I don't remember capablanca being called that
How many "Mozarts" of chess?
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I wouldn't put Fischer in there. I think it's true he was a genius who would have done well at anything.
Sultan Khan and Nezhmetdinov could be mentioned.
Argonaut13 wrote:
I don't remember capablanca being called that
Someone recently posted an image on these forums of a contemporary magazine cover that called him just that. That's what got me thinking about it.
shell_knight wrote:
I wouldn't put Fischer in there. I think it's true he was a genius who would have done well at anything.
I'm not arguing that any of these players are deserving of the title. I'm more interested in which players have received that designation. Fischer falls into that category.
DrSpudnik wrote:
I'm the Antonio Salieri of chess.
ha! Here's an article that calls Kasparov the "Mozart of Chess", and designates Karpov as Salieri!
http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/5th-november-1988/19/the-mozart-of-chess
But here, it is Karpov who is Mozart:
This is getting crazy. So many Mozarts:
Etienne Bacrat
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19970323&slug=2530200
Samuel Reshevsky.
BobbyFishmonger wrote:
Samuel Reshevsky.
Good call! Google shows this:
Dec 1, 2014
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#12
My opinion. Capa was the Bach of chess. Rubinstein was Mozart. Alekhine was Beethoven. Kasparov was Vivaldi. Fischer was Handel.
patzermike wrote:
My opinion. Capa was the Bach of chess. Rubinstein was Mozart. Alekhine was Beethoven. Kasparov was Vivaldi. Fischer was Handel.
Where's morphy?
Emanuel Lasker makes the list:
http://books.google.com/books?id=Rd8B3yUyHyQC&pg=PA43&lpg=PA43&dq=%22mozart+of+chess%22+-carlsen&source=bl&ots=4EvJT8AEHx&sig=hnxscL4VE9jVA46BxaxB49UpEjY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XEl9VKPVO4j7yAS70oLIBg&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=%22mozart%20of%20chess%22%20-carlsen&f=false
Together, your top 5 are known as the Backstreet Boys of Chess
What? We have enough for a baseball team now.
It's become a bad cliché to label anyone who is very talented in their field as "a Mozart". Mozart was truly a one-off. There is no Mozart of chess, football, painting etc etc.
That title now belongs to Anand.
Legendary_Race_Rod wrote:
It's become a bad cliché to label anyone who is very talented in their field as "a Mozart". Mozart was truly a one-off. There is no Mozart of chess, football, painting etc etc.
Well, I disagree. Music, mathematics and chess are all 3 fields notable for child prodigies. I think it's arrogant to think that Mozart was so freakish of a prodigy that no other prodigy could match his accomplishments in other fields.
There are at least 4 (edit: 9) players that I am aware of that have been called the "Mozart of Chess". This is not intended to be a comparison of players, but I am curious as to how many players have earned this comparison. Surely there are others.
Paul Morphy
Jose Capablanca
Bobby Fischer
Magnus Carlsen
edited to add:
Gary Kasparov
Anatoly Karpov (also the Salieri of Chess)
Etienne Bacrat
Samuel Reshevsky
Emanuel Lasker