The Field
Fabiano Caruana
Fabiano Caruana is the #2 highest rated player in the world since May of 2018, distancing himself from his rivals in the top 10. His list of achievements continues to grow with each year that passes. In 2014 Fabiano placed second behind Magnus Carlsen in the World Rapid Championship and went on to win the Sinquefield cup with a remarkable score of eight and a half out of ten. In early 2015, after playing as a member of the Italian Chess Federation, Caruana rejoined the United States Chess Federation as one of its strongest members. In the past two years, Caruana has won his first U.S. Championship, placed second at Tata Steel, played first board for the gold medal winning U.S. team at the 42nd Chess Olympiad, and won the 2017 London Chess Classic. He had a phenomenal showing in 2018 winning the Grenke Chess Classic, Norway Chess and tying for first in the Sinquefield Cup with Carlsen and Aronian. Caruana won the 2018 Candidates tournament thus becoming the first American to challenge the World Champion in a unified match in 46 years.
Liren Ding
Ding Liren is the highest rated Chinese player ever and only the second player from China (after Wang Yue) to break into the world’s top 10. He is the first Chinese player to cross 2800. At the age of 16, he became the youngest person ever to win the title of Chinese Champion. He has since won this title twice more in both 2011 and 2012. In the 2015 Tata Steel Tournament, Ding finished in a tie for second place just half a point behind Magnus Carlsen. He has represented China in four Olympiads from 2012 - 2018, leading the team to victory in 2018 and winning individual medals on first board and for showing the highest performance in the entire Olympiad. He also won team gold in the 2015 World Team Championship. Ding Liren is the one of the most solid players, holding the record at the top level for the longest undefeated streak, 100 games with 29 wins and 71 draws.
Alexander Grischuk
Alexander Grischuk became a Grandmaster in 2000. Grischuk was the Russian champion in 2009. He is also a three-time world blitz chess champion (in 2006, 2012 and 2015). He has competed in four Candidates Tournaments: 2007, 2011, 2013, and 2018. Grischuk has won two team gold-medals, three team silvers, one team bronze, and one individual bronze medal at Chess Olympiads. He also holds three team gold medals, one team silver and individual gold, two silver and one bronze from the World Team Chess Championship.
Ian Nepomniachtchi
At just 29 years old, Nepomniachtchi is in the prime of his career. He earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 17 in 2007 and won the prestigious Aeroflot Open the next year, thus qualifying to 2008 Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting. In 2010 he won the European individual championship as well as the Russian Superfinal after defeating Sergey Karjakin in a play off. He has won two silver medals in World Rapid Championships and one in World Blitz Championship. He won the 2018 Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting and was part of the Russian team which won the 2019 World Team Championship.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Often referred to as MVL, he came to prominence in 2009 after winning the title of World Junior Chess Champion. He is currently the No. 1 ranked player in France as well as a three-time French champion (2007, 2011, shared in 2012). He is also a four-time winner of the Biel Grandmaster Tournament (2009, 2013, 2014, 2015) and a former World Junior Champion (2009). His biggest tournament victory to date has been the 2017 Sinquefield Cup, where he finished first ahead of Magnus Carlsen. He won Sharjah Grand Prix in the same year and the 2018 Shenzhen Masters. MVL has been part of the Grand Chess Tour since 2015 and finished second in the 2018 edition after losing in the finals to Hikaru Nakamura.
Anish Giri
The Russian-born Dutch Grandmaster achieved the grandmaster title at the age of 14 years and 7 months, which made him the youngest grandmaster in the world at the time. Giri is a four-time Dutch Chess Champion (2009, 2011, 2012, and 2015). He won the Corus Chess B Group in 2010, thus qualifying to Tata Steel in 2011, where he defeated Magnus Carlsen in 22 moves. Giri has also represented the Netherlands at five Chess Olympiads, winning three individual bronze medals (2010, 2014, 2018). He was one of the members of Anand’s team during the World Championship Match against Topalov, which Anand won. In 2018 he tied for first with Magnus Carlsen in Tata Steel and finished second behind the World Champion in 2019 in the same tournament.
Hao Wang
Wang Hao is a Chinese chess grandmaster. In November 2009, Wang became the fourth Chinese player to break through the 2700 Elo rating mark. In 2019, he qualified for the 2020 Candidates Tournament by winning the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2019, making him the second male Chinese player to qualify for a Candidates Tournament.
Kirill Alekseenko
Kirill Alexeyevich Alekseenko is a Russian chess grandmaster. At the European Youth Chess Championship, he was the U10 champion in 2007, and the U16 champion in 2013. At the World U14 Chess Championship, Alekseenko won bronze in 2010, and gold in 2011. He then won silver and bronze in 2012 and 2013, respectively, at the World U16 Chess Championship. Alekseenko represented Russia on the third board at the 2019 European Team Chess Championship. He scored 4½/8 as Russia won gold.