The Best of the Super Grandmasters: The 2800 Club

In a follow-up to the post on the youngest players to reach a 2700 rating, 2700chess shared the list of the youngest players to reach 2800 FIDE. The group is headlined by Alireza Firouzja, who accomplished the feat at age 18 years, 5 months, and 13 days, a few months ahead of Magnus Carlsen’s record.

We can recognize the prestige when of the modern names, only Magnus and Fabiano Caruana have reliably sustained the level. Firouzja has remained an elite player, though not quite at that all-time level, while Arjun Erigaisi is finding out just how hard it is, sitting at -31 points from his newly set 2801 peak, per 2700chess.

Garry Kasparov was the first to accomplish 2800, doing so in January 1990. We’re watching for World Champion Gukesh to become the next member, at a few months shy of his 19th birthday. In the ongoing Tata Steel tournament, he has so far gained 13 points, putting his live rating at 2790. He would be the 16th player to officially hit the mark.