- Garry Kimovich Kasparov
After long term friction with the international chess organisation, FIDE, Kasparov set up the rival organisation, the Professional Chess Association (PCA) and arranged a World Championship match in 1993 in which he beat British Grandmaster, Nigel Short. At the same time FIDE held their official Championship match between former World Champion, Anatoly Karpov and Jan Timman which Karpov won. Both Kasparov and Karpov claim the title of World Champion.
- Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer is a United States-born chess Grandmaster who in 1972 became the only US-born chessplayer to become the official World Chess Champion. In 1974 he officially resigned the title when FIDE, the international chess federation, refused to accept his conditions for a title defense. He is a regular candidate in considerations of the greatest chess player of all time.
- Alexandra Kosteniuk
Alexandra Kosteniuk is a Russian chess player who became female European champion in 2004 by winning the tournament in Dresden, Germany. In August 2006 she became the first Chess960 (Fischer Random) women world champion after beating Germany's top female player Elisabeth Pähtz 5.5-2.5. In November 2004, she achieved the International Grandmaster title, becoming the tenth of the eleven women who have received the highest title awarded by the World Chess Federation (FIDE).
- Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik (born June 25, 1975) is a Russian chess grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion. In October 2000, he beat Garry Kasparov in a sixteen game match played in London, and became the Classical World Chess Champion. In late 2004, Kramnik successfully defended his title against challenger Péter Lékó in a drawn fourteen game match played in Brissago, Switzerland. In October 2006, Kramnik, the Classical World Champion, …
- Boris Spassky
Boris Vasilievich Spassky (also Spasskij) (born January 30, 1937) is a Russian-French chess grandmaster. He was the tenth World Chess Champion, holding the title from 1969 to 1972. Spassky won the Soviet Championship twice outright (1961, 1973), and twice more lost in playoffs (1956, 1963), after tieing for the top during the event proper. He was a World Championship Candidate on seven occasions (1956, 1965, 1968, 1974, 1977, 1980, and 1985).
- Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand (born December 11, 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and former FIDE world champion. Anand is one of only four players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list and he has been among the top three ranked players in classical time control chess in the world continuously since 1997. In the April 2007 FIDE Elo rating list, Anand was ranked first in the world for the first time, …
- Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov (born May 23, 1951) is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. He is the most successful tournament player of all time, and as of July 2005 he has 161 first-place finishes to his credit. From 1978 to 1998 he played in every FIDE World Championship match. His overall professional record is 1,118 wins, 287 losses, and 1,480 draws in 3,163 games. His peak Elo rating is 2780. The asteroid 90414 Karpov is named in his honour.
- Susan Polgar
Grandmaster Zsuzsa Polgar is a Hungarian-born American chess player. In 1984, at age 15, she became the top-ranked female player in the world and remained so for many years. She was the first woman to earn the title of International Grandmaster in regular competition. She was the Women's World Chess Champion from 1996 until 1999. In October 2005 Polgar had an Elo rating of 2577, making her still the second-ranked female player in the world, after her sister Judit Polgar.
- Magnus Carlsen
Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess Grandmaster who came to international attention after winning the C group of the Corus Chess Tournament in January 2004 at the age of thirteen, and winning the B group of the same tournament two years later at 15. <br>In the July 2007 FIDE list, he has an Elo rating of 2710, making him Norway's number 1, World Juniors' number 2 and World's number 17. On April 26, 2004 Carlsen became Grandmaster at the age of 13 years, 4 months, …
- Nigel Short
Nigel Short MBE (born June 1, 1965 in Leigh, Lancashire) is widely regarded as the strongest British chess player of the 20th century. He became a Grandmaster at age 19, and challenged for the World Championship against Garry Kasparov at London 1993. Still active, Short remains in the world's top 30 players, and continues to enjoy international success.
- Michael Adams
Michael Adams is an International Grandmaster of chess. On the July 2007 FIDE rating list he is number fifteen in the world with an Elo rating of 2724, making him the number one British chess player.
- Maurice Ashley
Maurice Ashley (born March 6, 1966 St. Andrew, Jamaica) is a chess grandmaster. He is the first and only African-American grandmaster. In the October 2006 rating lists, he had a FIDE rating of 2465, and a USCF rating of 2520 at standard chess, and 2536 at quick chess. Ashley is associated with "Chesswise". In 2005 he wrote the Book "Chess for Success", relating about his experiences and the positive aspects of chess.
- Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal (November 9, 1936–June 28, 1992) was a Soviet-Latvian chess player, and the eighth World Chess Champion.
