Well, if Kubrick really was that strong, there should be something corroborative about it, shouldn't there? Not just another, "Oh yeah, he was a GM, he beat everybody in the park" story.
The best chess player ever


Yes, Duchamp was master strength. He played in Olympiads, and (as I recall) once drew Alekhine.
Did Kubrick ever play in Olympiads? Or even tournaments? Just sounds like more hearsay to me...

Well, glad to hear you did better against I Ivanov than I did. He read the paper the whole time during our game (and then refused to go over it with me afterwards).

stanley was a prodigy, photographic memory, master stegonographer, and would have been a gm had he put in 20,000 hours and played tournaments
of this i have zero doubt
lol...Well, I think he could've been a forest ranger! Or a fireman!

igor was a real trip ... if i had lit a match near him during our game i think the entire hotel would have gone up in flames
also, he was quite a pianist
He was once reportedly so drunk during a game that he poured a thermos of hot coffee into his hand...without putting the cup there first.

Yeah, but I can't, because I'm just a bum. And a puppethead.

tactical ,morphy
attacker ,fischer
solid ,kasparov
That's got to be the most twisted list I've ever seen.

It's hard to say with certainty. Objectively speaking Houdini 4 is. However, relative to one's peers perhaps it was Lasker due to his amazing tournament record and ability to draw in seemingly hopeless positions. Rubinstein was probably the greatest player in history never to be world champion (compared to peers of course, objectively speaking that honor would have to go to Aronian due to the fact that he's the only person ever over 2800 to never be world champion). And of course you have Capablanca's amazing technical ability, schematic thinking, and endgame skill as well.
Kasparov was simply a calculation monster with an amazing intuition as well. His proficiency at the positional sacrifice, famous calculation skills, and incredible opening prep made even the great Karpov crack and lose the title.

Someone people overlook and doesn't get the recognition he should is Philidor who was an unofficial world champion for 50 years.

mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal mikhail tal

A computer-based method of analyzing chess abilities across history has Fischer with the highest rating and best 1, 2 and 3 year period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_top_chess_players_throughout_history
Maybe...slightly. But Bogart played a single game against Koltanowski (who was blindfold) and lasted quite a long time. Bogie also used to hustle the game for money back in the 1930s (and made his living that way when times were especially hard).