The following people have all been grandmasters (GM) of

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

. The title is awarded to players who have met the standards required by the sport's governing body,

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

. Other than

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, it is the highest title a chess player can attain and is awarded for life, although FIDE regulations allow for the revocation of titles for cheating or fraud. FIDE has awarded grandmaster titles, not counting three GM titles that have been revoked.

Grandmasters

Player names are generally listed as they appear in FIDE records such as the FIDE Chess Profile pages, although accented letters are used where they apply, which FIDE databases simplify to the

English alphabet The alphabet for Modern English is a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an upper- and lower-case form. The word ''alphabet'' is a compound of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, '' alpha'' and '' beta''. ...

. When player names or spellings have changed, the most recent is used even if it is different than that when the title was awarded which is then listed in the Notes column. Variants in transliteration such as "Alexei" "Alexey" are not mentioned. FIDE has issued ID codes since 1998; some older grandmasters were never assigned an ID. For living grandmasters, this field is a weblink to the FIDE Chess Profile page which usually gives the year the GM status (somewhat more usually known as GM title) was awarded and the player's birth year. FIDE IDs for deceased grandmasters are retained in this table to aid matching with older FIDE records such as the FIDE rating lists. Title Year is the year FIDE officially awarded the title. Sometimes this may be a year after the player completed the final requirements for the title. In a few cases (e.g. Esteban Canal), the title was awarded retrospectively, many years after the relevant achievements. The player's federation is stated at the time the GM title accrued (meaning awarded, but earnt if honorary/posthumous). If the player later changed federations, this is listed in Notes. The Notes column gives the entire row's sources and those from 1950 to 2016 are equally in ''Chess International Titleholders, 1950–2016'' by Di Felice.

Revoked titles

FIDE titles including the grandmaster title are valid for life, but FIDE regulations allow a title to be revoked for "use of a FIDE title or rating to subvert the ethical principles of the title or rating system" or if a player is found to have violated the anti-cheating regulations in a tournament on which the title application was based. :

Notes

Obituaries

References

* (main source to verify titles awarded through 2016) * (alternative source for birthplace and biographical dates and year title awarded for most players earning titles before 1987) * * *

External links