- Veselin Topalov
Veselin Topalov (born 15 March 1975) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and former FIDE world champion. In the April 2007 FIDE rating list, he is ranked second in the world with an Elo rating of 2772. His current trainer and manager is International Master Silvio Danailov. Topalov became the FIDE World Chess Champion by winning the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005. Topalov was awarded the 2005 Chess Oscar.
- Viktor Korchnoi
Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi (Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й), born March 23, 1931, in Leningrad, USSR, is a professional Swiss chess player and currently the oldest active grandmaster on the world tournament circuit. Korchnoi is best known for playing three matches against Anatoly Karpov for the World Chess Championship. In 1974, he lost the Candidates final to Karpov, who went on to win the World championship by forfeit against Bobby Fischer).
- Mikhail Botvinnik
Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik (May 5, 1995) was a Russian International Grandmaster and long-time World Champion of chess.
- Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine (sometimes spelled "Aljechin or Alechin") (October 31 or November 1, 1892 - March 24, 1946) was a Russian-born naturalized French chess grandmaster (officially naturalized in 1927 only three days before the World Champion title), and the fourth World Chess Champion. He was known for his fierce and imaginative attacking style.
- Emanuel Lasker
Emanuel Lasker (December 24, 1868 - January 11, 1941) was a German chess World Chess Champion and grandmaster, mathematician, and philosopher born at Berlinchen in Brandenburg (now Barlinek in Poland).
- Yasser Seirawan
Yasser Seirawan (born March 24, 1960) is a chess grandmaster and 4-time US-champion. He was winner of the World Junior Chess Championship in 1979. He was born in Damascus, Syria. His father was Arab and his mother an English nurse from Nottingham, where he spent some time in his early childhood. When he was seven, his family emigrated to Seattle (USA), where he attended McClure Middle School and Garfield High School, and honed his game at a (now-defunct) coffeehouse, …
- Alexander Khalifman
Alexander Valeryevich Khalifman is a Russian chess grandmaster and former world champion. When he was 6 years old, he was taught chess by his father. He gained the International Grandmaster title in 1990 with one particularly good early result being his first place in the 1990 New York Open ahead of a host of strong players. His most notable achievement was winning the FIDE World Chess Championship in 1999, a title he held until the following year.
- David Bronstein
David Ionovich Bronstein was renowned as a leading chess grandmaster and writer. Described as a creative genius and master of tactics by pundits and plaudits the world over, Bronstein provided ample evidence that chess should be regarded as part science, part art.
- Paul Keres
Paul Keres was an Estonian chess grandmaster and one of the strongest chess players of all time. On four consecutive occasions he missed the chance of a World Championship match by being runner-up in the Candidates' Tournament. Many claim him to be the strongest player never to become World Chess Champion. He was dubbed "The Crown Prince of Chess".
- Tigran Petrosian
Tigran Petrosian (June 17, 1929 - August 13,1984) was a former World Chess Champion. He is often known by the Russian version of his name, Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian. He was nicknamed "Iron Tigran" due to his playing style because of his almost impenetrable defence, which emphasised safety above all else
- Jan Timman
Jan Timman is a Dutch chessplayer who had his greatest successes in the 1970s and 1980s. He has won the Dutch Chess Championship nine times. He was a candidate for the World Championship several times. He played for the FIDE World Championship in 1993, losing to Anatoly Karpov. In the 1980s and early 1990s he was considered to be the best non-Soviet player and known as "The Best of the West".
- Gata Kamsky
The American Grandmaster Gata Kamsky is traveling to Elista, Russia on May 25th to play candidate matches in his second run for the world chess championship. The previous one ended with Anatoly Karpov defending his title in a match against Kamsky back in 1996 at the very same place of Elista. Maybe the Kalmyk steppe will bring him better luck this time. We'll keep you updated. In the meantime, here are few facts from his rich biography.
- Joel Benjamin
Joel Benjamin is a chess Grandmaster. As of April 2007, his Elo rating was 2576, making him the # 12 player in the US and the 214th-highest rated player in the world. Joel Benjamin is the top-rated active chess player who was born in the United States. He is a native of Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in the Marine Park neighborhood there. He graduated Yale University in 1985. At the age of 13 he broke Bobby Fischer’s record by becoming the youngest-ever U.S. Master.
