who would be best chess player in lord of the rings and why?

smeagol because he looks like dobbie from harry potter

Definitely Gandalf because he's a wise old grey beard.

tom bombadil, hed be great at tactics, plus he has the time. or maybe sauron, I hear naka calls him"magnus carlsen"

Gandalf the Grey!

The Balrog would win on forfeit very often I think...

You mean, besides Eru? I'd have to go with Gandalf.

Althrough he started out the tournament quite strong, the Balrog drew his game with Mithrandir and never returned.

Gandalf reeked of smoke when he returned, and he continued to vanquish opponent after opponent.

His habit of staring at opponents' rings was reportedly quite unnerving.

Treebeard may be too ponderous to be good at shorter time controls. In correspondence chess he'd be almsot unbeatable

It'd have to be an elf elder wouldn't it? Someone like galadriel or Elrond

Saruman the White, but only before he abandoned reason for madness.

I can't see the elves having much time to practice chess or study theory. The dwarves are too busy mining for gold in the mountains. All of the Wizards are preoccupied with a greater matters. I would definitely pick one of the hobbits. Perhaps the gaffer.

Galadriel, she'd look into her magic pool of water and see the next move.

Regards,

Lou

Sauron ,his depth of vision ,his overwhelming force in attack ,defences rarely if ever breached

Saruman.

He would sit across the board from you, and say things like "Go ahead........move your knight to the queenside.......you don't like that ugly piece in the center........you WANT it on the edge..........it will thank you, if you do........."

That must be Círdan the Shipwright. He is one of the oldest beings in Middle Earth, right up there with the Ents and Tom Bombadil. But Bombadil wouldnt play chess at all - he would rather topple the chess board and make a song about it - and the Ents would be so slow that they lost on time every time.

Cirdan has one more advantage over Gandalf, Elrond, Sauron and the others that surely would be among the best chess players. The others are BUSY BUSY BUSY with wars, rings, dragons, hobbits and what not.

Cirdan isnt busy, he doesnt DO anything, he just sits there in the Grey Havens doing nothing whatsoever, I guess he is supposed to guard it or something but its easy since nobody ever attacked it in 5000 years - he is the being that has the most time on his hand to study chess than anybody else in MiddleEarth.

Boromir.  He fights to the death!!

Hehe it was more a "suicide by orcs" thing, in an IMO vain attempt to restore his honor. I see him more as a player that would try to loose all his games to punish himself for trying to take the ol' ring.