History of Elo ratings 1971-2001

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effective	players	TXT	GIF	ID	ttls	gms	b'day	sex	flag	sources & remarks
-	476			-	-	-	Y	Y	-	The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present (1978); retrospective all-time top list prepared by Professor Elo
1964	2			-	Y	-	Y	Y	-	unofficial list, ratings of only 2 players are known
1969	36			-	Y	-	Y	Y	-	unofficial list, Chess Review 9/1969, only 36/200 are known, based on results January 1966-Spring 1969
1970	35			-	Y	-	Y	Y	-	unofficial list, only top 35 are known
Jan 1971	547			-	Y	-	N	Y	-	unofficial list, TWIC; untitled players rated under 2250 are not listed
Jul 1971	592			-	Y	-	Y	Y	-	Chess Informant 12; untitled players rated under 2250 are not listed; first official FIDE list
Jul 1972	794			-	Y	-	Y	Y	-	Chess Informant 14; women's ratings were computed for the first time based on 1969-1972 results
Jul 1973	1,119			-	Y	-	Y	Y	-	Chess Informant 16
May 1974	1,094			-	Y	-	Y	Y	-	Chess Informant 17; no women on the list
Jan 1975	1,543			-	Y	-	N	Y	-	The Batsford Chess Yearbook 1974/75; Chess Informant 18
Jan 1976	1,652			-	Y	-	N	Y	-	The Batsford Chess Yearbook 1975/76; Chess Informant 20
Jan 1977	1,910			-	Y	-	N	Y	-	Batsford's FIDE Chess Yearbook 1976/77; Chess Informant 22/23
Jan 1978	2,022			-	Y	-	N	Y	-	Batsford's FIDE Chess Yearbook 1977/78; Chess Informant 24; revised Apr 28, effective May 1
Jul 1978	132			-	Y	-	N	Y	-	Chess Informant 25, supplementary list
Jan 1979	2,425			-	Y	-	N	Y	-	Chess Informant 26
Jul 1979	179			-	Y	-	N	Y	-	Chess Informant 27, supplementary list
Jan 1980	2,882			-	N	-	N	N	N	Chess Informant 28
Jul 1980	144			-	Y	-	N	Y	-	Chess Informant 29, supplementary list
Jan 1981	3,317			-	N	-	N	N	N	Chess Informant 30
Jul 1981	321			-	N	-	N	N	N	Chess Informant 31; from then on two lists per year
Jan 1982	3,807			-	N	-	N	N	N	Chess Informant 32
Jul 1982	252			-	N	-	N	N	N	Chess Informant 33
Jan 1983	4,186			-	N	-	N	N	N	Chess Informant 34
Jul 1983	351			-	N	-	N	N	N	Chess Informant 35
Jan 1984	4,136			-	N	-	N	N	N	Chess Informant 36
Jul 1984	306			-	N	-	N	N	N	Chess Informant 37
Jan 1985	4,649			-	N	-	N	N	N	Chess Informant 38
Jul 1985	406			-	N	N	N	N	N	Chess Informant 39; every player rated lower than 1905 was delisted; number of games played is only available from then on
Jan 1986	4,789			-	N	N	N	N	N	Chess Informant 40
Jul 1986	4,883			-	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Chess Informant 41
Jan 1987	5,187			-	N	N	N	N	N	Chess Informant 42; ratings of all women apart from Polgar sisters were increased by 100 points, so the rating floor went up to 2005
Jul 1987	307			-	N	N	N	N	N	Chess Informant 43
Jan 1988	6,017			-	N	N	N	N	N	Chess Informant 44
Jul 1988	6,357			-	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Chess Informant 45
Jan 1989	6,897			-	N	N	N	N	N	Chess Informant 46
Jul 1989	7,203			-	Y	Y	N	Y	N	Chess Informant 47
Jan 1990	9,186			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	ID were used for the first time
Jul 1990	9,566			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N	FIDE adopted new codes for ex-Soviet, Yugoslav and Czechoslovak republics, (even if they were not independent yet!); new ID format introduced
Jan 1991	10,132			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N
Jul 1991	10,566			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N
Jan 1992	10,951			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	N
Jul 1992	11,418			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	active/inactive flags available only now
Jan 1993	12,629			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	rating floor for men was lowered to 2005
Jul 1993	13,418			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Jan 1994	14,521			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Jul 1994	15,537			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Jan 1995	17,010			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Jul 1995	18,161			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Jan 1996	19,808			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Jul 1996	21,004			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Jan 1997	22,742			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Jul 1997	24,085			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Jan 1998	27,111			Y	Y	Y/N	Y	Y	Y	missing number of games for ca. 8,000 players
Jul 1998	28,020			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Jan 1999	29,987			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	ratings no more rounded to nearest 0 or 5
Jul 1999	31,707			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Jan 2000	33,384			Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y
Jul 2000	35,230			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Oct 2000	35,775			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	new list every three months
Jan 2001	36,978			Y	Y	Y	N	Y	Y
Apr 2001	37,625			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Jul 2001	38,622			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Oct 2001	39,741			Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
effective	players	TXT	GIF	ID	ttls	gms	b'day	sex	flag	sources & remarks

