Who is the best chess player of ALL TIME?

Bobby Fischer

PLEASE -- can someone tell me if there is an order of operations or decision-tree to guide analysis after each move by your opponent. Seems if I scan for traps, forks coming my way, smothers..I miss something else. I know I will never be good but at least I want to hit 1400 at standard chess before I die and I can't break through past making simple mistakes  I don't mind harsh honest insults and criticism if you could just point me in the right direction. Thank you for any help from ANYONE. :)

Sincerely,

Chris Saindon

Bolingbrook, IL, USA 

Bobby Fischer

agreed

joke of the year!I guess you don't like Magnus but at least show some objectivity instead of hurting your own credibility with such trollful statements...

Best? By what measure?

Kasparov!

Bobby Fischer... or Kasparov... or Carlsen

They're all so good!

Ruy Lopez?

I don't know much about all these players, but I think this is a valid point.

(text in red added by me-hope you don't mind, fabelhaft)

Chess is love; chess is life. Anyone?

As we've said already, Lasker could only hold his title because he refused to let Rubinstein challenge him.

Karpov? He was great, surely in the top 10, maybe even top 5, but Fischer would have beaten him according to almost all analysts both of that time and today. Even Karpov himself said so.

Botvinnik was good, but he also relied largely on the automatic rematch rule- he probably wouldn't have done so well without it.

I think you're overdoing it slightly cambers, but woteva!

I was referencing a meme, nevermind.

I know, yah.

I said that to my friend, and he facepalmed so hard the smack likely overcame the intertia of our planet and shook it to its pressurized core.

http://www.chess.com/forum/search?keyword=best+player

might as well be making comparisons in a more productive topic, like pokemon, no?

I'm in a kind of love-hate relationship with her. I try to approach carefully with flowers and chocolate only to get slapped in the face in return.

Give him a break, you can't expect him to be the #1 player, world chess champion AND writing books at the same time.
Though I agree, I have a feeling he will be dethroned and we'll have another top 1 in the next 5-8 years.
There is no huge gap between top players like it used to be with Kasparov or Fischer, times have changed.

Magnus Carlsen.