Chess is Love: The Strongest Chess Couples of All Time

Image courtesy of Ruchess.ru
Alexander Grischuk (#7 on the open FIDE rankings) and Kateryna Lagno (#5 on the women’s FIDE rankings) are arguably the strongest chess couple in the world.

As we just celebrated St. Valentine’s Day, it is the perfect moment to appreciate how many strong chess players have met their significant others thanks to sharing a passion for the royal game. You will notice that quite a few of the couples include people from different countries – chess pros do love traveling and making new romantic acquaintances!😍

The list below is probably not exhaustive and is based on publicly available information. It only features couples that were allegedly officially married and, according to our rules, the combined highest ratings of the players should exceed the magic 5000 threshold – two times the number associated with the GM title (2500). The pairs that are no longer intact for one reason or another are marked as (X).

The federations of the players are provided as of now. There seemed to be only two couples where the wife was higher-rated than the husband. Those are marked bold.

We apologize in advance for any potential mistakes, such as accidentally missing certain couples or providing flawed/outdated information.

GM Alexander Grischuk (2810), Russia – GM Kateryna Lagno (2560), Russia = 5370
GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (2787), Ukraine – IM Alisa Galliamova (2554), Russia = 5341 (X)
GM Alexander Grischuk (2810), Russia – GM Natalia Zhukova (2499), Ukraine = 5309 (X)
GM Alexei Shirov (2755), Spain – GM Viktorija Cmilyte (2528), Lithuania = 5283 (X)
GM Ivan Cheparinov (2718), Bulgaria – GM Antoaneta Stefanova (2560), Bulgaria = 5278
GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek (2750), Poland – IM Alina Kashlinskaya (2494), Russia = 5244
GM Anish Giri (2797), Netherlands – IM Sopiko Guramishvili (2441), Netherlands = 5238
GM Peter Heine Nielsen (2700), Denmark – GM Viktorija Cmilyte (2528), Lithuania = 5228
GM Bu Xiangzhi (2731), China – WGM Huang Qian (2494), China = 5225
GM Laurent Fressinet (2718), France – IM Almira Skripchenko (2501), France = 5219
GM Pavel Tregubov (2658), Russia – GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (2561), Russia = 5219
GM Daniel Fridman (2670), Germany – GM Anna Zatonskih (2537), USA = 5207
GM Leonid Kritz (2624), Germany – GM Nadezhda Kosintseva (2576), Russia = 5200
GM Joel Lautier (2687), France – IM Almira Skripchenko (2501), France = 5188 (X)
GM Arkadij Naiditsch (2737), Azerbaijan – IM Yulia Shvayger (2442), Israel = 5179
GM Bartosz Socko (2661), Poland – GM Monika Socko (2505), Poland = 5166
GM Peng Xiaomin (2657), China – WGM Qin Kanying (2501), China = 5158
GM Gata Kamsky (2763), USA – WGM Vera Nebolsina (2389), Russia = 5152
GM Richard Rapport (2763), Hungary – WGM Jovana Rapport (2388), Serbia = 5151
GM Rauf Mamedov (2709), Azerbaijan – IM Natalya Buksa (2437), Ukraine = 5146
GM Sergey Karjakin (2788), Russia – WIM Kateryna Dolzhykova (2351), Ukraine = 5139 (X)
GM Levon Aronian (2830), Armenia – WIM Arianne Caoili (2309), Australia = 5139 (X)
GM Mohammad Al-Modiakhi (2588), Qatar – GM Zhu Chen (2548), Qatar = 5136
GM Robert Fontaine (2572), France – GM Kateryna Lagno (2560), Russia = 5132 (X)
GM Alexander Morozevich (2788), Russia – WGM Mariya Fominykh (2335), Russia = 5123
GM Sergei Movsesian (2751), Armenia – WGM Julia Movsesian (2369), Slovakia = 5120
GM Wu Shaobin (2545), Singapore – GM Xie Jun (2574), China = 5119
GM Oleg Korneev (2671), Spain – WGM Tatiana Kononenko (2442), Ukraine = 5113
GM Sergei Movsesian (2751), Armenia – WGM Petra Krupkova (2362), Czech Republic = 5113 (X)
GM Suat Atalik (2632), Serbia – IM Ekaterina Atalik (2481), Turkey = 5113
GM Maxim Turov (2667), Russia – IM Irina Turova (2442), Russia = 5109
GM Alexander Morozevich (2788), Russia – WIM Anna Dorofeeva (2320) = 5108 (X)
GM Andrei Kharlov (2656), Russia – IM Elena Zaiatz (2449), Russia = 5105 (X)
GM Miguel Illescas Cordoba (2640), Spain – IM Olga Alexandrova (2462), Spain = 5102
GM Zhang Zhong (2667), China – WGM Li Ruofan (2433), China = 5100
GM Erwin L’Ami (2651), Netherlands – IM Alina L’Ami (2446), Romania = 5097
GM Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen (2665), Vietnam – WGM Le Thao Nguyen Pham (2426), Vietnam = 5091
GM Grzegorz Gajewski (2653), Poland – WGM Joanna Majdan-Gajewski (2418), Poland = 5071
GM Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez (2510), Sweden – GM Pia Cramling (2550), Sweden = 5060
GM Yuri Drozdovskij (2620), Ukraine – WGM Natalia Zdebskaja (2438), Ukraine = 5058
GM Yona Кosashvili (2549), Israel – IM Sofia Polgar (2505), Hungary = 5054
GM Boris Gulko (2644), USA – WGM Anna Akhsharumova (2400), USA = 5044
GM Alexander Areschenko (2720), Ukraine – WGM Kateryna Areschenko (2318), Ukraine = 5038
GM Zoltan Gyiemesi (2628), Hungary – IM Nora Medvegy (2407), Hungary = 5035
GM Vadim Malakhatko (2621), Belgium – IM Anna Zozulia (2412), Belgium = 5033
GM Maxim Rodshtein (2710), Israel – WGM Tereza Rodshtein (2320), Czech Republic = 5030
GM Arman Pashikian (2663), Armenia – WGM Maria Kursova (2366), Armenia = 5029
GM Artem Timofeev (2690), Russia – WGM Ekaterina Timofeeva (2331), Russia = 5021
GM Pascal Charbonneau (2517), France – GM Irina Krush (2502), USA = 5019 (X)
GM Alexei Shirov (2755), Spain – WIM Olga Dolgova (2262), Latvia = 5017 (X)
GM Zhao Jun (2641), China – WGM Gu Xiaobing (2371), China = 5012
GM Viesturs Meijers (2529), Latvia – IM Inna Gaponenko (2482), Ukraine = 5011
GM Igor Miladinovic (2630), Serbia – WGM Anna-Maria Botsari (2380), Greece = 5010 (X)
GM Bogdan Lalic (2600), England – IM Susan Lalic (2405), England = 5005 (X)
GM Mateusz Bartel (2677), Poland – WGM Marta Bartel (2327), Poland = 5004

Our “close, but not quite there” award goes to the following fantastic couple that missed the rating threshold by only two points:

GM Evgeny Tomashevsky (2758), Russia – WIM Lidia Tomashevskaya (2240), Russia = 4998