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

You are mentioning that players today uses engine and Fischer does not have that luxury. But Fischer's opponents also does not have an engine. Fischer at 1972 being better than anyone in history is your opinion.

Tal was one of the best attacking players of all-time, but not the best overall.   He's probably in the top 15 or 20 G.O.A.T though.  

In terms of how inspirational Tal was, he makes my all-time top ten. Objectively, his best was never more than 2750. His best official rating was something like 2705, which is hugely impressive.

In terms of absolute strength, his students and heirs have surpassed him. Shirov, Nakamura, Caruana, So, and Jobava have all earned higher ratings, but all of those would be honored to be compared to him.

This is the crux of the matter: the legends of the past aren't as good as those who followed, but they deserve our respect nonetheless because they came first and showed us the way.

Oh, I forgot to add: Kasparov also idolized Tal.

But when Tal was asked who was the greatest he replied "Lasker of course".

Probably because Tal had an even or winning record against Fischer (some sources say +4/-4/=5 and some say +4/-2/=5).   

Tal had a losing record vs Kasparov though (+1/-3/=11) , so I'm not sure why he didn't give him props.  Lasker was awesome though.  He's definitely in my top 5 greatest of all-time.

MY HOT FRIEND         10/10

i think magnus carlsen

In my view,Fischer belongs in the top three  together  with Lasker and Capablanca.I do not know about Carlsen,time will tell. 

Kasparov didn't make your top 3?   Capablanca was great, but he wasn't even the best of his era (Lasker was).  Here's my top 10 list.  1. Fischer  2. Kasparov  3. Morphy  4.  Lasker  5. Carlsen   6. Botvinnik  7. Capablanca   8. Steinitz   9. Alekhine  10.  Karpov

The reality is that with the exception of Emanuel Lasker,whom I consider the best player up to the present time and probably best in eternity(doubt seriously we will see a 28- year tenure in the future)I am open about the rest.

We'll never know for sure.  This is all just opinions, based on their ratings and the length of their reigns.   

Here is my top ten:

1. Carlsen

2. Kasparov

3. Karpov

4. Lasker

5. Fischer

6. Botvinnik

7. Capablanka

8. Alekhine

9. Steinitz

10. So

[i know my list or any list will make some people mad but just my opinion]

If you're gonna put Wesley So on there, then you also have to put Kramnik, Anand, Tal and all of the other World Champions of the modern era, since So has never been WC.   Also, Karpov ahead of Fischer?  Please.  Fischer was insane and wasn't WC for very long, but he crushed everyone alive in 1972.   No player in history has ever matched his performance in the Interzonals, Candidates and World Championship.  If he had played Karpov in 1975, it would have been another blowout.  In fact, if Fischer had kept playing until 1992, Karpov never even would have been WC.   Kasparov eventually would have taken it over, when Fischer got too old to compete.   

Wesley So is the U.S. Chess Champion right now and is ranked 2nd in the world.   He's very good, but not top 10 best of all-time.   Maybe top 20.   He's still fairly young though and could climb the ranks to get to the top 10 eventually.   However, so could several other young players.  

My putting So on my list was my little joke  and true--I forgot Kramnik.

Regarding Fischer vs Karpov--i think Fischer realized he would probably lose to Karpov and that is one reason he did not play him.

No.  Fischer achieved his goal of becoming the World Champion, in 1972.  After that, he just couldn't motivate himself to keep studying the game.   He was scheduled to play Karpov in 1975, but came up with one too many demands.  He wanted to change the "draw counts as 1/2 point" rule to "draws don't even count as a game played".   The match could have gone on for months, in that case.   So, FIDE said no and Fischer refused to play.   He was crazy, selfish, stubborn and hated draws, but he wasn't afraid of Karpov.   Even if the challenger would have been Spassky or anyone else in 1975, it would have turned out the same way.

I know the history of Fischer and Karpov as I was around at the time.

Did you know Fischer would have never been World Champ if it were not for Benko? 

Why, Benko was whispering him the moves?