Top Ten Chess players of all time!

PLEASE PUT YOUR FAVOURITE PLAYER IN THE COMMENTS!

10- Emanuel Lasker

 

Lasker was the second World Champion, taking the title from Steinitz. Until today he is the player who held the crown for the longer time years (from 1894 until 1921, when he was defeated by Capablanca).

One of his best games was the magnificent win against Capablanca 1914 The concept he showed with the move 12.f5! was really deep and is studied even today.

 

9- Mikhail Botvinnik

 

Considered the “Patriarch of Soviet Chess School”.

 His contribution to chess is gigantic, although he was not an active World Champion. But both Karpov and Kasparov studied with him, making his contribution to chess even greater.

His method of analysis and preparation was way above his time.

 

8- Vladimir Kramnik

 

Some may debate whether Kramnik can be considered a World Champion. After all he lost, in 1998, the match against Alexey Shirov, who should have been the real contender for the crown.

Ok, the way he qualified for the title match was not fair, since he enden being chosen by the organization, but we can’t deny that he was the only player ever to beat Kasparov in a match. And without losing a single game!

For more than 20 years he has been one of the top 5 players in the world. He has made great contributions to development of the game with hist classical games, usually positional masterpieces. Let’s even forgive him for making the irritating Berlin Defense so popular!

For all those reasons, Kramnik deserves the 8th place in my ranking list. But I know that many will not agree with this.

 

7- Viswanathan Anand

 

One of Kramnik’s great rivals, Anand is also on the top 5 for more than two decades. He played a dramatic match against Kasparov in 1995, when the World Champion’s energy proved too much for him.

Anand is one of the great talents of the game. 

Anand took the title from Kramnik convincingly in 2008 and had to bow to the unstoppable power of Magnus Carlsen in 2013.

Vishy still shows his class today, even with a chesswise advanced age (47), fighting on equal terms with the younger generation, as we can see from this brilliant wins against Caruana.

For all those reasons, Vishy Anand deserves the 7th spot in my list.

 

6- Anatoly Karpov

Karpov was World Champion during 10 years, from 1975 till 1985, when he lost the match to the  Kasparov in a moment that it was not very clear who was the best.

Karpov was cold as ice, with nerves of steel, with an enigmatic style of play. For him the most important was to avoid his opponent’s play. He was the supreme master os prophylaxis. And his play became stronger after he was already World Champion.

 

5- Magnus Carlsen

 

It’s very hard to write about someone who is still in his prime, with many brilliant years still ahead. Magnus is just 26 but he already deserves to be considered of the 5 best chess players ever.

Magnus is extraordinary  (that’s why he was nickname the “Mozart of Chess”) he astonished the world from an early age, becoming one of the younges grandmasters ever.

 Before him, top chess was dominated by openings analyzed to the death with the computer, with the vast majority of elite grandmasters studying lines past move 20 (anyone remembers the ridiculous Leko x Kramnik match, when many games ended in a quick draw and modern opening theory was blamed by the players?).

Carlsen showed that chess can – and should – be fought on the board. He almost never win games due to opening preparation and deliberately searches for less theoretical paths.

Can he become the best chess player ever? Only time can tell.

 

4- José Raul Capablanca

 

What can we say about the figure of the cuban José Raul Capablanca? So much has been said about him that it’s even difficult to separate legend from reality. It’s said he learnt to play chess at the age of 4, watching his father play. And many say he only lost the match against Alekhine because he was certain of victory and didn’t take the match seriously.

The fact is that he is (probably) the biggest natural talent ever. But this incredible talent made things, let’s say, a little too easy for him. For this reason he never had to work too hard.

 

3- Alexander Alekhine

His playing style was much ahead of his time. He was able to break the laws of positional chess with concrete play – to him everything needed to be evaluated according the the unique elements of each position.

It’s not by chance that Alekhine is Kasparov’s idol. Their playing styles are very similar.

For all these reasons Alekhine deserves the number 3 spot in my list.

 

2- Garry Kasparov

 

He was the player with the best opening preparation in the history of the game and made a smooth transition to the computer age.

Kasparov was also a brilliant strategist. When he faced Karpov in their first match he was still somewhat “fresh”. In a few games the score was already 5-0 to the seasoned World Champion. The match would end if a sixth victory happened.

What Kasparov did then was magnificent. He started playing solid (contrary to his style), imitating Karpov’s openings. This resulted in the longest drawing streak in a world championship match and the duel was cancelled after months of battle, when the score was already 5-3. A new match was arranged and Kasparov won. 

His contibution to the development of the game is second to none. He showed a superior understanding of positions with material inbalances and with the initiative. Like Alekhine, he sought the most energetic solution since the first move. His games in the Najdorf, the King’s Indian, the English Opening and King’s Pawn in general are models even for modern standards.

Even with all that he is still number 2 in my list. Because no one could ever surpass the feats of…

 

1- Bobby Fischer

 

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A child prodigy and the character of a champion made Fischer the youngest grandmaster of his time, at the age of 15. 

He had a mysterious personality and was capable of leaving an Interzonal while leading and stop playing chess for large periods of time. We can only speculate what he did between 1968 an

In the “match of the century” he beat Boris Spassky easily, even after losing the first game in a completely drawn position and the second one by not showing up.

And after that…emptiness. Fischer refused to defend his title against the young Karpov. Many years later he played another match against Spassky, but he was no longer the same.