Hikaru & GothamChess Rank the Greatest Chess Players Ever

A tier list by harm_contour · filed under Gaming · published 29 September 2026

Ranking by Hikaru Nakamura and GothamChess on YouTube, copied from their finished board at the end of part 2. Full credit to the original videos, which you can watch below.

Video

GM Hikaru and Levy Rank the Legends, the GOATs, the Theorists | Tier Maker: Greatest Chess Players
GM Hikaru and Levy Rank the Legends, the GOATs, the Theorists | Tier Maker: Greatest Chess Players · GMHikaru

Video

Hikaru Ranks Himself - Ranking the Legends and the GOATs Part 2 | Tier Maker: Greatest Chess Players
Hikaru Ranks Himself - Ranking the Legends and the GOATs Part 2 | Tier Maker: Greatest Chess Players · GMHikaru

God of Chess tier

  1. Garry Kasparov
  2. Bobby Fischer
  3. Viswanathan Anand
  4. Magnus Carlsen
  5. Paul Morphy
  6. Mikhail Botvinnik
  7. Vladimir Kramnik
  8. Judit Polgár
  9. José Raúl Capablanca
  10. Mikhail Tal

Undisputed #1 tier

  1. Emanuel Lasker
  2. Anatoly Karpov
  3. Tigran Petrosian
  4. Alexander Alekhine
  5. Wilhelm Steinitz

Legend tier

  1. Viktor Korchnoi
  2. Paul Keres
  3. Vasyl Ivanchuk
  4. David Bronstein
  5. Hikaru Nakamura
  6. Fabiano Caruana
  7. Rashid Nezhmetdinov
  8. Sultan Khan

Great + Lucky tier

  1. Veselin Topalov
  2. Boris Spassky
  3. Max Euwe
  4. Vasily Smyslov

Great + Unlucky tier

  1. Akiba Rubinstein
  2. Harry Nelson Pillsbury
  3. Adolf Anderssen

Theorist tier

  1. Reuben Fine
  2. François-André Danican Philidor
  3. Aron Nimzowitsch
  4. Siegbert Tarrasch

5 likes · 2 hopinions (community re-rankings) · 2 comments