The best chess player ever

Please do not state your opinion as a general truth! Kasparov, Fischer, Lasker and Petrosian were great world champions - do you really think Vasily would have his way with them? - I don't!

@macer75, hehehe. thats his full name.Robert James Fischer. I called him Robert James, you commented on it, what was wrong with that...

anyway, there were alot of great contributors to chess. I dont think one man should recieve the most credit. All contributions were huge for their time. But men will always favor one or another for whatever reason. I personally believe "Bob"(to use another name,hehe) was most influential to like.. making more people play and want to play, and being damn near the best at it(damn near). And he's great to study from!

R.I.P. "Bobby".

I will always root for Fischer but, it has to be Aliekine. There are multiple reasons for this choise. The question was who was the best chessplayer ever? The best natural talent? Morphy hands down. The best player not to get a shot at the world championship?  Paul Keres. The most underated chessplayer? Rueben Fine. He wrote Basic Chess Endings 40 YEARS before the computer was a reasonable option to an author & being #3 in the world in his prime. The hardest working world champion? Bottvinik. The best Modern world champion ? It's a tie Kasparov & Fischer for the popularity they brought to the game. But you have to give credit where credit is due... it's Aliekine.

I love Alekhine too but there's no way he was better than Kasparov or Karpov. I can see you making a case for him being better than Fischer, though.

Best chess player ever? Morphy, his potential was only limited because he didn't have the resources modern chess players do. He was so far above the best that no one stood a chance, yes Alekhine, Kasparov, and Fischer were all amazing, but those players did have more accessibility to chess resources than Morphy did.

Of course, many players were better in different aspects. In terms of quality of play? Most likely Carlsen, he is one of the finest positional players ever. 

In speed chess Nakamura holds that, but speed chess isn't chess is it?

No love for Capablanca. What a shame. According to most GMs Capablanca had the best understanding of chess. From beginning to endgame and how how they relate to each other.

Give me the name he beat. Who? Who? Who? Nobody.

Fischer also won the last six games before these games (the last games in the Interzonal Tournament in Palma de Mallorca 1970). 

DA BEST IS NAMECHANGER! HE WON ALL RUSSIA YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS,AND LATER HE CHANGED HIS NAME INTO  Steinitz AND BECAME 1ST WORLD CHAMPION.THEN,HE CHANGED HIS NAME INTO LASKER AND BECAME 2ND WORLD CHAMPION.HE THEN CHANGED HIS NAME INTO CALPABLANCA AND BECAME THIRD WORLD CHAMPION.THEN,HE CHANGED HIS NAME INTO ALEKINE AND DEFEATED CALPABLANCA AND BECAME 4TH WORLD CHAMPION.THEN,HE BECAME EUWE!HE DEFEATED ALEKHINE AND BECAME 5TH WORLD CHAMPION. HE DEFEATED THE 1ST 5 WORLD CHAMPIONS!HE IS THE STRONGEST!

juicysnail, where have you been poking your sly head?!

Steinitz is the strongest player ever. He invented a new type of chess. Who else can be the strongest?

It is not known if Alexeev could play chess, but he should probably be put out of competition, because of using dope. That same limitation applies to Arnold Schwarzenegger, therefor will I vote for Nelson Mandela, who is I think the mentally strongest person in the world:

http://susanpolgar.blogspot.nl/2007/07/nelson-mandela-and-chess-by-john-carlin.html

Ah, but we all are expressing opinion here. There is no proof of anything we are claiming.

Vasily Alexeev was undefeated in two Olympiads, competing for the USSR. According to one source, he did not lose at all from 1970 to 1977. This is compelling enough for me to form an opinion.

Kasparov and Carlsen had better opposition than during the Fischer era.

Kasparov, Capablanca, Fischer, karpov.

Either Fischer, Kasparov, or Carlsen.

Karpov was darn good. But not quite that level imo.

Not to mention that that type of sequences mean little with regards to who the best player ever is. Steinitz won 25 in a row against even higher ranked opposition than Fischer won against, and that in itself doesn't qualify him for best player ever half as much as his winning all the matches he played for a period of more than 30 years. If one would rank the greatest players ever based on numbers of games won in a row the list would look rather strange.

juicysnail wrote:

DA BEST IS NAMECHANGER! HE WON ALL RUSSIA YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS,AND LATER HE CHANGED HIS NAME INTO  Steinitz AND BECAME 1ST WORLD CHAMPION.THEN,HE CHANGED HIS NAME INTO LASKER AND BECAME 2ND WORLD CHAMPION.HE TA AND DEFEATED CALPABLANCA AND BECAME 4TH WORLD CHAMPIOTHSTRONGEST!

Then rumor has it he retired from professional chess, changed his name to Varelse1 and hung around on the internet. Occasionally making Hollywod movies under his stage name, Sean Connery.

tal and karpov