Greatest chess player in his time

SORRY DUDE ONE CAN'T B GR8ST PLAYER IN CHESS BY USING OTHERS BRAIN. Magnus can never bcum a #1 Chess Champion.

 Morphy and Steinitz games are very vell preserved through magasines, papers etc.

I'm not saying that Greco didn't exist, just that his 72-0 record has no reliable source what so ever. And the opinion that some (many) of his games are compositions rather than games is hardly a new nor controverse opinion.

again a controversial question..!!!

Then what is?

I will have to agree with you on capa, but FISCHER!!!???

The best was Capa. The best modern player is Kasparov, next is Karpov. End of story.

 i find that alot of people say that.. if there American.. come on, you know im right..

I suppose a 1300 rated correspondance chess player is able to look through and understand the games played by Fischer, Kasparov, Karpov, Spassky, etc .

I'm replying to the actual question of the origianl post.  Smyslov was obviously not the greatest chess player of his era.  WORD DAT.

Heck if I know, I can't follow the games of the greats half the time.

You seem confused. No one had offered up Smyslov as candidate for greatest player of his era. DOUBLE WORD DAT.

Considering he had a must win game for Kasparov to retain his World Championship (Karpov needing only a draw to win). I would say Kasparov can hold his nerve better than most.

Steinitz was recognized as the best player in the world after he won his match with Anderssen but the title of world champion didnt exist yet. Only 20 years later, when the title came into existence and Steinits won it was he counted. I think this a bit unfair myself. If you count his reign from the time he was actually the strongest player in the world his reign would be even longer than Laskers !

morphy, capablanca, fischer... kasparov had karpov standing close to him as someone said before

You seem confused.  I offered up Korchoni as an the only other good example of a player who continued to be a real threat to the top dogs even into his 60s and beyond. This addressing the topic of the original post as Korchoni was certainly one of the top players of  his era, having twice challenged Karpov for the championship of the world. Not having won the championship keeps just off of consideration, but he's awfully close.

What player scored 11-0 in a national championship, and twice scored 6-0 against world champion candidates?

There is none. He lived in the 1600s, kind of hard to find any credible sources... No way to tell if his games were compositions or not.

 1) Korchnoi was not a threat to the top dogs in his 60s. He lost his last match with Karpov at age 50, and almost equaled Smyslov in old-age achievement when he, Korchnoi, was a Candidate at age 60, Smyslov being a Candidate at age 62. Neither of them were a threat to Karpov or Kasparov, nor were they pushing the most serious contenders for the title out of their place. Smyslov managed to play Kasparov for the right  to challenge but got clobbered. Korchnoi lost to Timman in the quarter finals in 1991.

2) You mentioned Korchnoi as a senior achiever and I appropriately added Smyslov. Korchnoi was not "the only other good example of a player who continued to be a real threat to the top dogs even into his 60s and beyond," if you just consider that both retained great paractical strength as opposed to reaching the ultimate challenger stage.

3) It was you who tried to introduce Smyslov into the debate about Greatest Player of his Era. Not me. Not anyone else for that matter.

4) Stop trying to be right when you have erred. It's better to admit the error and move on. We already have a rich and we don't need another.

all of greco's games that are available are games that he published.

 If this is true then his perfect score means nothing ! I have a book of Spassky's games : 300 wins !  So, if we went only by this Spassky would have a record of 300-0 ! LOL