Best chess player ever

It's almost as though the previous posters forget that the skill of each of the players they mention is based on the work of those who came before. Would Kasparov or Karpov be THAT good, if there hadn't been a Fischer, Tal, Nimzovich or Morphy ? Also, today's players have computers, databases and other resources that the other grandmasters did not.

Fischer was likely the greatest tournament player of all time. Remember that, while the Soviets had batteries of grandmasters providing Fischer's opponents with prepared variations, Fischer pretty much had to figure out the answers ON HIS OWN -- EVEN OVER THE BOARD. He occasionally had help by a second (like Reverend Lombardy), but he didn't just smash Taimanov or Petrosian; he blasted the guys behind them, too !

Fischer or Kasparov

I'd say Kasparov, but if you are talking with colleration to the era of play I would probably go with Tal or Alekhine.

was reading about Botvinik he was world champion for many years then he beat at the time a very good player to be world champ again agained Tal then years later trained the to best players of there day KARPOV and KASPAROV soitas to be Botvinik.

 How does this 10 years compare to for example Philidor who was a century ahead; pretty much same goes for Greco.

Mike tyson will kick your ass..
but yet, it's a good example

Maybe we could change it to that...you're favourite player(s), and why.

 If you read up on Paul Morphy, you'll discover that he was so far ahead of his peers that he came to a point where he wouldn't play anyone without at least giving them the odds of a pawn.

  1. Fischer

  2. Capablanca

  3. Tal

1. Morphy

2.lasker

3. Fisher.

1. Fischer

2. Capablanca/Lasker

3. Morphy

All the newer guys have more resources, but these 3 above never had computers.  Also, capablanca was extremely good at speed chess, even for a GM level guy.  That indicates his level above his peers.

Lasker just was a freak of nature at chess for a long time.

Part of me wants to put some good positional players on the list just because they gained the ability to not lose, and we'd all like that as chess players :)

You cannot compare players who played 80 years ago and now. Nowadays players have advantage of theory evolution. If everyone had the same conditions, than J.R.Capablanka would be the best player ever...

"Morphy was probably the greatest genuis of them all." ~ Bobby Fischer

"Paul Morphy was the greatest player that ever lived." ~Dr. Emanuel Lasker

"Morphy was the master of all phases of the game, stronger than any of his opponents, even the strongest of them." ~Alexander Alekhine

"The magnificent American master had the most extraordinary brain that anybody has ever had for chess." ~Jose Raul Capablanca

"I consider Mr. Morphy the finest chess player who ever existed." ~Adolf Anderssen

"A popularly held theory about Paul Morphy is that if he returned to the chess world today and played our best contemporary players, he would come out the loser. Nothing is further from the truth. In a set match, Morphy would beat anybody alive today... Morphy was perhaps the most accurate chess player who ever lived. He had complete sight of the board and never blundered, in spite of the fact that he played quite rapidly, rarely taking more than five minutes to decide a move. Perhaps his only weakness was in closed games like the Dutch Defense. But even then, he was usually victorious because of his resourcefulness." ~ Bobby Fischer.

Thanks for the quotes. Do you want me to continue that trend with quotes praising every other person who have had the honor of sitting on the world champion title, or at least being the best of his time?

I can assure you, there are many for each of them:P

I like this quote from GM Raymond Keene: "Discussions of who was the greatest ever player are always fun, but naturally will often collapse into partisan declarations of faith or endless gnawing at historical bones of diverse provenance."

 Wrong.

They played 27 games, according Wall's site, with Morphy scoring 19, Barnes 8.

Not many of the games are preserved and I assume Wall gets his score from Edge's account of the time.

Edge says Morphy won the last 10 or 12 games straight.

Sergeant's book on Morphy says Morphy won 19 and lost 7, in level games.

Chessbase has what I presume are all the verified games between them, and it  gives eight level games played between them, with Morphy scoring +6 -2 =0.

Kasparov... for sure he was amazing..... but he couldn't beat deep blue though? I mean the worlds greatest chess player lost to a machine? which leads to a question who programmed the machine? him/she/or they are the greatest chess player[s] in the world!!

 Correct. And the inventors of the car are the best long distance runners.