Alexander Grischuk
- October 21, 2025
Participant in the 2007 World Championship and five Candidates Tournaments (2007, 2011, 2013, 2018, 2020)
Ranking: highest world number three
Highest FIDE Elo Rating: 2810
Tournament career: winner of six super-tournaments:
winner of the Russian Championship 2009
winner of the Linares Chess Tournament 2009, Petrosian Memorial 2014
and three others…
Chess Olympiads: two gold, three silver, and one bronze team medals, one bronze individual medal
Why he deserves it:
The class clown of the chess world, Alexander Grischuk, is, in my opinion, underrated. Few would guess that he has reached the Candidates Tournament five times. In 2007, he directly participated in the World Championship in tournament form, although he finished last. In 2011, he surprisingly reached the finals in the Candidates matches, defeating Aronian and Kramnik, but narrowly lost to Boris Gelfand, missing the chance to play for the World Championship title against Anand.
His highest ranking as world number three and a rating above 2800 speak to his great career, and his numerous successes in the Olympiads should not be overlooked. The most significant tournament he won is probably Linares in 2009, where he shared first place with Ivanchuk and outperformed Anand, Carlsen, Radjabov, and Aronian.
Grischuk is renowned for his sense of humor, often directed at himself, and some of his quotes, especially from press conferences at one Candidates Tournament, have become legendary. Although this series focuses only on classical chess, it should also be noted that Grischuk has long been one of the best blitz players in the world. He often capitalizes on this in classical chess games, as he is notoriously known for time trouble.
Why he isn’t higher:
The list of his tournament titles is not as extensive as some of his contemporaries. Additionally, in the last three Candidates Tournaments of his career, he finished in the lower half of the starting field.
Best games:
Vugar Gashimov vs Alexander Grischuk
Bursa 2010
Share
Miroslav Janeček graduated in English Philology at Palacký University Olomouc. Currently he works in Prague as a content editor for a large marketing company. His roots are in Opava - the historic and cultural centre of the Czech part of Silesia. That city is also the home of Slezan Opava, the chess club where Miroslav started to play chess, later went on to work as a youth coach and which he to this day proudly represents. As an aspiring chess publicist, he is the main author of articles on ChessDB.cz. In his free time, in addition to chess and writing, he also devotes himself to racket sports, history, and literature.