What is the Highest Grandmaster Chess Rating Ever Achieved?

Question

This would be at the Grandmaster Level of over-the-board chess.

Answer 1

This article examines a number of methodologies that have been suggested for the task of comparing top chess players throughout history, particularly the question of comparing the greatest players of different eras. Statistical methods offer objectivity but, whilst there is agreement on systems to rate the strengths of current players, there is disagreement and controversy on whether such techniques can be applied to players from different generations who never competed against each other.

Perhaps the best-known statistical model is that devised by Arpad Elo. In his 1978 book The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present,[1] he gave ratings to players corresponding to their performance over the best five-year span of their career. According to this system the highest ratings achieved were:

2725 – José Raúl Capablanca

2720 – Mikhail Botvinnik, Emanuel Lasker

2700 – Mikhail Tal

2690 – Alexander Alekhine, Paul Morphy, Vasily Smyslov.

(Though published in 1978, Elo's list did not include five-year averages for Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov. However, it does list the January 1978 ratings as 2780 for Fischer and 2725 for Karpov.)[2]

In 1970, FIDE adopted Elo's system for rating current players. So, one way to compare players of different eras is to compare their Elo ratings. The best-ever Elo ratings are tabulated below[3], including Elo's retrospectively calculated ratings for Capablanca, Botvinnik and Lasker. (However these are one-time peaks, while Elo's list was five year averages).