GM Magnus Carlsen has now held the top spot on every FIDE rating list for 15 unbroken years. He first took over from Viswanathan Anand in July 2011 and has stayed there since.
The Norwegian grandmaster achieved the milestone after a challenging June 2026 at Norway Chess, where he lost 17.8 rating points. He still leads the July 2026 list with 2823 points, 31 ahead of Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura.
Carlsen first reached number one on the live list in October 2008 and crossed 2800 in November 2009. He has remained above that mark ever since. Anand briefly regained the official top spot twice before Carlsen took permanent control in July 2011.
In total Carlsen has spent 192 months at number one, well ahead of Anatoly Karpov but still short of Garry Kasparov’s record. He has described the achievement as partly down to luck in close moments such as his 2018 world championship match.
Carlsen told Norwegian television he does not want anyone else to take the spot while he believes he remains the best player. He has also said he enjoys competing and has no fixed plans to stop.