Back in 1942 the USCF used its own chess rating system (Harkness) to rank domestic players, while German Chess Federation did the same in 1948 (Ingo system). In 1959 one Arpad Elo was nominated chairman of USCF rating committe and already in 1961 he published the very first list of top US players in "Chess Life". Even though prof. Elo used to publish his own, unofficial International Rating Lists it was 1970 FIDE Congress held in Siegen, Germany that adopted the Elo system for official use. The first official list was to be published on 1st July 1971 and it was approved on consecutive FIDE congress in Vancouver, Canada, in August 1971.

The table below provides with all historical FIDE rating lists back from 1971 until 2001, since when all ratings are easily accessible from FIDE website. The ratings have been for many years computed and set together manually, which is why they are plenty of bugs, calculating mistakes, dupe entries, nonexistant players, terrible spellings etc. What we provide are the only available lists at the moment, so there is nothing like flawless or ratified lists. We have to live with that. To discover who and why hides behind mailformed names might be tasty challenge as well! The lists are obviously not complete, many players drop out from the list only to appear the following year, or, say, after 15 years. Another example: the 1974 list has no women at all. FIDE ID's were only introduced in 1990, so for many years there was no anchor to avoid spelling mistakes.

So, we know that FIDE ratings were worse than bad, and there are probably hundreds of bugs never to be discovered. However, this tool was NOT build to re-create the perfect, "true" history of ratings. It is to document the historical truth, even if it did not reflect real results, as it was to do. This is why, while we have been doing gigantic job of standardizing names to match 2001 lists (even if they are obviously misspelled, as you know FIDE take very little care of good spelling), but we have kept all historical records, even these duped or obviously mistaken. Where possible, manual comments were added. To keep historical character of our project, all available sources have been scanned and provided for free download. Be aware that standardization is being done all the time. Much has already been done, but there is still plenty of space for progress. Once you meet incomplete record, be sure to search for alternative spellings, as the lists prior to 1990 do only use acronyms of first names. The spelling is NOT, and will never be, standardized to match OlimpBase databases. This would be too much of work, but first of all this project is designed to provide access to historical database, even if it uses badly spelled names, sadly too common case.

To browse any list you like please use the table below. Every player has his/hers personal card (see card of Garry Kasparov) summarizing all of his past records list by list. This is still (and will be probably forever) beta version so use with caution! When no data is available one of the following is the reason: the player might be delisted (not very probable), be deceased (Elo lists in no way indicate that), be suspended like Kasparov in 1994 or players from banned federations, or be absent from the list from no reason (in most cases). Remember that the top lists do not include inactive players, while data prior to July 1999 have no active/inactive flag - sorry! - this is why Fischer is listed as No. 1 throughout the 1990s. For best search results use alphabetical list - link below.

Interesting links:

• fide.com - official FIDE rating list (2000-)
  
• benoni.de - very good online searchable database (1990-) but vulnerable (operates on ID codes, so doesn't handle federation changes correctly; loses data of deceased players too)
  
• Mark Weeks' blog - Mark's remarks on historic rating tables
  
• Mark Weeks' blog part 2 - source files
  
• All time ratings - top 10 ratings on every list 1970-1997
  
• Shakkihistoriaa: ELO Top Ten 1970-2009 - another source with all list leaders from 1970 [FI]
  
• Chessmetrics - not a real rating system but well known and respected all over the world. By Jeff Sonas
  
• Live top list - see who's virtual leader at the moment

>> Source file with 1970-2001 data (4 MB) <<

>> Source file with 2002-2009 data (38 MB) <<

Credits: Jonathan Berry, Claudiu Dobre (scans), Robert Howard (database), Jovan Petronic, Mark Weeks