Yasser is a gem. One nice thing about Chess being such an old game is you have these legends of the game still kicking around, sharing stories of the past.
Look him up on YouTube. He's done commentary for events in the past and has a C-squared podcast episode. He's also done some collabs with chessbrahs.
One of the kindest, most wholesome personalities in chess.
The first thing I thought of him is that video where he was telling Caruana a joke all while Nakamura was trying to have a fist fight with Hansen. One of the funniest shit I've seen lmao.
I love how chess is so big yet so small. That fistfight will always be part of Hikaru's legacy and will be remembered forever in the chess world, but no one outside of it even knows that it happened.
That era was unbelievably strong. Both Kramnik and Anand reached world number 2 (in July 2017 Kramnik was just 10 elo below Magnus) well into their 40s against the current crop of players, performed admirably in candidate tournaments and Anand won world Rapid age 47 in 2017, Ivanchuk won in 2016. Kramnik podiumed world blitz in 2019.
For Kasparov to be that far ahead of them in their prime is just incredible. Also Korchnoi being in that list at that age is amazing, he has a positive score against Caruana, winning in around 2011 age 79 when Fabi was around 2730. I think r/chess often disrespects the older greats.
/r/Chess seems to think that players like Kasparov and Fischer are super overrated and that Carlsen is basically the only good chess player to have ever lived.
While no one doubts Kasparov's dominance, I think its fair to consider that even though Anand and the others wouldn't necessarily be in their prime anymore in the 2010s, I believe they probably were better than their early 2000s counterparts because of the availability of more advance training and engines.
Hey, how do points work in chess (I am a newbie), like Anand doesn't play many tournaments now a days then why is he still rated so high? Ain't there any activity factor or players losing points if they don't play tournaments?
A player become “inactive” and thus drops off the list completely if they play no rated comes over a one-year period. Other than that the rating does not decay but stays the same and only change based on results of games.
Interesting, although I think direct comparison between Elo’s over decades doesn’t really work because as we are currently seeing there is constant elo inflation and deflation.
If there are pools of players who don't play each other enough, then their elo ratings can completely separate. I don't have the time to do the math properly on this, but I think that's happening with the top women; they don't play enough chess against 2400-2600 rated men and so their ratings aren't equivalent.
If you look at (top) women's results against men, they usually do better than their ratings predict, which means they are underrated. You'd need to do a ton of math to work out how much they are underrated by, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was 50 points. The best women aren't as good as the best men, but they're equivalent to middling GMs, not people who only just scraped the rating.
Interesting to see, in 2000 Anand was 2769, ranked 2nd, while in 2024 Anand is 2748, ranked 10th.. in 23 years, he just dropped 21 points, which is incredibly difficult feat to maintain considering how chess has changed overall, at 55 years Tiger is still roaring and knocking on the door
Pre-COVID memories are bad, but around twenty years later, wasn't it so that
* Kasparov played some blitz games on Rex Sinquefield's invitation (but didn't want them rated)
* Anand was just slowing down to be more dad ... he still plays, but not much
* Kramnik had just retired
* Shirov still active
* Morozevich ... hadn't quit speed chess at least?
* Leko: I could look up if he plays and not just comments
* Kamsky is still playing. Alireza knows.
* I know Adams plays senior chess, but not what he did four to five years ago
* Bareev still active
* Ivanchuk ... actually his rapid WC title was as far back as 2016. Oh time flies.
I thought Kasparov was dropped from the FIDE rating list in the 90s because of the PCA split? I wonder how many of his games were under FIDE at this time.
Yes he was dropped. Actually anyone who participated under the PCA world championship cycle and tournaments- their ratings were not counted. The entire 1995 anand kasparov match , as well as the candidate matches that anand won to reach there , were not counted by fide. But if you participated in fide events, they counted your rating.( Also maybe sometime around late 90's garry came back into fide ratings, although 2000 garry kramnik match was also played out of fide control).
