Who Are These Guys? A Guide to the World's Top Players

It would be tough to follow tennis if you didn't know who Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were. Nobody would dream of calling themselves golf fans if they couldn't recognize Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson. These are the premier names in their respective sports, and with the incredible amount of coverage their achievements receive, even casual fans know all about their talents and accomplishments.

Chess players don't get nearly the attention major sports stars get these days, and this can make it difficult to have a real understanding of the world's elite competitors. Other than a handful of hardcore fans, do most chess players really know much about World Champion Viswanathan Anand or former champion Vladimir Kramnik?

This gap in knowledge makes it difficult for the new chess fan to get started when following world-class chess. With this in mind, I've started working on a guide to the world's top chess players. These mini-profiles of the world's top players (and some prominent female and junior players) aren't meant to fill you in on every detail about each player. Instead, they offer a brief overview into their playing style and accomplishments, designed to get you up to speed on players you may not be familiar with or want to learn more about.

This page is a work in progress, and will never truly be complete; as time goes on, players will be added and dropped from the page (though every profile will remain on the site) as the shape of world-class chess changes. I hope you'll find this page a valuable resource for learning about the very best chess players in the world. And if you want to learn about the best players in chess history, take a look at my list of World Chess Champions, all of which are profiled in brief.