Chessmetrics Ratings: 78th Birthday

#	Player	Rating	+/-
1	Smyslov, Vassily V	2490	52
2	Reshevsky, Samuel H	2490	61
3	Gligoric, Svetozar	2469	56
4	Cherepkov, Alexander V	2444	74
5	Gonzalez, Juan Carlos	2393	67
6	Zhukhovitsky, Samuil M	2296	74
7	Dake, Arthur William	2282	74
8	Gusev, Yury S	2267	75
9	Denker, Arnold S	2248	67
10	Wagman, Stuart	2157	72

About these ratings

All players on their 78th birthday

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

1 Smyslov, Vassily V 2490 52 30.1% #3 03/22/1999: #387

2 Reshevsky, Samuel H 2490 61 32.6% #3 10/31/1989: #316

3 Gligoric, Svetozar 2469 56 18.5% #4 01/29/2001: #567

4 Cherepkov, Alexander V 2444 74 15.2% #5 09/30/1998: #686

5 Gonzalez, Juan Carlos 2393 67 3.3% #6 03/31/1995: #1017

6 Zhukhovitsky, Samuil M 2296 74 0.2% #8 11/30/1994: #2138

7 Dake, Arthur William 2282 74 0.1% #8 03/31/1988: #1064

8 Gusev, Yury S 2267 75 0.1% #9 09/20/1999: #2569

9 Denker, Arnold S 2248 67 #9 01/31/1992: #2057

10 Wagman, Stuart 2157 72 #11 04/30/1997: #4291

11 Prins, Lodewijk 2129 75 #11 12/31/1990: #2047

For each player on this list, the rating they possessed on their 78th birthday is listed. That rating was the last one calculated while they were 77 years of age, so it was their "current" rating on the day they turned 78. 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 78.

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 78th 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 78th birthday. The +/- value represents the standard deviation of that estimate; the player's true strength on their 78th 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 78th birthday than anyone else turning 78. 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 78. 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 78, we cannot say with 100% certainty that they were truly one of the three strongest 78-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 78. 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.