The World Top Ten in the 21st Century

Veselin Topalov: One of four players to be World No.1 since Kasparov retired

I've been looking at those players who have been in the Top Ten this century and I've come up with 30 names, some of them surprising! A reminder of those players who have made their mark amongst the chess elite, since the decline of Anatoly Karpov.

I've ranked the 30 players in the following order:

1. Highest World Ranking (since January 2000)

2. For those who have achieved the same ranking, the most recent receives preference.

Rank	Name	Age	Country	Career highest Elo	Highest ever World rank	When last achieved
1	Magnus Carlsen	20	NOR	2826	1	September 2011
2	Viswanathan Anand	41	IND	2817	1	May 2011
3	Veselin Topalov	36	BUL	2813	1	November 2009
4	Vladimir Kramnik	36	RUS	2811	1	January 2008
5	Garry Kasparov	48	RUS	2851	1	January 2006
6	Alexander Morozevich	34	RUS	2788	2	October 2008
7	Vassily Ivanchuk	42	UKR	2787	2	October 2007
8	Levon Aronian	28	ARM	2808	3	September 2011
9	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov	26	AZE	2772	4	January 2007
10	Peter Svidler	35	RUS	2765	4	October 2006
11	Peter Leko	31	HUN	2763	4	October 2005
12	Evgeny Bareev	44	RUS	2739	4	October 2003
13	Michael Adams	39	ENG	2755	4	October 2002
14	Alexei Shirov	39	ESP	2755	4	January 2000
15	Sergey Karjakin	21	RUS	2788	5	September 2011
16	Dmitry Jakovenko	28	RUS	2760	5	July 2009
17	Teimour Radjabov	24	AZE	2761	5	April 2009
18	Hikaru Nakamura	23	USA	2774	6	July 2011
19	Alexander Grischuk	27	RUS	2773	6	November 2010
20	Pavel Eljanov	28	UKR	2761	6	September 2010
21	Boris Gelfand	43	ISR	2761	6	January 2010
22	Vugar Gashimov	25	AZE	2760	6	November 2009
23	Ruslan Ponomariov	27	UKR	2768	6	April 2006
24	Wang Yue	24	CHN	2756	8	May 2010
25	Judit Polgar	35	HUN	2735	8	October 2005
26	Etienne Bacrot	28	FRA	2731	9	October 2005
27	Gata Kamsky	37	USA	2756	10	September 2011
28	Sergei Movsesian	32	ARM	2751	10	January 2009
29	Loek Van Wely	38	NED	2714	10	October 2001
30	Michel Krasenkow	47	POL	2702	10	October 2000

A good source of further information is the International Chess Federation site FIDE