Euwe was very fortunate to become WC -- as Alekhine played several WC games against him drunk...........Smyslov, Petrosian, Spassky and Botvinnik -- as Botvinnik was fond of saying -- the WC is first among equals............and so, those 4 -- though very strong did not have an aura of invincibility.
I like your list of the strongest ex WC as Tal, Karpov, and Kasparov -- all very active, dominating players. Bobby FIscher was not active as a former WC -- so you rightfully left him off your list.
Kasparov should be first on that list, he was clear #1 the years after losing the title, while winning every event he played.
And let's not talk about Bobby Fisher.
Why not?
Actually, Magnus and Bobby are remarkably similar. They both give up their title at the height of their career. These two guys are the only ones to do so in the history of world championships, but if we go back further in time, there is of course Paul Morphy.
If you are going for the dubious title "strongest ex-WC", this is the way to go: give it up while you are still young, before age and fatigue erodes your strength.
The main difference is that Paul and Bobby quit chess entirely, while Magnus won't (hopefully).
Magnus Carlsen.
Magnus Carlsen.
It's great to see that you read and understood the opening post. Good job, keep it up!
It’s probably debatable to rank for example Anand and Kramnik as successful ex-Champions while suggesting Lasker and Steinitz were in the unsuccessful group. Lasker lost the title when he was 52 years old. He won his following events, among them New York 1924 ahead of for example World Champion Capablanca and Alekhine. He then finished second in Moscow 1925, ahead of Capa. His results were good enough for him to be ranked as #1 by Chessmetrics more than five years after he lost the title, while being 58 years old.
Steinitz was almost 58 already when he lost the title, but scored decent results after that. At least decent enough to be ranked 4th by Chessmetrics at the time of his final event, when he was 63. Anand and Kramnik were strong players also after losing the title, and the competition was tougher in their time. But some kind of Lasker bad Kramnik good description after losing title is probably to underestimate Lasker.
Lasker was unbeaten when finishing 0.5 behind first placed Botvinnik and Flohr (but ahead of Capa) in Moscow 1935, and that was 14 years after losing the title, while 66 years old. Kramnik played his last event 11 years after losing the title, when 42 years old, finishing last in Wijk. Ok, that was an unusual result for him, and Lasker did play little after losing the title. But when he did he was doing well enough. Anand lost the title almost nine years ago and is still top ten, which is great, even if not unprecedented. Smyslov lost the title in 1958 and played the Candidates final against Kasparov in 1984.
Spassky was top ten on the FIDE rating list in 1987, 15 years after losing the title. Petrosian’s last time in the top ten was 14 years after losing the title, Smyslov’s 26. But as Anand they were not stable top ten all the time. Anand was outside the top ten on for example the 35 rating lists before the last one, where he is 9th. Kramnik was top ten on most of the lists during the eleven years after 2007, but then he was younger when retiring than Anand was when losing the title so difficult to compare.
Kasparov didn’t play all that many events the four and a half years he was active before retiring, but he did win six tournaments in that time and stayed #1. It still remains to be seen if Carlsen can beat that. Probably if he still will be playing classical events five years from now, but if he will do that remains to be seen.
Magnus Carlsen.
It's great to see that you read and understood the opening post. Good job, keep it up!
Thanx.
As an “ex-world champion” any one of them must be considered strong. As to which is the strongest has and will always be hotly debated. Once Magnus is the “ex”, he’ll have my vote. Just my $0.02 as a mere novice.
Carlsen will soon be the strongest ex-world-champion ever - the player who is strongest even after losing his title.
What are other strong and successful ex-world-champions? The following come to mind:
Other ex world champions were less successful. Steinitz and Lasker played chess for a few more years after losing their title, but ended their competitive career soon. Aljechin died. And let's not talk about Bobby Fisher.
What about others? How strong were Euwe, Smyslov, Petrosjan and Spasski after losing their title?