I think its me
Who is the best chess player?
I see why you might think that Viswanathan is the best, but Praggnanandhaa is definitely not. Nor is Hans.
- Wilhelm Steinitz
- Emanuel Lasker
- Jose Raul Capablanca
- Alexander Alekhine
- Max Euwe
- Mikhail Botvinnik
- Vasily Smyslov
- Mikhail Tal
- Tigran V. Petrosian
- Boris Spassky
- Bobby Fischer
- Anatoly Karpov
- Garry Kasparov
- Vladimir Kramnik
- Viswanathan Anand
- Magnus Carlsen
- Ding Liren
Above are simply the best players because they were world chess champions. That's in historical order, Steinitz was the first world chess champion ever, in 1886.
Lasker held the title for 27 years (world record), Kasparov for 15 years, so these two players are special.
Other way to look at things is the peak rating:
- Magnus Carlsen, 2882
- Garry Kasparov, 2851
- Fabiano Caruana, 2844
- Levon Aronian, 2830
- Wesley So, 2822
- Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, 2820
- Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, 2819
- Viswanathan Anand, 2817 and Vladimir Kramnik, 2817
- Veselin Topalov, 2816 and Hikaru Nakamura, 2816
- Ding Liren, 2816
- Alexander Grischuk, 2810
- Alireza Firouzja, 2804
- Anish Giri, 2798
- Arjun Erigaisi, 2797
- Ian Nepomniachtchi, 2795
- Dommaraju Gukesh, 2794
- Teimour Radjabov, 2793
- Alexander Morozevich, 2788 and Sergey Karjakin, 2788
- Vasyl Ivanchuk, 2787
- Bobby Fischer, 2785 and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, 2785
- Anatoly Karpov, 2780
I'd say 2800+ is an achievement only 14 people on Earth got so far and right now only 2 people hold 2800+ rating (Carlsen and Nakamura).
No Lasker in this list, although some researches compare calculate his peak rating as something close to Kasparov's.
For currently best rated, here's October 2024 top:
- Carlsen, Magnus 2831
- Nakamura, Hikaru 2802
- Erigaisi Arjun 2797
- Caruana, Fabiano 2796
- Gukesh D 2794
- Abdusattorov, Nodirbek 2783
- Firouzja, Alireza 2767
- Wei, Yi 2763
- Nepomniachtchi, Ian 2755
- So, Wesley 2751
- Anand, Viswanathan 2751
- Praggnanandhaa R 2746
- Dominguez Perez, Leinier 2741
- Duda, Jan-Krzysztof 2740
- Le, Quang Liem 2739
- Aronian, Levon 2738
- Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime 2735
- Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2733
- Niemann, Hans Moke 2733
- Giri, Anish 2728
- Ding, Liren 2728
- Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi 2726
- Rapport, Richard 2721
- Keymer, Vincent 2721
- Maghsoodloo, Parham 2719
I think Magnus Carlsen is the best.