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Top 10 players on their 75th birthday

  #  

Player Rating +/-
1 Smyslov, Vassily V255349
2 Najdorf, Miguel253067
3 Reshevsky, Samuel H252764
4 Cherepkov, Alexander V248362
5 Gligoric, Svetozar247253
6 Kholmov, Ratmir D246654
7 Taimanov, Mark E243150
8 Unzicker, Wolfgang241058
9 Karaklajic, Nikola237169
10 Usachyi, Mark236070

About these ratings

All players on their 75th birthday

  #  

Player Rating +/- Best? 75%? Rating Date
1 Smyslov, Vassily V 25534935.9%#302/29/1996: #195
2 Najdorf, Miguel 25306725.8%#403/31/1985: #149
3 Reshevsky, Samuel H 25276423.2%#410/31/1986: #171
4 Cherepkov, Alexander V 2483627.4%#609/30/1995: #444
5 Gligoric, Svetozar 2472533.5%#701/31/1998: #512
6 Kholmov, Ratmir D 2466542.9%#705/08/2000: #543
7 Taimanov, Mark E 2431500.5%#802/05/2001: #794
8 Unzicker, Wolfgang 2410580.4%#906/26/2000: #918
9 Karaklajic, Nikola 2371690.2%#1102/19/2001: #1290
10 Usachyi, Mark 2360700.1%#1101/31/1996: #1508
11 Gonzalez, Juan Carlos 2349690.1%#1103/31/1992: #1281
12 Zhukhovitsky, Samuil M 226475#1411/30/1991: #1804
13 Opocenský, Karel 222466#1612/31/1966: #439
14 Wagman, Stuart 222063#1604/30/1994: #2815
15 Matsuo, Tomohiko 221072#1706/25/2001: #3061
16 Paoli, Enrico 218071#1812/31/1982: #832
17 Sämisch, Friedrich 216675#1808/31/1971: #527
18 de Souza Mendes, João 214867#1806/30/1967: #528
19 Mortimer, James 211762#1912/31/1907: #59

For each player on this list, the rating they possessed on their 75th birthday is listed. That rating was the last one calculated while they were 74 years of age, so it was their "current" rating on the day they turned 75. Players who played an insufficient number of games in recent years will not appear on the list, even though you may see them on lists for younger and/or older birthdays. Any players who had been completely inactive for three years are removed from the list.

Definition of columns in the above list:

# refers to the player's all-time rank on this list, compared to all other players when they turned 75.

Player is the full name of the player. Click on the player's name to see a career progression of their ratings.

Rating is the calculated rating for each player on their 75th birthday.

+/- is the standard deviation of the player's rating estimate. It is based on a geometric average of the number of rated games played in past years. Players who play very frequently will have a smaller +/- value, indicating a greater confidence in the accuracy of their rating. Players whose +/- value exceeds 76 are classified as "inactive" and removed from the ranking list due to their infrequent play against rated opponents. Mathematically, a player's rating is an estimate of their exact strength on their 75th birthday. The +/- value represents the standard deviation of that estimate; the player's true strength on their 75th birthday should be within one standard deviation of their calculated rating approximately 68% of the time, and within two standard deviations of their calculated rating approximately 95% of the time.

Best? is the estimated likelihood that the player was stronger on their 75th birthday than anyone else turning 75. Since ratings are known to be inaccurate, it is possible that a lower-rated player was actually much stronger than their rating would indicate, and it is also possible that other players were weaker than their ratings would indicate. This number indicates the likelihood that the player was indeed the strongest player ever among players turning 75. On a particular list, it will add up to 100% across the complete list of all players. This value is only calculated for the top 100 players on any rating list.

75%? gives a 75%-confidence world ranking for the player. Because ratings are known to be inaccurate, even if a particular player had the third-highest rating ever, among players turning 75, we cannot say with 100% certainty that they were truly one of the three strongest 75-year-old players. This number indicates the all-time rank that we are 75% sure the player is "no worse than". Thus if a player has a value of #12 in this column, we are 75% sure that the player is one of the twelve strongest players ever to turn 75. This value is only calculated for the top 100 players on any rating list.

Date is the exact date that the rating applied to. Click on that date to see the sorted list of all players' ratings on that date.

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