10 Richest Chess Players of All-Time

 

Chess is an intellectual and tactical game. A player must not only be able to foresee their own moves several moves in advance, but also those of their adversaries. While it is well known that being a professional chess player requires a high level of talent, many people are unaware that competing may also be a financially rewarding activity. The competition winners stand to gain millions, making the most successful individuals extremely wealthy. Here are the top 10 chess players in terms of wealth.

10. Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik – $2 Million

Vladimir Borisovich Kramnik held the title of Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006. In both 2006 and 2007, he was the unchallenged world chess champion. At the Chess Olympiads, Kramnik has also achieved great success, taking home three team gold medals and three individual medals. Kramnik is currently ranked ninth all-time in terms of player rating.

9. Viswanathan Anand – $3 Million

Viswanathan Anand was the first Grandmaster from India after earning the title in 1988. He was a kid prodigy, though, and had already had a lot of success before winning the title because of how quickly he played. He was known as the "Lightning Kid" in the 1980s. He is now a universal player, and many people think he is the best player of quick chess in his generation. His career has seen him win a number of events, giving him a $3 million net worth.

8. Levon Aronian – $3 Million

Levon Aronian is an Armenian national hero and hails from that nation. He received the designation of Honored Master of Sports of the Republic of Armenia in 2009. Aronian was ranked sixth in the world in January 2021. He currently has a $3 million net worth thanks to his chess competition winnings.

7. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – $5 Million

Due to his accomplishments in chess tournaments over the course of his professional chess career, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has a net worth of $5 million. He received the FIDE Grandmaster title at the age of 14. Later, in 2007, he won the French championship. He was ranked second in the world in 2016 after winning competitions in Biel and Dortmund. He held the top spot in the world in both the blitz and quick ratings in 2019.

6. Teimour Radjabov – $5 Million

Telmour Radjabov, who at the age of 14 won the Grandmaster title, became the second-youngest Grandmaster. When he defeated Garry Kasparov in a competition in 2003, he rose to prominence across the globe in the chess community. He defeated Viswanathan Anand and Ruslan Ponomariov in the same year as well. The 2020 Airthings Masters semifinal match between Rafjabov and Daniil Dubov saw Rafjabov prevail in the first sets.

5. Judit Polgar – $5 Million

The only woman to appear on the list of the top ten richest chess players of all time is Judit Polgar, a Hungarian chess player. Due to her success in numerous tournaments, many people believe she is the greatest female chess player in history. When she was only 15 years old, she earned her first Grandmaster title in 1991. Polgar is also the only woman to ever be listed among the top ten chess players in history. She ended her career as a professional chess player in 2014, but a year later she was named the team's captain and head coach.

4. Garry Kasparov – $5 Million

When Garry Kasparov was barely ten years old, he started learning how to play chess. In 1985, at the age of 22, he defeated the defending champion, Anatoly Karpov, and went on to become the youngest-ever undisputed World Chess Champion. The title was held by Kasparov until 1993. But after a disagreement with the Federation Internationale des Checs, he made the decision to form the Professional Chess Association, a competing group. In 2005, Kasparov ended his career as a professional player. He started writing and getting interested in politics when he retired.

3. Magnus Carlsen –  $8 Million

Magnus Carlsen is a professional Norwegian chess player who began competing in chess contests as a child. In the World U12 Chess Championship in 2002, he finished in second place. He won the C group in the Corus competition when he was just 13 years old. A little while later, he achieved Grandmaster status. He began winning national championships at the age of 17, and at the age of 19, he became the youngest player to ever reach the top of the FIDE world rankings. After spending many years away from the world of professional chess, Carlsen made a comeback in 2020 to play in the Airthings Masters, where he was defeated by Daniil Dubov.

2. Fabiano Caruana – $13 Million

Fabiano Caruana is the most successful Italian player in history and the second-richest chess player of all time. When he was only 14 years old, in 2007, he initially rose to fame. He won his first Italian Chess Championship that year and achieved Grandmaster status in both Italy and the US. In 2008, 2010, and 2011, Caruana once again won the Italian championship. His success persisted into the 2010s from the 2000s. He won the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting in 2012, 2014, and 2015. He also took home the Sinquefield Cup in 2014. Fabiano Caruana has held the second-place spot in the global rankings since 2020, and his success is seen in his estimated net worth of $13 million.

1. Hikaru Nakamura –  $50 Million

The richest chess player of all time, according to Wealthy Genius, is Hikaru Nakamura, who has a net worth of almost $50 million. Nakamura became the youngest American Grandmaster when he was 15 years old. He has already won the American championship five times. On both their official blitz and quick chess rating lists from 2014, FIDE placed him as the best player in the world. The next year, Nakamura fell to second place, trailing Magnus Carlsen.