Who Is the Best Chess Player in the World?
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Magnus Carlsen is the best chess player in the world.If you want a fun family game night, checkers is where it’s at. If you want to test your strategy and wit, bring out the chessboard. Chess is one of the most challenging games to master, yet some of the best chess players in the world are relatively young.
The current chess world champion is Magnus Carlsen, who is 33 years old, and he has held the title several times since 2013.
What Makes Magnus Carlsen the Best Chess Player
Magnus Carlsen was born in 1990 in Norway, so he started outplaying the rest of the world’s chess players before he was eligible to rent a car. He began training when he was only 5, and by age 13, he was already considered a chess grandmaster.
He’s the best chess player in the world for a number of reasons. His approach is highly aggressive yet calculated. He has few weaknesses, taking advantage of every small opportunity to get an edge on his opponent. He’s also flexible, having won all three versions of the game: standard, rapid and blitz.
He was the youngest player to reach the 2800 rating threshold, reaching a peak of 2889 in 2014. Magnus Carlsen is so good that in 2018, he began a winning streak that lasted for 125 games, until Jan-Krzysztof Duda beat him in October 2020. Even though Carlsen lost his streak, he's not too sad. Carlsen has a comfortable estimated net worth of $50 million.
A close contender for the title of world’s best chess player is Garry Kasparov, who has been making headlines for his chess skills since the 1980s. Kasparov was the youngest world chess champion ever at age 22 in 1985, slightly younger than Magnus Carlsen who was 23 when he earned the title.
Kasparov held the record for the highest rating at 2856 until Magnus Carlsen beat it. Kasparov retired in 2005, so we’ll likely never see the two greatest players go head-to-head. But at least you can learn from Kasparov online if you feel like putting your skills to the test.
For more strategic athletes, check out "Greatest Poker Players of All Time."