Chessmetrics Ratings: 77th Birthday

#	Player	Rating	+/-
1	Reshevsky, Samuel H	2546	71
2	Smyslov, Vassily V	2525	51
3	Gligoric, Svetozar	2468	53
4	Cherepkov, Alexander V	2444	65
5	Bernstein, Ossip S	2437	74
6	Gonzalez, Juan Carlos	2395	60
7	Shamkovich, Leonid A	2309	72
8	Gusev, Yury S	2277	69
9	Denker, Arnold S	2263	63
10	Wagman, Stuart	2192	71

About these ratings

All players on their 77th birthday

#
Player Rating +/- Best? 75%? Rating Date

1 Reshevsky, Samuel H 2546 71 50.7% #3 10/31/1988: #135

2 Smyslov, Vassily V 2525 51 30.8% #3 02/28/1998: #272

3 Gligoric, Svetozar 2468 53 6.6% #5 01/31/2000: #533

4 Cherepkov, Alexander V 2444 65 5.2% #5 09/30/1997: #695

5 Bernstein, Ossip S 2437 74 5.8% #6 06/30/1959: #132

6 Gonzalez, Juan Carlos 2395 60 0.8% #6 03/31/1994: #966

7 Shamkovich, Leonid A 2309 72 0.1% #8 05/29/2000: #1932

8 Gusev, Yury S 2277 69 #9 08/31/1998: #2633

9 Denker, Arnold S 2263 63 #9 01/31/1991: #1676

10 Wagman, Stuart 2192 71 #11 04/30/1996: #3723

11 Prins, Lodewijk 2138 66 #11 12/31/1989: #1755

For each player on this list, the rating they possessed on their 77th birthday is listed. That rating was the last one calculated while they were 76 years of age, so it was their "current" rating on the day they turned 77. 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 77.

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 77th 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 77th birthday. The +/- value represents the standard deviation of that estimate; the player's true strength on their 77th 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 77th birthday than anyone else turning 77. 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 77. 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 77, we cannot say with 100% certainty that they were truly one of the three strongest 77-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 77. 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.