Summary: 1840 - 2005 How to use this page
Duration: covering
Most Dominant Player between 1840 and 2005 See more details
   Emanuel Lasker: 24.3 years as #1 (between June 1890 and December 1926)
The player who was ranked #1 most often between 1840 and 2005 was Emanuel Lasker, with 292 different months as the top-ranked player (a total of 24.3 years). Next on the list were Garry Kasparov (21.9 years) and Wilhelm Steinitz (14.4 years).
Highest-Rated Player between 1840 and 2005 See more details
   Bobby Fischer: 2895 (October 1971)
The player who achieved the highest peak rating between 1840 and 2005 was Bobby Fischer, with a rating of 2895 on the October 1971 list. The next-highest peak ratings between 1840 and 2005 were achieved by Garry Kasparov (2886 on the March 1993 list) and Mikhail Botvinnik (2885 on the October 1945 list).
Strongest Tournament between 1840 and 2005 Summary only | Top 5 | Top 10 | Top 20 | Top 50 | Top 100
   Vienna, 1882: Class 21 (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #10)
The strongest tournament held between 1840 and 2005 was Vienna 1882. This was a Class 21 tournament, including nine of the top ten players in the world (from the May 1882 rating list). The next-strongest tournaments were Linares 1993 (Class 21) and Nottingham 1936 (Class 20).
     Event       Class       Top Ten Participation    Specific participants from top ten on rating list
 #1    Vienna, 1882      21      #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #10    #1 Johannes Zukertort (2755), #2 Joseph Blackburne (2716), #3 Adolf Schwarz (2657), #4 Berthold Englisch (2646), #5 George Mackenzie (2643), #6 Mikhail Chigorin (2631), #7 James Mason (2628), #8 Szymon Winawer (2625), #10 Louis Paulsen (2616) from May 1882 rating list
 #2    Linares, 1993      21      #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #10    #1 Garry Kasparov (2877), #2 Anatoly Karpov (2812), #3 Vassily Ivanchuk (2798), #4 Viswanathan Anand (2762), #5 Boris Gelfand (2755), #6 Valery Salov (2752), #7 Evgeny Bareev (2743), #8 Vladimir Kramnik (2735), #10 Artur Jussupow (2726) from February 1993 rating list
 #3    Nottingham, 1936      20      #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8    #1 Max Euwe (2753), #2 Mikhail Botvinnik (2748), #3 Alexander Alekhine (2745), #4 Salo Flohr (2744), #5 José Capablanca (2742), #6 Samuel Reshevsky (2727), #7 Reuben Fine (2693), #8 Efim Bogoljubow (2682) from August 1936 rating list
 #4    AVRO, 1938      20      #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8    #1 Mikhail Botvinnik (2763), #2 Alexander Alekhine (2754), #3 Samuel Reshevsky (2745), #4 Reuben Fine (2737), #5 José Capablanca (2732), #6 Salo Flohr (2727), #7 Paul Keres (2718), #8 Max Euwe (2716) from November 1938 rating list
 #5    Linares, 1992      20      #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8    #1 Garry Kasparov (2864), #2 Anatoly Karpov (2807), #3 Vassily Ivanchuk (2795), #4 Boris Gelfand (2761), #5 Valery Salov (2744), #6 Evgeny Bareev (2739), #7 Nigel Short (2736), #8 Viswanathan Anand (2735) from February 1992 rating list
NOTE: "Class" is a Chessmetrics formula used to rank the strength of a tournament, by using the participation of top-10 players from the rating list (rather than just using the average rating of all participants). For more details, go here.
Strongest Match between 1840 and 2005 See more details
   Karpov-Kasparov V (World Championship, Lyon/New York), 1990: #1 vs #2
The strongest match held between 1840 and 2005 was Karpov-Kasparov V (World Championship, Lyon/New York), 1990. This was a matchup of #1 vs #2, including #1 Garry Kasparov (2877) and #2 Anatoly Karpov (2827) from the October 1990 rating list. Next on the list were Karpov-Kasparov III (World Championship, London/Leningrad), 1986 (#1 vs #2) and Karpov-Kasparov IV (World Championship, Sevilla), 1987 (#1 vs #2).
Best Individual Event Performance between 1840 and 2005 See more details
   Anatoly Karpov: 2899 in Linares, 1994
The best individual event performance between 1840 and 2005 was achieved by Anatoly Karpov with a Chessmetrics Performance Rating of 2899 in Linares, 1994. The next-best individual event performances were achieved by Bobby Fischer (2887 performance) in Fischer-Larsen Match (Candidates semifinal, Denver), 1971, and by Emanuel Lasker (2882 performance) in Lasker-Steinitz II (World Championship, Moscow), 1896.