Best Chess Player of all Time!

emm......

Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, and Capablanca are without question the top 4.

The only fair way to judge the best in any sport is how good was he against the best of his era.

From 1914-24 Capa NEVER LOST A GAME.

Fischer blew through the 1971 Zonal against some of the best GM's of his era. Timminov 6-0! Bent Larsen 6-0! Against Tigran Petrosian he caught a cold it was close, and then ran 4 straight on him. Then won the title. Then quit.

Karpov from 75-85 was just the most dominant player of his time. I loved Fischer as a kid, but let's face it, he was scared of Karpov.

Kasparov, was the best player for 20 years against GM's. He beat Karpov in his prime when he was only 22 and Karpov was in his prime. Then the whole FIDE thing got in the way. NO doubt it was 30% his fault, but the FIDE President of that era was the worst.  

So you would have to give the nod to Kasparov.

Morphy, was early chess. He was great no doubt, but a lot of his brilliant games were against players who were NOT GM level.

Chess players reach their peak at 30, Fischer vs Kasparov both at 30 who would win?? It would be one for the ages!! Both like Capa, were artist.

By chance I saw this game yearsteady on playchess (I have openened a discussion on it)

Mongault wants to play only perfect  moves

Two times he can win a pawn but it doesn' see it.

Is Mongault a future Morphy?

A few minutes before Mongault had played this game.

This time Mongault does'nt dominate his opponent and he position is equal before 21...Qf6??.

I think Mongault is'nt used to play 3 mns game.

jmrw

Mongault probably is not used to blitz so he spents 1'27 to play 6...Be7

The endgame was probably  draw before Mongault played 40.g4??

Statistics argues that the very  best modern players are more talented simply because there are more players to select from. Similarly, as history

advances the best player in the world can only be better, since the

overall all time pool is increasing.  For somebody like Morphy to

be the most talented of all time is statistically unrealistic though not

impossible.  

Lenny Bongcloud, dueds.

I just asked google  to know who were the opponents of Mongault that night.

It appears than although one is given 2901 on playchess, their real elo is not so high.

This relativises the "performance" of Mongault

At the very end Mongault challenged Nigel Short. This one kindly responded "I have a plane to take" before leaving playchess.

It's a pity as stronger are his opponents, better Mongault plays.

If  nobody had replied to my post in this threat, I would had transfer them in the thread http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/mongault-1381---zoranp-2704 were they are more relevant.

jmrw

not true

Morphy, Steinitz, Capablanca, and Fischer were way ahead of their comtempararies.  So in a sense the are the best 4  

But chess knowledge is greater in more recent times, so you have to add Karpov and Kasparov, and probably Carlsen

I disagree!

I would say , Gary Kasparov. No body knows chess better than Gary.

He is the real champ.

Once Carlsen has won and defended the world title, he can enter into a conversation of the greatest ever.

For now, he is simply the highest rated player ever, and perhaps the greatest player never to win the title.

At present Kasparov is the best chess player of all time. Carlsen have 10-20 years time to take over.

I think that Steinitz is the best, as (most likely) all the other candidates in this list wouldn't be here if it weren't for him.

Estragon, for me, the best player of all time has to have proven it in world championship matches. Ratings alone aren't enough. In chess, match play is the ultimate test between two players. Mikhail Tal was the highest rated player ever in the 1970s for a while, but Karpov was clearly the better player in matches at that time. 

Me after about 6 drinks.......never lost a game yet, or if I did it wasn't my fault, or it shoulda been a draw, or I got distracted.

When was Tal rated higher? According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FIDE_chess_world_number_ones that was never the case.

So...how do you know that?

The backyard professor?