A playful, bite-sized guide to the greatest names in chess. A mix of world champions, cult heroes, prodigies, and mad geniuses. One paragraph each. Just enough to sound smart at dinner.

1.Magnus Carlsen
The Norwegian genius often credited with making chess cool again. World Champion from 2013 to 2023, model, app founder, and fantasy football addict. Known for squeezing wins out of dead-equal positions. Calm, deadly, unshakable.

2.Garry Kasparov
The storm. World Champion from 1985 to 2000. Explosive style, unmatched opening prep, and a stare that could melt steel. Battled IBM’s Deep Blue and Russian politics alike. If you think he’s mellowed with age, just ask him a dumb chess question on X—the Beast from Baku can still deliver a checkmate in 280 characters.

3.Bobby Fischer
America’s troubled genius. Took the title in 1972 after single-handedly demolishing Soviet dominance, then vanished. A recluse, a legend, and the reason half the world started playing: Chess-boom 1.0 happened in 1972.

4.Anatoly Karpov
The positional surgeon. World Champion from 1975 to 1985, and again (sort of) in the early '90s. Calm, relentless, and a master of making you suffer slowly.

5.José Raúl Capablanca
Cuban prodigy and endgame virtuoso. World Champion (1921–1927). So smooth he barely seemed to try. Representing Cuba as both a national hero and a diplomat, he carried himself with coffeehouse swagger, impeccable technique, and the charm of a born ambassador.

6.Alexander Alekhine
First world champion to lose the title and win it back. Brilliant tactician with deeply complex games. Also known for his love of wine, cats, and wartime intrigue. A controversial figure, he allegedly wrote Nazi propaganda and (almost as bad) never gave Capablanca a rematch.

7.Mikhail Tal
The “Magician from Riga.” World Champion (1960–1961). Played like he saw through walls. Sacrifices everywhere. Smoked like a chimney, laughed like a wizard. A quick-witted charmer, he famously quipped, “There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones, and mine.”

8.Viswanathan Anand
India’s greatest (so far). World Chess Champion from 2007 to 2013, he won the title in multiple formats. Incredibly fast and remarkably polite, he brought chess into Indian households—and continues to compete with top players in his 50s. India now has 89 chess grandmasters, but it was Vishy who led the way as the first of them.

9.Vladimir Kramnik
Calm, classy, deadly. Took the title from Kasparov in 2000, becoming the first human to beat him in a match. Revived deep strategy and Berlin endgames. Quietly crushed entire chess opening systems. Then, online chess and Twitter entered his life.

10.Hikaru Nakamura
The king of online chess. Blitz beast, meme machine, and streamer extraordinaire. You might think he’s more into emojis than opening prep—until he crushes you. Often talks about retiring from competitive chess, only to return and dominate.

11.Fabiano Caruana
Born in Miami, raised in Brooklyn, like Fischer. Nearly dethroned Carlsen in 2018, becoming the third-highest-rated player ever. Deep thinker, heavy prepper, often looks like he’s solving algebra mid-game. Also a terrific podcaster in his free time.

12.Judit Polgár
Not just the greatest female player ever, but one of the greatest chess prodigies, period. Raised to play chess, she surpassed all expectations, storming into the top ranks at a young age. Beat Kasparov, Anand, and everyone in between. Fierce attacker and a global ambassador for the game since retiring.

13.Tigran Petrosian
The Iron Tigran. World Champion (1963–1969). Defender par excellence. Would rather stop your plans than make his own. The patron saint of prophylaxis. An Armenian icon, featured on the country’s banknotes.

14.Boris Spassky
World Champion (1969–1972). Versatile, elegant, a gentleman. Best known for losing to Fischer, but no less brilliant in his own right. He was the only Russian Fischer (and everybody else) liked, probably because he wasn’t an exemplary Soviet.

15.Paul Morphy
19th-century American prodigy. Crushed European elites before retiring young. Romantic-era hero. And eccentric dude, he played as if the board were too small for his imagination.

16.Emanuel Lasker
World Champion for 27 years (1894–1921). Mathematician, philosopher, bridge player. Played people as much as positions. Rubbed shoulders with Einstein and other intellectual giants.

17.Wilhelm Steinitz
The first official World Champion. Introduced the idea that defense and structure matter. Everyone thought he was nuts—until he beat them.

18.Gukesh Dommaraju
India’s teenage prodigy. Became the youngest World Champion in 2024 at age 18, dethroning Ding Liren with fearless play and razor-sharp calculation. A product of India’s chess boom, he blends modern prep with old-school grit. Already a national hero, he’s just getting started.

19.Bent Larsen
Denmark’s finest. Wild openings, fearless play, and a sharp tongue. Beat almost every world champion he faced but never won the crown.

20.Veselin Topalov
Former World Champion and tactical firebrand. Could blow you off the board in 20 moves—or collapse just as quickly. Never boring. His feud with Kramnik during their title match was legendary.

21.Ian Nepomniachtchi
Fast, stylish, and sarcastic. Twice a challenger for the world title after winning the Candidates tournament twice in a row—a rare feat. Blends top prep with emotional tilt. A modern gladiator.

22.Ding Liren
The quiet storm from China. World Champion from 2023 to 2024. Deep, thoughtful, melancholic. Famously undefeated in classical chess for over 100 games.

23.Wesley So
Philippine-born, American citizen. Calm, consistent, lethal in rapid. Often underrated, always dangerous. A quiet achiever with deep faith.

24.Gata Kamsky
Raised by an abusive father who saw his talented child as a retirement plan, Gata tried violin and piano before chess. Born in Siberia, he emigrated to Brooklyn and later found peace in France. Tough guy with a philosophical streak. Briefly retired to study medicine and then law, then returned swinging. As he once put it, “a famous f* legend.”

25.David Bronstein
Wizard of imagination. Nearly world champion in 1951. Known for sparkling creativity, a soft voice, and absolute fearlessness. Some of his ideas to make chess more fun and creative are still borrowed today.