
Īs of December 2015, there were 101 chess players in history who broke 2700, and fourteen of them exceeded 2800. The best-ever Elo ratings are tabulated below. In 1970, FIDE adopted Elo's system for rating current players, so one way to compare players of different eras is to compare their Elo ratings.

It did list January 1978 ratings of 2780 for Fischer and 2725 for Karpov.) Though published in 1978, Elo's list did not include five-year averages for later players Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov.

2690: Alexander Alekhine, Paul Morphy, Vasily Smyslov.2720: Mikhail Botvinnik, Emanuel Lasker.According to this system the highest ratings achieved were:
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He gave ratings to players corresponding to their performance over the best five-year span of their career. The best-known statistical was devised by Arpad Elo in 1960 and elaborated on in his 1978 book The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present. Main articles: Elo rating system and List of chess players by peak FIDE rating
