What is a “Super Grandmaster”?

Chess has a sequence of titles that it gives to its strongest players, headlined by the most famous one: Grandmaster, or GM for short. A person becomes a Grandmaster by accomplishing two things: they must achieve a FIDE rating of at least 2500 at some point (they are allowed to dip back below), and the more complicated condition of earning three ‘norms’. In short, a norm requires a very good performance in a tournament, the specifics of which you can read about elsewhere.

Informally, a “Super Grandmaster” is someone rated 2700 FIDE. That’s it! They are the strongest of the GMs. Usually there are between 30 and 40 Super GMs at any given time. You can see the live list tracked on 2700chess.com.

2700chess also posted a graphic today of the youngest players to reach 2700.

Chinese player Wei Yi has the record at 15 years, 8 months, and 27 days. World Champion Gukesh was third fastest, beating out Magnus Carlsen by a few months. As you’d expect, reaching 2700 early usually leads into a long and successful career.