Best non world champion

Hello everyone who do you think is the best chess player that hasn’t become a world champion 

I believe it was Paul Keres. I've been meaning to study his games. There is a two volume collection of his games with annotations that you can buy. But technically, you could argue that it was Paul Morphy as the world tittle didn't exist during his time as a chess player. 

I haven’t looked at many of Paul Keres games but I’ve heard he was a great player. Also Morphy was basically the unofficial world champion at the time so he doesn’t really count.

Good point! Out of the bunch, for me, studying Paul Keres would be the more exciting player to study as I'm interested in his attacking style. He apparently won or tied for first in AVROS 1938, one of the strongest tournaments ever held, and in his career defeated 9 world champions. I believe part of the reason he never become world champ is because of WWII which makes sense if he was at or near his peak in 1938. 

@ricorat, are you planning on studying players of the past? Or just curious? 

I’m mostly curious but maybe in the future I’ll study them

Ok. Best of luck with your chess!

You too!

@theendgame this is off topic but I like your profile picture. Tool is one of my favorite bands 

I say Korchnoi - He was playing at world-champion level strength during the 78 cycle, fought  Karpov/outmatched Petrosian three times, and showed breathtaking longevity including beating Caruana at the age of 80.

I'd say Caruana is the best non world champion.  Maybe he will be some day, maybe not.

each era has their own, of course. zukertort from the early days, pillbury from early on in lasker's days, then akiba later on. after that, keres, during the 60s, korchnoi wasnt deserving of it, but he proved himself later on, so korchnoi. 90s and early 2000s are both shirov and ivanchuk imo. nowadays, i think radjabov is a good contender, caruana, but we have yet to see where they will go, so its hard to assess it yet.

I agree

He makes great album covers! I haven’t seen any of his other artwork though 

Keres is certainly a strong contender as best player never to win WCC. In addition to the two volume best games by Varnusz (approx 200 games in each) there is also Keres' own annotations to his best games. Originally a three volume set (Early, Middle and Later years) in descriptive notation, it was reissued as a two volume set (The Road to the Top and In Quest of Perfection) in algebraic notation with additional notes by John Nunn. Both three and two volume versions are relatively easy to pick up second hand (eg BIbio.com). They are well worth it as Keres was also a brilliant annotator. There is a Reinfeld collection of his earlier games that is good and the Keres Move by Move by Zenon Franco is also excellent.  World Champion or not, his games are a pleasure to play over, typically direct and clear.

Worth also adding Bronstein and Schlechter to list of possible greatest non champions. Both tied a match for WCC, former to Botvinnik, latter to Lasker. Neither though had the longevity at the very highest level that Keres or Korchnoi had. 

^^ Yes, indeed. Schlechter, in particular, is highly underrated.

 Pillsbury