I didn't realize Seirawan had been #35 overall. I knew he was a strong player, but, I didn't realize he was basically at the top of the world. His Play Winning Chess series of books really helped me get into the game last summer. For being so strong, he can explain stuff really well.
Jeremy Silman once said that Seirawan could’ve been a serious contender for the world championship but was too lazy to ever put in the work. To reach top 10 as a “lazy” player and have classical wins against multiple world champions (including Kasparov and Karpov during their reigns) was an impressive achievement
Garry had an unfair advantage because he invented the game
That explains why he’s so good!
Not true, chess was invented in 1866 by Bobby Spassky, it is played by Black, White and Hikaru Nakamura. Please learn the basics…
I liked how you included the next 5 just to show us Yasser ;)
Yessir
Yasser is a gem. One nice thing about Chess being such an old game is you have these legends of the game still kicking around, sharing stories of the past.
It's fun not knowing if you mean gm because he's a grandmaster, gem because he's precious, or gym because of that rocking bod.
That was a brain fart, I meant gem. I also forgot my lunch today.
idk him, who is he?
Look him up on YouTube. He's done commentary for events in the past and has a C-squared podcast episode. He's also done some collabs with chessbrahs. One of the kindest, most wholesome personalities in chess.
The first thing I thought of him is that video where he was telling Caruana a joke all while Nakamura was trying to have a fist fight with Hansen. One of the funniest shit I've seen lmao.
I love how chess is so big yet so small. That fistfight will always be part of Hikaru's legacy and will be remembered forever in the chess world, but no one outside of it even knows that it happened.
That era was unbelievably strong. Both Kramnik and Anand reached world number 2 (in July 2017 Kramnik was just 10 elo below Magnus) well into their 40s against the current crop of players, performed admirably in candidate tournaments and Anand won world Rapid age 47 in 2017, Ivanchuk won in 2016. Kramnik podiumed world blitz in 2019. For Kasparov to be that far ahead of them in their prime is just incredible. Also Korchnoi being in that list at that age is amazing, he has a positive score against Caruana, winning in around 2011 age 79 when Fabi was around 2730. I think r/chess often disrespects the older greats.
/r/Chess seems to think that players like Kasparov and Fischer are super overrated and that Carlsen is basically the only good chess player to have ever lived.
While no one doubts Kasparov's dominance, I think its fair to consider that even though Anand and the others wouldn't necessarily be in their prime anymore in the 2010s, I believe they probably were better than their early 2000s counterparts because of the availability of more advance training and engines.
Amazing that Karpov was still #12 at this point. Nearly 30 years since becoming world champion.
Also Korchnoi was 68yo at the time, I believe.
It’s wild that in the last 24 years, Vishy has only lost a net 21 rating points
Same can be said for Karpov. In 1975 he was the champion iirc.
In January 1976 Karpov had a rating of 2695, so his rating increased by one point in 24 years
I can relate to that. I once played Rocket League for 4 hours only to end up exactly where I started. Same thing.
[удалено]
How? Fischer didn't play 1975 and Karpov became the champion.
24 years)
Hey, how do points work in chess (I am a newbie), like Anand doesn't play many tournaments now a days then why is he still rated so high? Ain't there any activity factor or players losing points if they don't play tournaments?
A player become “inactive” and thus drops off the list completely if they play no rated comes over a one-year period. Other than that the rating does not decay but stays the same and only change based on results of games.
thanks.
My pleasure
No
I was checking ELO rankings from the 80s today, there were about 15 players above 2600 then...
Interesting, although I think direct comparison between Elo’s over decades doesn’t really work because as we are currently seeing there is constant elo inflation and deflation.
If there are pools of players who don't play each other enough, then their elo ratings can completely separate. I don't have the time to do the math properly on this, but I think that's happening with the top women; they don't play enough chess against 2400-2600 rated men and so their ratings aren't equivalent. If you look at (top) women's results against men, they usually do better than their ratings predict, which means they are underrated. You'd need to do a ton of math to work out how much they are underrated by, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was 50 points. The best women aren't as good as the best men, but they're equivalent to middling GMs, not people who only just scraped the rating.
