Summary: 1940 - 1980

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Duration: All years 20th century 19th century 50-year span 40-year span 30-year span 20-year span 10-year span 5-year span 3-year span 1-year span covering 1965-Jan through 2004-Dec 1960-Jan through 1999-Dec 1955-Jan through 1994-Dec 1950-Jan through 1989-Dec 1945-Jan through 1984-Dec 1940-Jan through 1979-Dec 1935-Jan through 1974-Dec 1930-Jan through 1969-Dec 1925-Jan through 1964-Dec 1920-Jan through 1959-Dec 1915-Jan through 1954-Dec 1910-Jan through 1949-Dec 1905-Jan through 1944-Dec 1900-Jan through 1939-Dec 1895-Jan through 1934-Dec 1890-Jan through 1929-Dec 1885-Jan through 1924-Dec 1880-Jan through 1919-Dec 1875-Jan through 1914-Dec 1870-Jan through 1909-Dec 1865-Jan through 1904-Dec 1860-Jan through 1899-Dec 1855-Jan through 1894-Dec 1850-Jan through 1889-Dec 1845-Jan through 1884-Dec 1840-Jan through 1879-Dec

Most Dominant Player between 1940 and 1980 See more details    Mikhail Botvinnik: 9.3 years as #1 (between January 1940 and May 1958) The player who was ranked #1 most often between 1940 and 1980 was Mikhail Botvinnik, with 111 different months as the top-ranked player (a total of 9.3 years). Next on the list were Bobby Fischer (9.1 years) and Anatoly Karpov (5.4 years). Highest-Rated Player between 1940 and 1980 See more details    Bobby Fischer: 2895 (October 1971) The player who achieved the highest peak rating between 1940 and 1980 was Bobby Fischer, with a rating of 2895 on the October 1971 list. The next-highest peak ratings between 1940 and 1980 were achieved by Mikhail Botvinnik (2885 on the October 1945 list) and Anatoly Karpov (2833 on the June 1977 list). Strongest Tournament between 1940 and 1980 Summary only | Top 5 | Top 10 | Top 20 | Top 50 | Top 100    Zurich (Candidates), 1953: Class 18 (#1, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10) The strongest tournament held between 1940 and 1980 was Zurich (Candidates) 1953. This was a Class 18 tournament, including nine of the top ten players in the world (from the August 1953 rating list). The next-strongest tournaments were Moscow (Alekhine Memorial) 1956 (Class 15) and Amsterdam (Candidates) 1956 (Class 15).      Event       Class       Top Ten Participation    Specific participants from top ten on rating list  #1     Zurich (Candidates), 1953       18       #1, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10    #1 Samuel Reshevsky (2781), #3 Vassily Smyslov (2765), #4 Miguel Najdorf (2753), #5 Efim Geller (2734), #6 Alexander Kotov (2727), #7 David Bronstein (2724), #8 Isaak Boleslavsky (2722), #9 Gideon Ståhlberg (2722), #10 Paul Keres (2721) from August 1953 rating list  #2     Moscow (Alekhine Memorial), 1956       15       #1, #2, #3, #4, #9    #1 Vassily Smyslov (2793), #2 Paul Keres (2782), #3 David Bronstein (2770), #4 Mikhail Botvinnik (2756), #9 Mark Taimanov (2714) from January 1956 rating list  #3     Amsterdam (Candidates), 1956       15       #1, #2, #3, #5, #7, #8    #1 Vassily Smyslov (2793), #2 Paul Keres (2782), #3 David Bronstein (2770), #5 Tigran Petrosian (2755), #7 Efim Geller (2720), #8 Boris Spassky (2714) from January 1956 rating list  #4     Moscow (URS Championship), 1952       15       #1, #2, #3, #6, #7, #8    #1 Vassily Smyslov (2776), #2 David Bronstein (2774), #3 Paul Keres (2769), #6 Mikhail Botvinnik (2748), #7 Isaak Boleslavsky (2719), #8 Efim Geller (2712) from January 1952 rating list  #5     Moscow (URS Championship), 1955       15       #1, #2, #3, #6, #7, #9    #1 Vassily Smyslov (2793), #2 Mikhail Botvinnik (2778), #3 Paul Keres (2766), #6 Tigran Petrosian (2739), #7 Mark Taimanov (2732), #9 Viktor Korchnoi (2711) from February 1955 rating list  #6     Budapest (Candidates), 1950       15       #2, #3, #4, #5, #7, #9, #10    #2 Vassily Smyslov (2760), #3 David Bronstein (2754), #4 Alexander Kotov (2753), #5 Miguel Najdorf (2741), #7 Gideon Ståhlberg (2732), #9 Isaak Boleslavsky (2722), #10 Paul Keres (2722) from April 1950 rating list  #7     Moscow (URS Championship), 1973       15       #2, #3, #4, #6, #7, #9, #10    #2 Anatoly Karpov (2778), #3 Mikhail Tal (2755), #4 Viktor Korchnoi (2752), #6 Lev Polugaevsky (2743), #7 Tigran Petrosian (2733), #9 Efim Geller (2723), #10 Boris Spassky (2721) from October 1973 rating list  #8     Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade (Candidat, 1959       14       #1, #2, #3, #5, #7    #1 Mikhail Tal (2766), #2 Vassily Smyslov (2762), #3 Tigran Petrosian (2753), #5 Paul Keres (2743), #7 Svetozar Gligoric (2736) from September 1959 rating list  #9     Groningen (Staunton Memorial), 1946       14       #1, #2, #4, #5, #10    #1 Mikhail Botvinnik (2864), #2 Miguel Najdorf (2767), #4 Isaak Boleslavsky (2738), #5 Vassily Smyslov (2732), #10 Alexander Kotov (2704) from August 1946 rating list  #10     Curacao (Candidates), 1962       14       #1, #3, #4, #5, #7, #8    #1 Tigran Petrosian (2782), #3 Viktor Korchnoi (2769), #4 Mikhail Tal (2769), #5 Bobby Fischer (2761), #7 Paul Keres (2743), #8 Efim Geller (2741) from May 1962 rating list  #11     Moscow, 1967       14       #2, #3, #4, #6, #7, #9    #2 Tigran Petrosian (2764), #3 Mikhail Tal (2761), #4 Boris Spassky (2753), #6 Efim Geller (2746), #7 Leonid Stein (2744), #9 Vassily Smyslov (2737) from May 1967 rating list  #12     Rovinj/Zagreb, 1970       13       #1, #2, #4, #5    #1 Bobby Fischer (2797), #2 Viktor Korchnoi (2776), #4 Vassily Smyslov (2746), #5 Tigran Petrosian (2746) from April 1970 rating list  #13     Moscow (URS Championship), 1976       13       #1, #3, #4, #5, #7    #1 Anatoly Karpov (2796), #3 Tigran Petrosian (2747), #4 Lev Polugaevsky (2744), #5 Mikhail Tal (2733), #7 Vitaly Tseshkovsky (2721) from November 1976 rating list  #14     Palma de Mallorca (Interzonal), 1970       13       #1, #3, #5, #6, #9, #10    #1 Bobby Fischer (2827), #3 Bent Larsen (2747), #5 Lev Polugaevsky (2737), #6 Lajos Portisch (2737), #9 Mark Taimanov (2726), #10 Vassily Smyslov (2722) from November 1970 rating list  #15     Montreal, 1979       13       #1, #4, #5, #6, #8, #9    #1 Anatoly Karpov (2818), #4 Mikhail Tal (2747), #5 Lajos Portisch (2744), #6 Boris Spassky (2742), #8 Bent Larsen (2723), #9 Jan Timman (2719) from April 1979 rating list  #16     Tbilisi (URS Championship), 1959       13       #1, #4, #5, #7, #8, #9, #10    #1 Mikhail Tal (2773), #4 Paul Keres (2755), #5 David Bronstein (2747), #7 Tigran Petrosian (2738), #8 Viktor Korchnoi (2724), #9 Efim Geller (2718), #10 Mark Taimanov (2715) from January 1959 rating list  #17     Bugojno, 1978       12       #1, #4, #6, #7, #8, #10    #1 Anatoly Karpov (2824), #4 Mikhail Tal (2747), #6 Boris Spassky (2738), #7 Lajos Portisch (2737), #8 Bent Larsen (2725), #10 Vlastimil Hort (2718) from February 1978 rating list  #18     Moscow (URS Championship), 1961       12       #2, #3, #5, #6, #7    #2 Tigran Petrosian (2782), #3 Vassily Smyslov (2760), #5 Viktor Korchnoi (2754), #6 Boris Spassky (2747), #7 Efim Geller (2745) from January 1961 rating list  #19     Moscow, 1975       12       #2, #4, #5, #7, #8, #9    #2 Viktor Korchnoi (2770), #4 Mikhail Tal (2739), #5 Tigran Petrosian (2734), #7 Rafael Vaganian (2729), #8 Efim Geller (2726), #9 Boris Spassky (2718) from October 1975 rating list  #20     Sousse (Interzonal), 1967       11       #1, #2, #6, #9    #1 Bobby Fischer (2797), #2 Viktor Korchnoi (2760), #6 Leonid Stein (2749), #9 Efim Geller (2731) from October 1967 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 1940 and 1980 See more details    Karpov-Korchnoi II (World Championship, Baguio City), 1978: #1 vs #2 The strongest match held between 1940 and 1980 was Karpov-Korchnoi II (World Championship, Baguio City), 1978. This was a matchup of #1 vs #2, including #1 Anatoly Karpov (2822) and #2 Viktor Korchnoi (2806) from the July 1978 rating list. Next on the list were Karpov-Korchnoi I (Candidates final, Moscow), 1974 (#1 vs #2) and Fischer-Larsen Match (Candidates semifinal, Denver), 1971 (#1 vs #3). Best Individual Event Performance between 1940 and 1980 See more details    Bobby Fischer: 2887 in Fischer-Larsen Match (Candidates semifinal, Denver), 1971 The best individual event performance between 1940 and 1980 was achieved by Bobby Fischer with a Chessmetrics Performance Rating of 2887 in Fischer-Larsen Match (Candidates semifinal, Denver), 1971. The next-best individual event performances were achieved by Bobby Fischer (2870 performance) in Fischer-Taimanov Match (Candidates quarterfinal, Vancouver), 1971, and by Mikhail Tal (2869 performance) in Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade (Candidates), 1959.