Who was the most overrated or underrated chess player of all time?

Who do you think he most overrated or underrated chess player is?

I believe myself to be both.

Overrated? Me. Underrated, Paul Morphy

You're one of the most underrated in my opinion :)

if that was meant for me, you are way too kind. 

Magnus Carlson

Over-rated ? ....Don't know.

Under-rated ?....Anatoly Karpov.

Lasker seems underrated.

Claude Bloodgood seems overrated

Max Euwe was definitely the most underrated. Petrosian would be next and then probably Karpov.

But we're talking about underrated by the amateur populous?

I don't think that professionals underrate Petrosian or Karpov the slightest bit.

The most overrated would be Fischer or Steinitz.

Chess ratings are totally meaningless: the most creative chess players play by a different set of rules, and the establishment always just tells them they are making illegal moves, and that they can't do it.  The rules of chess must be changed to enable more creativity, and then the ratings would properly reward the most creative, innovative players.  This is why I am sorry I wished for a 3000 rating instead of the ability to fly.  With the ability to fly even a little bit, or to fly slowly, I would become very impressive to people, and able to lead a crowd.

Overrated; I dont know

Underrated: Euwe, Korchnoi.

Also, out of the world champions back then, I don't hear Smyslov talked about that much.

I might agree about Smyslov, but he was considered the best endgame player ever at one stage of chess history. Obviously, Karpov and Carlsen have surpassed him ... maybe Fischer, too.

The thing is most people consider Euwe to be the weakest world chess champion of all time and think of his victory as a fluke. This easily makes him the number 1 most underrated chess player ever as he was certainly not the weakest world chess champion ever and his victory over Alekhine was NOT a fluke.

Petrosian was really incredibly strong and is the most under appreciated WCC.

Steinitz was just terribly over rated in every way. His contributions to the evolution of chess are drastically over stated; this perception of him being this first scientific player is ridiculous. He wasn't that strong, either. He is credited for much that he shouldn't be.

Korchnoi should have been world champion.

Bronstein was leading Botvinnik and purposely let Botvinnik tie that match.

I think another great question and probably worthy of another thread would be, who is the most tainted world chess champion ever? Except that's an easy question - it's Botvinnik and Lasker would be 2nd. Then there are Alekhine, Karpov and Kramnik.

Exactly with Euwe and he was great writer too. Wrote more than any other world champion; really like Judgement and planning, also Guide to Chess Endings.

Pillsbury for sure was under rated

...and the fact that a majority of you reading this are unaware of the name it a testimony to the fact.

Underated candidate Akiba Rubinstein

Overated by themselves and their mothers are players who slander their victorious opponents.

Slandering any opponent is wrong. If you lose and you call your opponent an idiot, what does that make you? Someone that lost to an idiot! If you win and call your opponent an idiot, then your win was no feat. It was just an idiot you defeated. This is why I prefer to insult all my opponents privately and directly. I like it personal.

I don't think Rubinstein is underrated. Most people who have studied his games believe he could have beaten Lasker in a match if he'd been given a chance. Hard to be rated much higher than that.

Pillsbury may currently be underrated, but during his brief lifetime he was considered one of the best players in the world. Again, hard to call that underrated. 

Max Euwe may be one of the most underrated players of all time. He beat Alekhine not because Alekhine was drunk, but because he was an extremely gifted player who also prepared extremely deeply for his match. The stories of Alekhine's alcoholism as a cause for his loss are greatly exaggerated. At one point, Euwe defeated Alekhine twice in a row in exactly the same variation of the Slav in his match!

Even in the 1950s, Euwe was beating world-class players. Euwe is clearly underrated by most modern players even though he was world champion. 

Boris Gelfand is another underrated player. He has had a long, successful career, but when he challenged for the title, he was given no chance and even such luminaries as Kasparov denigrated his play. Ok, so Gelfand almost certainly wasn't as good as Aronian or Kramnik for that cycle, and he clearly wasn't as good as Anand. But he still deserves respect for being one of the top 20 players in the world for many years.