Highest IQ Chess Players Ever — Records

Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen — the highest-IQ chess minds.

1. Edith Stern

   1952–present · United States
   200
2. Nikola Tesla

   1856–1943 · HR
   195
3. Voltaire

   1694–1778 · France
   190
4. Garry Kasparov

   1963–present · AZ
   190
5. Alan Turing

   1912–1954 · England
   185
6. Percy Williams Bridgman

   1882–1961 · United States
   185
7. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

   1646–1716 · Germany
   182
8. Augustine of Hippo

   0354–0430 · DZ
   180
9. Benjamin Franklin

   1706–1790 · United States
   180
10. Claude Shannon

    1916–2001 · United States
    180
11. Denis Diderot

    1713–1784 · France
    180
12. Galileo Galilei

    1564–1642 · Italy
    180
13. Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau

    1749–1791 · France
    180
14. Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

    1627–1704 · France
    180
15. Jeremy Bentham

    1748–1832 · United Kingdom
    180
16. Napoleon Bonaparte

    1769–1821 · France
    180
17. Torquato Tasso

    1544–1595 · Italy
    180
18. Alfred Russel Wallace

    1823–1913 · United Kingdom
    175
19. Elizabeth I

    1533–1603 · United Kingdom
    175
20. Gerolamo Cardano

    1501–1576 · Italy
    175
21. Marcel Duchamp

    1887–1968 · France
    175
22. Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke

    1678–1751 · United Kingdom
    175
23. Henry Thomas Buckle

    1821–1862 · United Kingdom
    175
24. Lope de Vega

    1562–1635 · Spain
    175
25. Anne Robert Jacques Turgot

    1727–1781 · France
    170
26. Benjamin Constant

    1767–1830 · Switzerland
    170
27. François de La Rochefoucauld (writer)

    1613–1680 · France
    170
28. Georges Cuvier

    1769–1832 · France
    170
29. Judit Polgár

    1976–present · Hungary
    170
30. Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi

    0854–0932 · IR
    170
31. William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

    1708–1778 · United Kingdom
    170
32. Abu Bakr bin Yahya al-Suli

    0870–0941 · Turkey
    170
33. Geoffrey Chaucer

    1340–1400 · England
    165
34. George Frideric Handel

    1685–1759 · Germany
    165
35. Joseph Fouché

    1759–1820 · France
    165
36. Joseph Priestley

    1733–1804 · England
    165
37. Moses Mendelssohn

    1729–1786 · Germany
    165
38. Richard Brinsley Sheridan

    1751–1816 · Ireland
    165
39. Theodore Beza

    1519–1605 · France
    165
40. Walter Scott

    1771–1832 · Scotland
    165

How we ranked this list

Filtered on chess-related work in known-for or description fields.