#2000s
6 entries across 1 section of the encyclopedia.
Players
6- Player Boris Gelfand
The grandmaster from Minsk who reached the World Championship match at forty-three — a Soviet-trained classicist whose career bridged the era of Karpov to that of Carlsen.
- Player Sergey Karjakin
The youngest grandmaster in history at twelve, the World Championship challenger at twenty-six, and one of the era's hardest players to beat with the black pieces.
- Player Veselin Topalov
The 2005 FIDE World Champion, the world No. 1 at his peak, and a defining figure of Bulgarian chess — known for an attacking style that produced some of the era's most spectacular wins.
- Player Pentala Harikrishna
India's second grandmaster after Anand — for twenty years the country's number-two, a quiet professional whose career anchored Indian chess through the gap before the current generation.
- Player Viswanathan Anand
India's first grandmaster, five-time world champion, and the player who showed that elite chess could be played from Madras as readily as from Moscow.
- Player Vladimir Kramnik
The Russian world champion who took the title from Kasparov in London 2000 — and proved, with the Berlin Defense