Alekhine or Tal ?

Who's your pick?

This is a welcome question! Off the beaten path, for sure. I'm going to pick Alekhine, because he beat Capablanca in a match.

I pick Tal, because his games are very, very entertaining to play through.

While I'm thinking about it, which was the more impressive match-win: Alekhine beating Capablanca, or, Kramnik beating Kasparov?

With his fist or did he use a crowbar?

Alkablanca against most anyone--he works harder than anyone and he's got monster talent. And he rarely boozes.

He used his mind, ivandh. They didn't have crowbars back then. And they didn't have fists either, the had pugis. Whenever a someone beat up people back then, they called them "pugilists", silly

Yes, I see, he used his mind to invent a crowbar while they were playing, very talented!

I have to go with Tal on this one--probably the only player who could match Alekhine shot for shot, at the board or in the bar.

He'd have to invent a car while playing chess! There's no way he could have invented hubcaps and jacks to go along with the car in the time it takes to play chess. Fuzzy dice? Rainbow stickers? You just can't do that during the Queen's Gambit Declined

Oh I get it; it's funny because 1. d4 is a bad move.

I wish I was that clever, oinquarki! But, I think they played QGD a bzillion times in that match

I looked it up; thirty-two out of thirty-four games!

Yeah, Capa couldn't match Alekhine at the crow bar or any other bar.

I remember going through my friend's books when I was just really starting chess, and playing through those games(without understanding much). Then he came home and told me that that was the worst match ever! Probably a week or two later, I was going through his books again, and played through some of the Karpov/Kasparov match(the first one). Each time I did this, I thought he would be so proud of me. Of course, he comes home and says, "Jesus, that's the worst match ever!"

There's a good chance I don't know some important pieces of information, but your friend seems to be a bit of an a-hole!

No no no! Very nice person that became obsessed with the game. My apologies if I gave a wrong impression

I used to play a guy who seemed to get better the more he drank. Maybe I got worse.

Alekhine!