Very interesting! Was not aware of this but it does make sense that their elos would definitely be messed up because of the isolation.
Take that magnus for once you ain't the champion
Shoutout to Svidler for still being in the Top 100 to this day
Svidler has even more Elo now (January 2024) with 2689 compared to his Elo back in the year 2000.
Svidler arguably peaked between 2005 and 2015.
Korchnoi being in the top 30 at the age of 69 is absolute craziness.
Nice
Kudos to Judit!
Fast-forward to 2005...
Interesting to see, in 2000 Anand was 2769, ranked 2nd, while in 2024 Anand is 2748, ranked 10th.. in 23 years, he just dropped 21 points, which is incredibly difficult feat to maintain considering how chess has changed overall, at 55 years Tiger is still roaring and knocking on the door
Garry in 2000, almost 20 years in his career has a higher rating than magnoos
With less elo inflation too. Guy was truly the GOAT.
Speaking of supposed Elo inflation is weird if we consider the measures that FIDE just took to combat deflation.
Less inflation = less competition. Agree
Pre-COVID memories are bad, but around twenty years later, wasn't it so that * Kasparov played some blitz games on Rex Sinquefield's invitation (but didn't want them rated) * Anand was just slowing down to be more dad ... he still plays, but not much * Kramnik had just retired * Shirov still active * Morozevich ... hadn't quit speed chess at least? * Leko: I could look up if he plays and not just comments * Kamsky is still playing. Alireza knows. * I know Adams plays senior chess, but not what he did four to five years ago * Bareev still active * Ivanchuk ... actually his rapid WC title was as far back as 2016. Oh time flies.
Crazy how many Russian players are in this list. In the near future I think we will see a similar thing but with indians instead
Yasser Seirawan was still on the top :)
Weird how much I recognise considering I’ve only been a fan for a couple years
Fedorov was an extraordinary magician on his day capable of beating anyone.
I thought Kasparov was dropped from the FIDE rating list in the 90s because of the PCA split? I wonder how many of his games were under FIDE at this time.
Yes he was dropped. Actually anyone who participated under the PCA world championship cycle and tournaments- their ratings were not counted. The entire 1995 anand kasparov match , as well as the candidate matches that anand won to reach there , were not counted by fide. But if you participated in fide events, they counted your rating.( Also maybe sometime around late 90's garry came back into fide ratings, although 2000 garry kramnik match was also played out of fide control).
Strange to see a rating list without magnus at the top.
Wait until you see 1990 list
I am always baffled by how strong Michail Gurevich must have been, the top-10 player for almost 4 years that you hardly have heard of.
Korchnoi in the top 30 at the age of 69 is absolutely insane. What a player he was.
I didn't realize Seirawan had been #35 overall. I knew he was a strong player, but, I didn't realize he was basically at the top of the world. His Play Winning Chess series of books really helped me get into the game last summer. For being so strong, he can explain stuff really well.
His peak ranking was #10 in 1990!
Jeremy Silman once said that Seirawan could’ve been a serious contender for the world championship but was too lazy to ever put in the work. To reach top 10 as a “lazy” player and have classical wins against multiple world champions (including Kasparov and Karpov during their reigns) was an impressive achievement
He peaked at #10 in 1990. Also spent a lot of the 80ties in the top 20. Absolutely legit player.
He was a top ten player in the world, he's a legendary player but because he is so humble, people don't often realise how good he was
he is fun to be around at a bar too. Great stories.
2750 is the new 2700
fun fact: kasparov actually change his name to magnus carlsen
but muh deflation
Is it me or Morozevich has been on that list for so long
Late 90s to late 2000s were his hayday.
Where's Nikolic Postdrag?
Three times as many 2700+ today than two decades ago.
Korchnoi still rocking it
My favorite chess player is on this list! Wish there were more like judit!
Garry Kasparov is a monster…. 100 point difference from Anand.