- Ulf Andersson
Ulf Andersson is a leading Swedish chess player. FIDE awarded him the International Master title in 1970 and the International Grandmaster title in 1972. At his peak, Andersson reached number four on the FIDE Elo rating list. Tournaments he has won include Belgrade 1977, Buenos Aires 1978, Hastings 1978-79, Phillips & Drew 1980, Phillips & Drew 1982, Turin 1982, Wijk aan Zee 1983, Reggio Emilia 1985, Rome 1985, and Rome 1986.
- Max Euwe
Machgielis (Max) Euwe (May 20, 1901 – November 26, 1981) was a Dutch chess Grandmaster and Mathematician. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion (1935–1937). Euwe also served as President of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) from 1970-1978.
- Bent Larsen
Jørgen Bent Larsen is a Danish chess Grandmaster.
- Alexei Shirov
Alexei Shirov (Aleksejs Širovs, Алексей Широв, a chess grandmaster. On the July 2007 FIDE rating list he was ranked number eleven in the world with an ELO rating of 2735.
- Levon Aronian
Levon Aronian (born October 6 1982) is an Armenian chess player. On the July 2007 FIDE list, he had an Elo rating of 2750, making him number eight in the world and Armenia's number one.
- Vassily Ivanchuk
Vassily Ivanchuk, also transliterated as Vasyl (born March 18 1969), is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. Ivanchuk has an Elo rating of 2762 on the FIDE July 2007 ratings list, making him number four in the world and Ukraine's number one. Ivanchuk was born in Berezhany, Ukraine, and reached chess world fame at the age of 21 when he won the Linares tournament in 1991. Fourteen players participated, eight of them rated top-ten of the world, …
- Alexander Beliavsky
Alexander Henrikhovich Beliavsky (born December 17, 1953) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. Beliavsky was born in Lviv. He currently lives in Slovenia and he plays for the Olympic team there. He is noted for his uncompromising style of play and for his classical opening repertoire, including openings such as the Queen's Gambit, Ruy Lopez and French Defence, for example.
- Lev Alburt
Lev Osipovich Alburt (b. August 21, 1945) is a chess grandmaster. Alburt was born in Orenburg, Russia, and won the Ukrainian Chess Championship three times, from 1972 to 1974. In 1976 he earned the International Master title, and in 1977 he became a GM. Defecting to the United States in 1979, Alburt led the U.S. Chess Olympiad team in 1980 at Malta. He was the U.S. chess champion two years in a row, in 1984 and 1985.
- Ruslan Ponomariov
Ruslan Ponomariov (born October 11, 1983) is a Ukrainian chess player and former FIDE world champion. On the April 2007 FIDE Elo rating list Ponomariov had a rating of 2706, making him number twenty in the world and the Ukrainian number two, behind Vassily Ivanchuk. His highest ever rating was 2743 on the April 2002 FIDE list. Ponomariov was born in Horlivka in Ukraine. In 1994 he placed third in the World Under-12 Championship at the age of ten, …
- Vasily Smyslov
Vasily Vasiliyevich Smyslov (born March 24, 1921, in Moscow) is a Russian chess grandmaster, and was World Chess Champion from 1957 to 1958.
- Larry Christiansen
Larry M. Christiansen is a chess grandmaster who grew up in Riverside, California. He was U.S. champion in 1980, 1983, and 2002. He describes his playing style as "aggressive, tactical" and lists his favorite opening as Sämisch King's Indian. Christiansen showed exceptional strength at an early age. In 1971, he became the first junior high school student to win the National High School Championship. He went on to win three invitational U.S. Junior Championships in 1973, …
- Hikaru Nakamura
"Hikaru" Nakamura is an American chess Grandmaster (GM). He was born in Osaka, Japan, to a Japanese father and an American mother and moved with his parents to the United States when he was two years old. Nakamura began playing chess at age seven and was coached by his Sri Lankan stepfather, FIDE Master Sunil Weeramantry. Within three years, at age 10 years and 79 days, Nakamura achieved the title of chess master from the United States Chess Federation (USCF), …
- Boris Gelfand
Boris Gelfand (born 24 June 1968) is a chess grandmaster. Born in Minsk, Belarus, he made aliyah to Israel in 1998, and now lives in Rishon LeZion. He currently is a member of the Israeli national chess team. On the July 2007 FIDE list he had an Elo rating of 2733, making him number 13 in the world and Israel's number 1.
- Raymond Keene
Raymond Dennis Keene OBE (born 29 January 1948) is a chess grandmaster, but is better known as a chess organiser, columnist and author. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE), on Queen Elizabeth II's Honours' List, for services to chess in 1985.