The best chess player ever

Believe me, no one survives a rook odds on me.

Besides, I "choose" myself, not I know

ihateparadox wrote:

fabelhaft wrote:

My favorite World Champions are probably Tal and Spassky, but I rank them in the (still obviously very strong) bottom half among the World Champions. For greatness my main criteria would be world ranking, longevity, tournament results, World Championship wins, distance to opponents and comparative strength of them. Fischer ranks very high in distance to opponents 1970-72, but in most of the other mentioned fields he is far behind players like Kasparov and Lasker.

Exactly why Carlsen chose Kasparov over Fischer.

Carlsen own words were i Say it because thats what kasparov would like to hear

For example Carlsen, Anand, Seirawan and Korchnoi have all said they ranked Kasparov as #1. Anand in 2008:

"I judge Kasparov as a little ahead. Fischer was a phenomenon from 1970 to 1972 while Kasparov was on top for many years"

After Kasparov complained about the level of the Anand vs Gelfand match Anand did sound less certain about that one though :-) Korchnoi played both and ranked Kasparov ahead in the here referred vote about "greatest player of the 20th century" (from several years before Kasparov retired). But then Kasparov of course kept playing also in the 21st century, when he finished his sequence of winning ten super tournaments in a row. As for the opinion of the top US GM of the 80s, Seirawan called Kasparov the greatest player ever, and added about Fischer:

"People like to say 'Bobby was the best chess player ever!' Such words make them feel good or even knowledgeable. I might ask them: really? In which time frame was Bobby the best player ever? Think about it for a moment.

Before Bobby entered the cycle that culminated in his historic 1972 World Championship match victory, by his own agreement, in 1970, he allowed Bent Larsen to play board one ahead of him in the match versus the Soviets. To repeat, in 1970, the great Bobby Fischer, himself, thought it correct that Larsen play ahead of him.

Before Bobby defeated Boris Spassky in their match, he had never beaten Boris and in fact had a bad score against this rival. If we are generous, we could say that Bobby was the best player in 1971 and 1972, and then he quit. Hmm. That doesn’t sound like solid grounds to me to make the claim that he was the best ever."

http://en.chessbase.com/home/TabId/211/PostId/4007638

fablehalft that are only 3, because Anand wasnt sure, the majority still voted for Fischer. And Kasparov was also Carlsens Mentor, so ofc he wouldnt vote against him. By the way Carlsen himself admited he also said it because Kasparov would like to hear that.

btw i just noticed Aronian voted for Alekhine as best player

You know, your arguments are already pretty poor without making up that type of stuff :-)

he said it in an interview, he said and also because Kasparov would like to hear it.

the vote yourself admit exists

So where did Carlsen say that he ranks Kasparov as the greatest player ever because Kasparov would like to hear that?

I dont know someone once posted on chess.com a link to a youtube video where he said, he said and also because i know kasparov Would like to hear that.

definetely Ivanchuk.For the most beautifull games.

Ivanchuk had cool games

Kramnik he dethroned Kasparov!

I also think Kramnik at his best likely played the best moves in chess. At least according to computers he did.  

I would love to see some more matches between the current top players.  Its really too bad that the top players almost exclusively play tournaments which really provides very little evidence of who is playing the best moves.  

I'm not questioning that Carlsen has said that Kasparov is the greatest player ever, as referred by the link below, rather the unsubstantiated claims that Carlsen states that he says so only because Kasparov wants to hear that:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_top_chess_players_throughout_history

As for ranking Kramnik as the greatest player ever, well, I wouldn't place him in the top ten myself. Was he ever even the best player in the world at any given time? Much less the best player ever. Compared to players that were clear #1 for decades he isn't comparable as I see it, but I'd rank him not far below Anand. Top 15 certainly but not top 10 to me.

best chess player ever ?

The Russians:

1.Alekhine , then 2.Kasparov , 3.Karpow, and number four Botwinnik.

he didnt say only but he said and i say it because i know he likes to hear it

do you think i remember ever post and every link i ever stumbe upon?? it was here on chess.com somewere, search in all threads i read and you will find it.

its on youtube, he talked about Fischer and Kasparov

also its funny you say people from Fischers era are biased, but someone who was trained by Kasparov should be totally unbiased??

you know that isnt double standard anymore, that is the epitome of hypocrisy

I have actually seen some clip with Carlsen somewhere when he was asked about who the greatest player ever was, and after discussing back and forth and giving his usual answer also adding with a smile that "I don't think Kasparov would like it if I didn't rank him first", but that was more of a joke.