Are you certain about that? The game he won against Donald Byrne was nice, but this is how the tournament table looks:

http://chessbase.com/news/2006/fischer08.gif

Kasparov was younger than that when he won the Soviet Under 18 Championship. There were many very strong 17-18 year olds in the Soviet Union but Kasparov won while still only 12. The following year he won again, scoring 8.5/9. I don't think Fischer was "at an insanely higher level at age 13", both were very talented.

Honestly when I 1st starting playing chess around 20+ yrs ago I thought Fischer was the greatest ever.  I really liked his simple but precise style when reviewing his games.  Of course this changed.  If anyone has spent any time going over Kasparov games its really difficult to understand how anyone could not conclude Kasparov is the greatest.  Fischer had a chance to be the best if only he kept playing while WC.  However  we now understand he had serious mental instabilities which prevented him from his full potential.  Kasparov and even Karpov played brilliantly after winning the WC with everyone gunning for them for years.  Almost every type of measurement, even computer analysis of games, puts Kasparov above the rest.

Fischer was the greatest chess player that has ever lived and Kasparov a close second. ( Please let this be the last post!)

Mine would've been the last post if you hadn't butted your ugly head in again...

I think it's telling that these threads are never resurrected after months of inactivity with "Wooo! Go Kaparov. Garry iz the bestest, he had more iq's" comments

Equals but in differnt eras.........

Look at Kasparov's IQ and Fischer's IQ 

Gary Kasparov: IQ Score 190

Bobby Fischer: IQ Score 187

If the roles were reversed with the era and advent of computers they would be virtually equal in strength and weaknesses. They are both my favorite players of the game and style of play were different between the two. Both are brilliant at the board game! Does not matter how young they were when they first started chess, it is what they both have accomplished since!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, it is always Fischer fans, and it's odd, because unlike comparisons between Anand and Lasker or Karpov and Capablanca, Fischer and Kasparov had overlapping lives.  They could have played.

It was of course Fischer's choice, and his alone, that he never played Karpov, Kasparov, Anand, Ivanchuk, or Kramnik.  Even if he didn't play a FIDE title match, he could have commanded the top appearance fees and conditions for any tournament he wished to play, and the sponsorship for any non-FIDE match (the Soviets prevented any chance of a non-FIDE match with Karpov in 1975) with any player.

The only reason there is an argument about who is better is because Fischer refused to play these guys.  That should tell you something.

Fischer a genius ?

May be he was ,but he was also working very hard to improve his knowledge ,spending all his time on it .

Kasparov a genius ?

He was a talented player ,who used any new technologies to improve his level and proved he was a wonderful player .

What about a match Fischer vs Kasparov ,if Fischer hadn't stop his carreer too soon ?
I think Fischer would have won ,because of his full "focused on chess" mind ,and because he would also had the same opportunities about infos,technologies on chess .

It would have been the match of the millenium ,for sure :)

Oh great, so now we've managed to combine a Fish vs Kasp thread with an IQ thread...

Not a question of IQ ,just the fact that for Fischer ,chess was everything ... and not for Kasparov

I'm sure there have been lots of people who suck for whom chess was everything...

The moral is don't touch Andy's food.

Or make Andy want to stick his head in a Cuisinart.

Oh great, and now my "posted-in-topics" thingie shows me 2 Fish vs Kasp threads (with exactly the same title) BACK TO BACK!!!

They didn't work that hard, they simply read a few books written by far better players then them.  I think Fischer skipped the etiquette part though .

Kasparov did have more technology though, he didn't just have books, he also had movies!