Is Vishy Anand the greatest rapid player of all time?

Following his World Rapid Championship victory, I believe it is now an appropriate time to ask this question - which I would answer in the affirmative. My reasoning? Take a look at this article, and tell me if you notice any themes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Rapid_Chess_Championship

Now, maybe there are things the article is missing - and if there are please let me know - but from what I'm able to see the evidence is pretty clear, and one-sided.

And who would you say are the other ones?

Capablanca.

Magnus

Vassily Ivanchuk. 

When people were saying that Kasparov disappointed in his comeback after playing his first rated speed chess games in a dozen years, he still finished ahead of Anand in the event...

... and nobody is going to judge Kasparov based on his performance in that event, so...

Seriously, guys... look at the wikipedia article, if you haven't done so. I was absolutely shocked the first time I saw it.

I don't know but in light of this screenshot from wikipedia on rapid world championship winners, I am inclined to believe he is.

Feel free to disagree if you must.

Add the latest one to the list. Also look at the runners up column in Vishy' wins - Kramnik, Karpov, Kasparov, Carlsen, Shirov, Polgar, Grishuk, Levon - basically the who's who of Chess.

I will give this question one hell yes.

As far as greatest Rapid players go, Vishy is #1, then lots of places after that are empty and whoever is after Vishy gets in at #12.

If you do the math... shouldn't that be #13? 

”in light of this screenshot from wikipedia on rapid world championship winners, I am inclined to believe he is”

Maybe he is, but that isn’t a list of the World Championship winners...

wow......

Lol the numbers fixed

Also @Fabelhaft, - yes that is the list of world rapid champions and the score with which they won the final/playoff. NA indicates a clear win on round robin.

The World Rapid Championship in its current form has only existed since 2012 though, and rapid chess was around before that (since 1987, according to the article) ... so "great rapid player" and "World Championship Winner" are not exactly synonymous.

But if we're talking about world championships, the article also notes that Vishy won the 2003 FIDE rapid chess championship.

Anand won the Rapid World Championship in 2003, but also won the Mainz tournament that dubbed itself ”Rapid World Championship”. Does that count as him winning two World Championships in 2003 then, or which of the two is it that counts? :-)

”the article also notes that Vishy won the 2003 FIDE rapid chess championship”

True, he did win that one and would certainly have won more FIDE recognised World Championships if they had existed. Even if he doesn’t have a dozen FIDE Rapid World Championships he has certainly been a decent rapid player over the years :-)

lol

This one is interesting, shows how well Nepo played rapid already many years ago...

Rapid chess is a recent development. That discounts pretty much everyone before Karpov. 

Some candidates for greatest rapid player of all time include:

Anand, Kasparov, and Carlsen. I'm not sure there's anyone else to consider!

I also remember how, towards the end of 1987, on his return from In-
dia, where he had lost to a 17 -year-old youth who had spent somewhere
in the region of half an hour on the entire game, I asked him: 'What's this
I hear about you losing to a little boy, Efim Petrovich?', trying to strike the
right note. 'Little boy?' He looked at me with disapproval: 'I may have lost
to a future World Champion.

Genna Sosonko, in "Russian silhouettes".