goal. Less than one percent of chess players gain the master and grandmaster titles. Grandmasters (GMs) have a great deal of commitment, determination, and they practice many hours every day. They memorize various openings, middle games and end games.

GMs travel to as many as fifty countries during their chess career. The youngest ever females to become grandmasters are Judit Polgar of Hungary and Koneru Humpy of India, who became GMs at 15 years old. There are less than 1,500 GMs in the world. It is interesting to note that thirty percent of the world’s top 100 rated chess players are in the age category of twenty to twenty-five. Garry Kasparov of Russia became the youngest ever World Chess Champion in 1985 at the age of twenty-two.

Chess Prodigies

*January 2008 World’s Rating List

Sergey Karjakin, Ukraine, earned GM title at 12, rated 2732*
Parimarjan Negi, India, earned GM title at 13, rated 2526
Magnus Carlsen, Norway, earned GM title at 13, rated 2733
Xiangzhi Bu, China, earned GM title at 13, rated 2691
Teimour Radjabov, Azerbaijan, earned GM title at 14, rated 2735
Ruslan Ponomariov, Ukraine, earned GM title at 14, rated 2719
Wesley So, Philippines, earned GM title at 14, rated 2526
Etienne Bacrot, France, earned GM title at 14, rated 2700
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, France, earned GM title at 14, rated 2637
Peter Leko, Hungary, earned GM title at 14, rated 2753
Yuriy Kuzubov, Ukraine, earned GM title at 14, rated 2606
Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Vietnam, earned GM title at 14, rated 2551
Fabiano Caruana, Italy, earned GM title at 14, rated 2598

Top level grandmaster is sometimes informally called a "super-grandmaster". A super-GM has 2700+ rating.

Top 100 World’s Chess Rated Players, January 2008

Chess grandmasters under 21:
Magnus Carlsen, Norway, rated 2733
Sergey Karjakin, Ukraine, rated 2732
Hao Wang, China, rated 2665
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, France, rated 2637

Chess grandmasters, age category 20-25:

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Azerbaijan, rated 2760
Teimour Radjabov, Azerbaijan, rated 2735
Dmitry Jakovenko, Russia, rated 2720
Ruslan Ponomariov, Ukraine, rated 2719
Ivan Cheparinov, Bulgaria, rated 2713
Evgeny Alekseev, Russia, rated 2711
Alexander Grischuk, Russia, rated 2711
Etienne Bacrot, France, rated 2700
Yue Wang, China, rated 2698
Pavel Eljanov, Ukraine, rated 2692
Xiangzhi Bu, China, rated 2691
Lenier Dominguez Perez, Cuba, rated 2691
Ernesto Inarkiev, Russia, rated 2681
Hua Ni, China, rated 2680
David Navara, Czech Republic, rated 2680
Gabriel Sargissian, Armenia, rated 2676
Andrei Volokitin, Ukraine, rated 2674
Hikaru Nakamura, USA, rated 2670
Vugar Gashimov, Azerbaijan, rated 2665
Artyom Timofeev, Russia, rated 2664
Pentala Harikrishna, India, rated 2664
Michael Roiz, Israel, rated 2659
Alexander Areshchenko, Ukraine, rated 2645
Baadur Jobava, Georgia, rated 2643
Borki Predojevic, Bosnia, rated 2641
Arkadij Naiditsch, Germany, rated 2638
Zahar Efimenko, Ukraine, rated 2638
Zviad Izoria, Georgia, rated 2637
Levan Pantsulaia, Georgia, rated 2629
Alexander Riazantsev, Russia, rated 2628

Hikaru Nakamura won recently a number of the open tournaments, such as the 2008 GibTelecom Chess Festival, the 2007 North American Open Chess Championship, and the 2007 Corsica Masters Championship among others. Xiangzhi Bu won the 2007 Blindfold Chess World Cup in Bilbao, and the 2007 Canadian Open Chess Championship. His tournament rating performance at the 2008 GibTelecom at one point exceeded 3000.

Magnus Carlsen website: www.magnuscarlsen.com
Hikaru Nakamura website: www.hikarunakamura.com
Fabiano Caruana website: www.caruanachess.com
Judit Polgar Fan website: www.juditpolgar.com
Judit is ranked 22nd in the world (2707). She is the strongest woman chess player ever.

Top 50 World’s Rated Women List

Women chess players under 21:
WGM Yifan Hou, China, rated 2527
GM Kateryna Lahno, Ukraine, rated 2475
WGM Anna Muzychuk, Slovenia, rated 2460
IM Dronavalli Harika, India, rated 2455
WGM Yang Shen, China, rated 2429

34 % of the top 50 world’s rated women are in the age group of 20 to 25:
GM Humpy Koneru, India, rated 2612
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, Russia, rated 2523
WGM Xue Zhao, China, rated 2517
IM Marie Sebag, France, rated 2510
WGM Lufei Ruan, China, rated 2495
IM Tatiana Kosintseva, Russia, rated 2495
IM Anna Ushenina, Ukraine, rated 2484
WGM Natalija Pogonina, Russia, rated 2476
IM Viktorija Cmilyte, Lithuania, rated 2475
IM Irina Krush, USA, rated 2473
IM Nadezhda Kosintseva, Russia, rated 2472
IM Lela Javakhishvili, Georgia, rated 2470
IM Ekaterina Korbut, Russia, rated 2457
WIM Qian Huang, China, rated 2430
IM Elisabeth Paehtz, Germany, rated 2420
IM Nana Dzagnidze, Georgia, rated 2429
WGM Sachdev Tania, India, rated 2417

Alexandra Kosteniuk website: www.kosteniuk.com

References:
www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2858
January 2008: www.fide.com