Who were the greatest Top players in chess?

The top three chess players, according to various sources, are:

Magnus Carlsen from Norway: Many consider Carlsen as the best to ever play the game. He had already earned a spot at the top before turning 30 years old and has continued to dominate.
Fabiano Caruana from the United States: The prodigy who broke the record held by GM Hikaru Nakamura for America’s youngest chess grandmaster. He has had a ranking as high as number-two in the world and has won numerous tournaments in his career.
Hikaru Nakamura also from the United States: Nakamura has been one of the world’s top players for well over a decade.
Please note that the rankings can change over time and are also subject to different criteria and opinions. For instance, some other sources also mention players like Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer as among the best

Present:

1. Carlsen
2. Caruana
3. Nakamura
4. Ding
5. Giri
6. Firouzja
7. Nepomniachtchi
8. So
9. Wei
10. Anand

https://ratings.fide.com/

Past:

1. Kasparov
2. Fischer
3. Capablanca
4. Lasker
5. Botvinnik
6. Alekhine
7. Karpov
8. Anand
9. Kramnik
10. Pillsbury

http://www.chessmetrics.com/cm/CM2/PeakList.asp

Magnus Carlsen is the greatest player of all time. It's that simple.

Here are the top 10 best chess players:

• Honorable Mentions
  • Paul Morphy
  • Tigran Petrosian
  • Viswanathan Anand
• #10 Alexander Alekhine 
• #9 Mikhail Tal
• #8 Emanuel Lasker
• #7 Vladimir Kramnik
• #6 Mikhail Botvinnik
• #5 Anatoly Karpov
• #4 Jose Raul Capablanca
• #3 Bobby Fischer
• #2 Magnus Carlsen
• #1 Garry Kasparov

you heard that in YouTube

IIRC somebody computed that Bobby Fischer would have held a FIDE rating of over 2900 when he became world champion if the ELO system would have been introduced substantly earlier than it actually was. Which would make him the strongest chessplayer of all time to date, even stronger than Magnus Carlsen at his best. Then again I think I read that on Wikipedia, which of course is not a reliable source, and who knows how good the computation really was that led to this result.

Also this leads to the question what ELO really measures, since ratings of all players deviate all the time. Does their actual strength deviate, or is it just a luck component ? Especially when we talk about ELO differences of just 10 or 20, as they are between the top players at their respective best.

Elo is a measure of strength such that the rating difference predicts the expected outcome.

what you mean about measure in chess? we know ratings is!!!!!!!!! its not all about measure in chess!!!!!!!!!

Been a lot of greats..

It's to bad Carlsen never had that rival to weigh and measure him. I personally don't buy the Hyper inflated Fide rating structure. So his rating means squat to me.

There is just no real good story line surrounding Carlsen.

There's the Capablanca vs Alekhine rivalry.. In match play we play one opening only to prove to each other who is the better man!

The Botvink Supremacy... were each usurper to his throne is a Chess demigod.

Fisher against the Soviet Union ... How one man took on a Chess nation and won.

Anatoly "the Evil Sith lord" Karpov vs Victor Korchnoi "The Champion of the West! match 1 and match II. Complete with a real life Manchurian Candidate plot!

The epic 48 game WC match : Gary "the Paladin" Kasparov vs Anatoly "the Evil Sith lord" Karpov (what a slug fest!) 

RD II ... the EVIL SITH Lord get's vanquished... 

RD III The Return of the Sith Lord. 

Rd IV The Rise of the Sith Lord! 

After that ... it got all milk toast...

Kasparov's power and authority corrupts him and he goes scorched earth on FIDE for the cash.

Karpov (that was my guy... still is) assumes the FIDE throne. (short lived)

After Kramnik .. (who I liked also... not that a didn't like Kasparov) it's been a parade of people with hard to pronounce last names and Carlsen playing blitz

this is what Magnus Carlsen lost. shrug02 is wrong. I am sorry about that.