Top 15 Influential People in Chess
Hello Everyone! This is the first article on our website, so I am introducing you to 15 people who influenced the chess world. These people took the game to the next level by their methods; some people produced brilliant games while some covered them on their YouTube channels or websites, some introduced new variants in chess and some contributed to chess literature. Here is my list of the Top 15 influential people in chess
Magnus Carlsen (1990)
Magnus Carlsen is four times World Champion and the current world champion from Norway. He is currently the number 1 ranked player in classical chess. He is the only player who won all types of world championships (blitz, rapid, classical).
Magnus defeated Vishy Anand and became the world chess champion. Play Magnus, the group, is also formed under his brand name. Currently, Play Magnus has many websites and brands such as New in Chess, Aimchess, Everyman Chess, Chessable, Ichess, etc.
Play Magnus group, got acquired by chess.com in 2022.
Vishy Anand (1969)
Vishwanathan Anand was born in a town called Madurai. He is India’s first Grandmaster and five times world champion. Because of Viswanathan Anand, Indian chess changed completely; people in India started getting attracted to chess after he became the world champion. He won various International chess tournaments also and various Fide official tournaments, such as the world championship and rapid world championship. He is also known as Vishy Anand or Madras Tiger in India.
Robert James Fischer (1943-2008)
Robert James Fischer was a former World Champion from the USA. He had a unique playing style due to his whimsical behavior. He won a game with Byrne with black pieces, that game was declared as a game of the century. Fischer invented chess 960 and an increament pattern in chess.
Garry Kasparov (1963)
Garry Kasparov is a former World Champion from Russia. He was the first player in chess history to cross the 2800 classical ratings, and he remained at 1st place in the classical rating list for more than 20 years. He was well known for his attacking play and calculation, and he contributed a lot to attacking chess.
Anatoly Karpov (1951)
Anatoly Karpov of Russia is Grandmaster and former world champion from 1975-1985. He is well known for positional play. He won the most tournaments ever compared to any other chess player. He is retired from classical chess and plays 1-2 games yearly. He is also training many chess players through Karpov Chess Training.
Vladimir Kramnik (1975)
Kramnik is a former World Champion from Russia. He defeated Garry Kasparov and became the world champion. He invented no casting chess. Although that format is still not very much famous in the chess world, it will definitely become famous in some years. The following article is about no-casting chess.
Even Vishy Anand and Kramnik played a no-castling chess tournament. You can read all the information by clicking here.
Judit Polgar (1976)
Judit Polgar, the Hungarian chess player, was the first female player who crossed 2700 in the Fide classical list (even 2600) and, to date, is the only female player to do so. Because of her, women players increased in the chess world. Judit became the youngest female full-time GrandMaster. She was the youngest player to break into the top 100. In 2014 she announced her retirement from competitive chess and now hosts Polgar Global chess Festivals.
Jan Gustafsson (1979)
Jan Gustafsson is a German chess Gransmaster . Jan worked as second for Magnus Carlsen for World Championship Matches. He co-founded the company chess24.com. Chess24’s website is famous for its high-quality video series on various topics. Later chess24.com was merged with Play Magnus company.
Update 2023 – Play Magnus group is acquired by chess.com, and now slowly, chess.com will transfer all chess24 courses to other platforms. Also, now you cannot play on chess24.
Jacob Aagard (1973)
Jacob Aagaard in GrandMaster and former British chess champion. Aagard is the founder of Quality chess publications. Aagard is one of the most famous coaches in the chess world. He won the Fide Trainer award also. His series Grandmaster Preparation is one of the most renowned series of 6 books. These books are recommended for 2300+ FIDE-rated players. There are very few authors who have written high-quality books. Aagard is one of them.
Mark dvoretsky (1947 – 2018)
Mark Dvoretsky was Russian International Master and endgame expert. He has written many amazing books about chess. He is the most famous author in the chess world. His series of secrets of chess training won the best European chess Federation book award in 1991.
Check out all his books on amazon by clicking here
Frederic Freidel (1945)
Frederic Freidel is the founder of the chessbase company. It brought a big revolution in the chess world. Chessbase was launched in 1995. He introduced play chess software to play with each other. It was the first Professional software to play with each other online. Chessbase provides high-quality material comparatively at a low price.
Agadmator (1987)
Agadmator whose real name is Antonio Radic is a popular Youtuber. He lives in Croatia. He has a chess channel called Agadmator chess. With his explanation, he became very famous and become 1st chess channel to cross 1 million subscribers. The following video is the most viewed video on the agadmator channel
Sagar Shah
Sagar Shah, who is from India, is the founder and CEO of Chessbase India. With more than 100k followers on Facebook, 1M+ on youtube, and 100k+ on Instagram. After Anand, he is the biggest chess influencer in Indian chess. Sagar is the first IM and Chartered Accountant from India. He has made available a lot of books and software at cheap rates to Indians. Below is one of the most popular videos on his youtube channel.
Daniel Rensch (1985)
Daniel is an International Master. He is the chief chess officer of chess.com, one of the biggest platforms for playing chess online. Currently, chess.com is the top playing chess website with a lot of variants like regular chess, chess960, bughouse, and four-player chess. He is a website creator, player, commentator, and tournament organizer.
Chess.com offers 3 types of memberships i.e. Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. I have reviewed chess.com membership pricing and features. You can read the article here
Carl Portman (1964)
Carl Portman is the chess manager in Prison for the English Chess Federation. He made a goal of introducing chess in every prison in England. He started chess clubs, got inmates to talk about chess, and, most importantly he is trying to influence the governors to put chess on their agenda in prison. Below is the link to the full interview with carl portman
