Every sport and game has their own superstars. Nowadays, it is easy to find everything about these players, or athletes, however you want to name them. Chess, like most sports or rather, board games, depending on your point of view, has its own legends.

Chess grandmasters are sometimes well-known to the world even though they might not be fans of chess or even particularly care for the game. Some people send vibrations through the world even though they are not a part of a certain industry or field.

Here are the world’s best chess players of all time.

Garry Kasparov

Kasparov is one of those names that everyone knows, whether they are chess players or not and whether they enjoy playing chess or not. Kasparov was a world champion multiple times and he held the title from 1985 until the year 2000. His peak rank was 2856, a record at the time, until it was recently broken by another grandmaster.

Kasparov is one of the most dominating chess players of all time, successfully defending his world champion title 5 times in a row. This alone ties him with another great player, namely Emanuel Lasker.

Kasparov is an influential figure to this day, training new chess players, especially new grandmasters, like Hikaru and Carlsen.

Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carsles is the current world champion in all three chess time controls, blitz, rapid and standard. This feat alone makes him one of the most important grandmasters in the world, but he has other achievements, as well.

He was the youngest player ever to go over 2800 points in 2009, at the age of 18. He is also the current record holder of the most points, which is 2889, the most anyone ever had in the game of chess. Carlsen became the second youngest world champion in 2013, the first being Kasparov. He defeated Anand twice, in 2013 and 2014, Karjakin in 2016 and Caruana in 2018. He is shaping up to be one of the most dominating chess players of our time. He also defended his title in 2021, winning against Nepomniachtchi.

Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer is an important figure in the world of chess, particularly for the US. He is the only US world champion, as well as the first one. Between 1970 and 1971 Fischer managed to win 20 consecutive matches against other grandmasters, a feat that is likely never going to be repeated.

Fischer was known for his ability to position figures, not to mention his ability to either attack or defend, not preferring either. His books are gold mines for any chess enthusiast and his match against Byrne is iconic. He was 13 and won against a much more experienced opponent.

There are many great chess grandmasters in the world, but only some of them deserve to be called the best and the most iconic. You could make endless lists about chess grandmasters and never make it a complete list, so take this one as just another list of great chess players.