Top 20 Chess Player celebrities in the world
Here is the latest list of the world's top 20 Chess Player celebrities [Updated January 28, 2023].
Magnus Carlsen was born
on November 30, 1990
in Tonsberg, Norway.
Not limited to chess, he also took on a modeling job for G-Star Raw's 2010 campaign and was voted among the 'sexiest men of 2013' by Cosmopolitan.
Net Worth 2020: $8 Million
Anatoly Karpov was born
on May 23, 1951
in Russia.
He is known for his various humanitarian efforts, receiving the Order of Merit in 2006 for his assistance to the victims of the disaster in Chernobyl.
Net Worth 2020: $5 Million
Garry Kasparov was born
on April 13, 1963
in Baku, Azerbaijan.
He became the youngest World Champion of Chess at 22 in 1985 and he was the highest ranked chess player in the world for 255 months.
Net Worth 2020: $5 Million
Viswanathan Anand was born
on December 11, 1969
in Mayiladuthurai, India.
He has won many of India's highest civilian and sports honors, including the Padma Vibhushan and the
Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
Net Worth 2020: $3 Million
Vassily Ivanchuk was born
on March 18, 1969
in Ukraine.
At the peak of his career he was the number two ranked player in the world and he was the 2007–2008 World Blitz Chess champion.
Judit Polgar was born
on July 23, 1976
in Budapest, Hungary.
She is the only female chess player to defeat a number one ranked player and she has done so more than ten times.
Bobby Fischer was born
on March 9, 1943
in Chicago, United States.
Regarded by many as the greatest chess player of all time who, starting at age 14, played in and won eight US Chess Championships. He infamously disappeared from the spotlight only several years after winning the infamous Cold War confrontation against Boris Spassky from the USSR in 1972.
He won the 1963-64 U.S. Championship with the only perfect score in the history of the tournament and his 1969 book, My 60 Memorable Games, is a must-read for any aspiring chess player.
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Salary 2020: $250,000
Anish Giri was born
on June 28, 1994
in Russia.
He became a Grandmaster at the young age of 14 and in January 2011, he beat world number one
Magnus Carlsen.
Nihal Sarin was born
on July 13, 2004
in India.
Amazingly, he won the Under-10 World Chess Champion despite not having a regular coach.
Wesley So was born
on October 9, 1993
in Philippines.
In May, 2013 he was the 40th ranked chess player in the world.
Zhao Zong-Yuan was born
on June 26, 1986
in China.
He won the Australian Open in 2007.
Ray Robson was born
on October 25, 1994
in Guam.
In 2004, when he was just nine years old, he defeated a National Master in tournament play.
Hikaru Nakamura was born
on December 9, 1987
in Japan.
He is a three time winner of the United States Chess Championship and in 2013 he was ranked No. 4 in the world by FIDE.
Eric Hansen was born
on May 24, 1992
in Irvine, United States.
He has taken first-place finishes at tournaments like the 2012 Canadian Open Chess Championship and the 2013 Cappelle-la-Grande Open.
Leonid Stein was born
on November 12, 1934
in Ukraine.
He won the Soviet Championship in 1963, 1965 and 1966 and the Ukrainian Championship in 1960 and 1962.
Emil Sutovsky was born
on September 19, 1977
in Azerbaijan.
Representing Israel, he won gold in the 2010 Chess Olympiad.
David Bronstein was born
on February 19, 1924
in Ukraine.
He became a Soviet Master when he was only 16 years old.
Boris Spassky was born
on January 30, 1937
in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Russian chess champion who was famously the 1972 World Chess Championship Bobby Fischer in a match that has come to be known as the Cold War Confrontation.
He was chess champion from 1969 to 1972 and in 1992 he lost to
Bobby Fischer again in an unofficial rematch in Yugoslavia.
Andrei Sokolov was born
on March 20, 1963
in Russia.
A series of unexpected losses in the late 1980s led to lesser chess activity.
Alexandra Kosteniuk was born
on April 23, 1984
in Russia.
She became a chess Grandmaster in 2004 and in 2011 she was ranked 44th in the FIDE women's Elo rating list with a rating of 2439.