Who is the greatest chess player of all time ?? Bobby Fischer ??

Kasparov was only 37 when he couldnt win a single game against Kramnik so I challenge you to produce any other WC who failed to win a game in a serious match before the age of 40 and after becoming WC .  

"I challenge you to produce any other WC who failed to win a game in a serious match before the age of 40 and after becoming WC"

Kramnik in the Candidates matches in 2011.

Yes , and in 1980 he was 51 already and would be dead in 1984 .  Is that really comparable ?   I don't think so . The Kramnik / Kasparov match was very strange to me and I think it was probably fixed from the beginning . 

Fair enough !  I also don't consider him " awesome " . He also failed to win a single game in his match against Shirov , the winner of which was supposed to play Kasparov for the title but the loser got hand picked by Kasparov instead . 

Definitely Bobby. He learned chess almost on his own. He didnt have the advantages of the Russian GM's. And his will to win all the time (draws should not count!) is second to none, in my opinion. In this regard, Magnus Carlsen is like him.

Reb is brilliant!!

If he says Bobby was king, that's good enough for me.

FISCHER IS NUMBER1

It's also nice to see pfren's off-white responses to noobs. It's like the bar security comes along and stands on the guys face. There's just no arguing with it.

Paul Morphy. Destroyed opponents while taking around 1/5 of the time per move. Beat every great in his day except Staunton (who refused to play him) universally accepted as the #1, and was completely self taught. Retired still unchallenged at 21 to never play again. If he could do all that without even trying, I would hate to see what he could do even against todays greats if he took the time to catch up and study today's masters.

Paul only began playing after he showed his uncle and father a 8 move forced mate at age 9 when they weren't even aware he knew how to play (he had just been watching them play several games). Even then, it was only at his family's insistence he ever really started competing. Since he retired at 21 after having beaten everyone, my guess is he was so good it was actually just boring.

I'm not the chess historian that others here might be, but I have never seen a better player than Fischer in his prime.  The various rating systems don't factor in the fact that Fischer fought almost single-handedly against the Soviet system and didn't have their support system.  For me, Fischer had the most natural talent and on his best days could beat anyone in the world consistently.  Kasparov had more longetivity and a better career.  Karpov would have been destroyed by Fischer.  I never liked Karpov and thought all he did was analyze a system to death with very little intuitive thought, and then played for a draw.  Fischer would have recognized this and gotten him into systems outside of his comfort zone and beaten him handily.  Fischer backed out of the championship over money and the pro-Soviet rigged system, and probably because his mental stability was going haywire. 

Fischer never played Karpov, therefore it is speculative to suggest that Fischer would have beaten Karpov " handily "

When Karpov was beating Kasparov 5 games to zero in their first world championship match...was he playing for a draw ?

" Karpov would have been destroyed by Fischer " Hmmm...again, pure conjecture.

Yeah. You may want to play through the games of Karpov. He really showed his desire to win as Black. If you don't want to look at his games, at least take a look at his unprecedented tournament record.

It is absolutely true that Karpov is one of the greatest ever and probably slightly underrated.Personally,I consider him a bit unlucky,in that the two World Champions before and after him were so special and strong that they somehow overshadowed him.Inevitably Karpov was measured mainly against Fischer and Kasparov and that certainly did not help him.

Fischer was the best player in history, but even he said " The only American in history that might beat me is Morphy

Mikhail tal is the best ever

Kasparov - he lasted the longest 

Not as long as Lasker though.

mikhail tal beat bobby fischer

Capablanca, Kasparov and Fischer 

The superstars are all great, but I think Lasker, Kasparov and Carlsen have done better than most in health and physical/mental stamina. this aspect is crucial for staying on top for a long time.

The wizzard from Riga, Mikhail Tal, truly was a supergenious, but I think healthproblems was in his way. Fischer too had his problems. When Kasparov overtook Karpov, Karpov was tired (and a couple decades older). Chess is a lot more about stamina than onlineplayers think. If you play longchesstournament otb , you know. It is very hard to press your brain for tactical calculation after 3, 4 ,5 or 6 hours of hard concentration. Continuously. Do that in a wc-match, day after day ater day after day after day after....