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

Mikhail Tal beat 16-year old Bobby Fischer four times in the 1959 Bled Candidates Tournament.  Tal was at the peak of his career.

He never beat Fischer again.  Fischer therefter had a 2+ 5= 0- score against Tal.

Nobody is great enough to beat Fisher when being sick or drunk. I am not sure when Tal was sober and well, but I guess there is a statistic correlation between his health and his wins.

The greatest chess player of all time is Carlos Torre Reppeto. He gave a lot to chess for two years, he took back nothing and he left from it feeling abhorrent for people and society. The human nature identify the greatness from winning results. If Fischer didn't ever achieved the 72 goal he will be considered as a patzer, as a another Bent Larsen or Paul Benko. No one ever dare to compare Karpov's chess with Paul Keres because Keres didn't achieve anything! Petrosian won the title but in to my eyes he is not better from Geller. Kasparov played better chess before he starts winning. After 1990 Garry Kasparov is a winning machine but not a better chess player, so what is so glorious in that? Botvinnik was world champion for twenty years, why no one remembers his chess?

Reading your comments leads one to the following conclusions:a)The obvious one,that is, Carlos Torre is the best ever. b)Bent Larsen and Pal Benko were patzers.c)Kasparov became a worse player as he started to win more often d)Nobody remembers Botvinnik's games e)People have been grossly misled into believing that the purpose of a chess game is to win..

a) Reppeto was the best ever served chess b) Paul Benko was a Patzer, Larsen no c) Kasparov admitted that it's not mine d) I remember how to play blindfold at least three games of Fischer, two of Tal's, two of Kasparov, one from Keres-Smyslov-Petrosian but none from Botvinnik. e) People gave 10 billion $ to go to the moon and discover that there are only rooks! Our stupidity cost to much.

Only rooks? thats boring. Then we have to fill a rocket with bishops, pawns, kings, queens and  knights to have some fun up there.

The greatest chess player of all time is clearly Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Nah!...we will find more excuses as usually. For example " I want it to put my knight on d5 but gravity didn't let me to do so " . Perhaps if we invest another 20 billion $ in facilities it might work, we can borrow that from Greece.

I'm a big fan of MVL and his playing style. I hope he gets to play in a few Candidates' tournaments in the next decade or so. But honestly, I doubt he'll ever be quite good enough to challenge for the title.

Karpov was born 1951 and Kasparov 1963 , thats 12 years difference , not a couple of decades .... 

Sorry, my inaccuracies is a problem, both in chess and debates.

But at least I quite sure that I have read that Karpov was tired in the WC match when Kasparov did beat him.  I guess all chessplayers perform worse when they are tired.

Tal,Mikhail, Fischer, Kasparov, Morphy, Lasker

fischer was definitely the best and most natural talented, no seconds and no use of computer engines

Old and worn out?

tal>Fischer fight me

I read that Schwartzenegger is an avid player, and when you play him at his home, he makes you sit in a special chair.

The chair is labeled : "Loser".

I know world champions are great but what about korchnoi,rubenstein,and keres

He's not the "best", but most super grandmasters best games were like average games for Tal. His games came directly from the Chess gods themselves.

I think Morphy WOULD have been the best if he had stuck around longer. The opposite is true for Fischer. He achieves legend status but would have regressed the longer he played.

With that said, Kasparov is the best. Was dominant for 20 years against as stiff of competition you can find. His only blip was vs a robot.