Who is the best chess player in the world?

Houdini 3

This particular game looks more like cribbage than chess.

It does doesn't it,no playing cards though. I wreckon todays chessboard should have 65 squares, Maybe to put a hot beverage on or somwhere to hide your king in times of strife.

"Ajedrez is not only the Spanish word for shatranj, but also the Spanish word for our modern chess. The same is true for the Portuguese xadrez..."

Exactly, these terms were the Spanish and Portuguese equivalent for shatranj.  The Musilms occupied there areas and introduced their game. The Spanish adopted the name and the game, but while the game evolved into something else, the name was preserved.  So, while both chess and shatranj were known as ajedrez in Spain, chess was never known as shatranj elsewhere, but shatranj was known as such elsewhere.  That seems an important distinction.  I'm not by any stretch an etymologist and I don't know Arabic, but if the word shatranj was created by 19th century scholars, I'm at a loss to see how the Spanish term ajedrez developed from shatanj in the start of the second millenium.  In fact, what scholars do seem to agree upon is that the word shatanj developed from the Indian or Sanskrit word chaturanga.

There's no doubt the chess and Shatranj are very similar, although Shatranj used a non-checkered surface (usually paper, later leather and occasionally a lacquered board), non-representive pieces, different moves for the Fers (later the chess Queen) and the Alfil (later the chess Bishop), had no castling, ended the game by capturing the King, Stalemating the King, or demolishing his army - all this compared to le viel jeu des eschés (old chess), not to mention the great changes that occurred with la dame enragée (modern chess).  Still, some rules and movements were very similar, but there were enough disparities to consider them separate game, particularly since chess veered off and shatranj continued on.

Chess seems to be derived not directly from the Arabic shah, but from eschés which was the medieval French form of éschec which, again according to Murray, derived from the Latin scaccus or ludus scaccorum which did, however, derive from the Arabic.  But the French got their word from the Romans, not the Muslims.

I'm not crediting, discrediting or even concerned with the history of checkered surfaces (in fact,  shatranj was played on a non-checkered surface); I'm only interested in the development of chess as chess.

What color ish green?

green.

And there I thought the discussion was about who the best player is.

Not tectonically

Hey, no fair getting tectonic on us!

Yeah, pastakinglegendseems pretty adept at ignoring posts that are inconvenient to him.

I don't know who the best chess player in the world is. It's one of four players,

• Vishy Anand, the world champion. Despite his poor showing this year he still has the title until someone defeats him in a match.
• Magnus Carlsen, the highest rated player in history. His tournament results have been truly spectacular, but he has yet to prove himself in match play against the best in the world. Having the highest rating does not necessarily make you the best in the world. In tennis, being #1 in the world is not as important as winning the Grand Slams. In chess, the important thing is to become the World Champion.
• Vladimir Kramnik. He's the second highest rated player in the world at the moment and a former world champion. He could easily become the next world champion.
• Levon Aronian. Like Carlsen, he has yet to prove his superiority in match play. But also like Carlsen, he has had many spectacular tournament results and may be the next player to break 2850.

Not that it's relevant, but the Himalayas form a much harder boundary than the Urals or the Bosphorus do. The people look a lot different from one side to the other. I think they deserve a higher status than "sub continent"...... maybe incontinent

Tectonically Pangea is Where chess was invented and why everyone speaks English.My great grandfather to the power of 10 grew up by a hot spring and i had a great aunt that once lived on the ass of a tyrannasaurus.When she died she was buried somewhere on the KT boundry,forever fossilised in Sh*t,never been found!God rest her soul..

Thats got to be worth a vote

The more you quote

The more you vote

How mant i got now PKL

I vote for Stevie65.... he's chess royalty and no mistake.

Steve you are very popular, you might win!!! So far seeing who people have voted for, I am surprised that there are no votes for gollum

There is a guy in my town ,Roy Henderson ,he is totally crap at chess but is the best darts player I have ever seen

capablanca :D

This pretty much says it better than anyone here ever can.

Sorry if it has been mentioned somewhere in this very long and popular forum.

"Chess Oscar is an international award given to the best chess player every year. The winner is selected by a poll of chess experts across the world, including Grandmasters." 

It's Carlsen 2009, 2010, 2011 and no reason to think it wont be 2012 also.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_Oscar

Yes only that's if you make the assumption that  the question implies "living best player" and not "current best player".  I would think that since we are talking about living players, sense would suggest we also mean current best player. I am a great Kasparov fan but, if Carlsen and Kasparov were to play today.  Who would win?  I think that is actual and the most pertinent question.  Who is the world's current best player if they played today!!  That should be the title of this forum. It's Carlsen.