Best Chess player ever?

[Calculex]

Was reading through the forum and noted that there haven't been a "best chess player" discussion so far. Imo this is a req for every chess forum.

So who is the best chess player in the world, dead or alive?

Personally I think it is Paul Morphy. Mostly because of his simple playing style and the gigantic rise he had before leaving chess for good. Considering that he could have been even better if he had continued I think he is the best ever.

PS: This isn't based on ratings but more as a personal choice. If you've had a handshake with Benko you may use that as a reason to call him the best http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Calculex]

Was reading through the forum and noted that there haven't been a "best chess player" discussion so far. Imo this is a req for every chess forum.

So who is the best chess player in the world, dead or alive?

Personally I think it is Paul Morphy. Mostly because of his simple playing style and the gigantic rise he had before leaving chess for good. Considering that he could have been even better if he had continued I think he is the best ever.

PS: This isn't based on ratings but more as a personal choice. If you've had a handshake with Benko you may use that as a reason to call him the best http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[ForrestG4]

It's difficult to say who's the best chess player "EVER" because of the progress made in chess theory, the fact is the games played in morphy's era (to stick to your exemple) feel much "alive" and thus much beautiful than the ones played today, where most moves seem to obei to some obscure theory rules, less than being inspired by some prophetic yet not explored variation or type of combination.
My favorite, I think, is J.R CAPABLANCA.

[Grim_O]

For me the best player and most intersting player is Bobby Fischer. Though I'm leaning a little to Garry Kasparov now because of his fantastic books.
Fischer, because his games are so perfect. They show a will to win since he hardly played any drawish games, if any at all. His opening repetoire is a joy to go through (the winawer in french, The najdorf in sicilian and the King's indian as black of course). His extremly strong tactical skills in Ruy Lopez games (1st game in 1992, the novelty b4 and the continuations is so well played). And perhaps mostly because many of his games has something extra so to say. The games in 1972 are so much better to go through if you have read some of the many stories about them. It's almost like they get another dimension.

But I'll agree with ForrestG4 and say that his games are very different from the games today because chess evolves. But still, that taken into consideration Fischer is the best and I won't even think about what could have happend should he not have left chess http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Fischer-The-2nd]

Hmm... Very hard question there, who do I like the most? Hmm... http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/images/smiley/88.gif
The World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer of course.
I'll agree with Grim_O's views and spare the time to write them myself.

Plus he is one of the higest rated players ever. With Capablanca and Kasparov.

__________________________________________________ _______________________________
FREE BOBBY FISCHER!

Click here http://www.freebobby.org/

[Unclestuwantsu]

1. Fischer (simply the best of all time)
2. Kasparov (the best tactitian of modern times)
3. Morphy (his combinations were so great that Deep Fritz shifts its evaluation often in his games from let's say if he was white and was doing a long deep calculation it would shift for -4.02 for black to 11.88 for white)
4. Tal (the most exciting/ best attacking player ever) 5. Capablanca (was perfect for 10 years never losing a game) 6. Spassky (the most imaginative/versatile World Champion)
7. Smyslov (was in the top ten from the 40's to the 80's) 8. Alekhine (the best calculating GM ever)
9. Petrosian ( the best defender of all time)
10. Botvinnik (the best at winning world championships after he lost them and waiting til the opponent gets sick, loses energy, to take advantage and get guaranteed rematches while the Soviets threaten non-pure Russians like Tal, Bronstein, etc. to lose or else.

[hilts64]

Being a newbie to the forums, i'll keep it simple :

Bobby Fischer - never really liked him, although not studied his games ( and others say he is the best so who am i to argue )
Josh Waitzkin - good teacher but not quite the best
Bruce Pandolfini - good casual player and teacher.
Im curerntly readin a book by 'Alexander Kotov' called 'Think like a Grandmaster'.
His complex study of chess moves and tactics have proved to me by far to be the best, although a little difficult to understand at first, i can see the complexity in his game, and his ability to study to the end.
But then again - Can anybody beat the Chessmaster himself ????

[Unclestuwantsu]

Hilts there should be a movie for Searching for Josh Waitzkin because Josh Waitzkin has not played in a while and I doubt he can come back and even beat me with the white pieces. He's spent three years away from chess and for an International Master that was barely 2400 he wasn't good just alot of hype. Second of all Bruce Pandolfini has only one recorded game in the chessgames.com database and is known as only an FM and that was back in the 60's/70's. Lastly I think I've already posted some games where I myself have beat Chessmaster (with seperate time controls though one minute for CM and 30 min for me hehehe I won by checkmate though not time). And Larry Christensen won CM last year with the Black pieces! But lost the match because Larry lost the moment. CM is probably only 2570 standard time controls while I guess Junior would be 2700+ standard. And with no book and no endgame tablebases CM would be 2233 I guess and Junior about FM strength.

PS Why do all American chess players that are great leave the game early.

Morphy at 21, Fischer at 29, Waitzkin in '00, Seirawan plays like once a year, Kamsky left in '96, etc.

[Spinne_3.-JG51]

Good question. If you want to do this in a purely Data-in-Star-Trek sense, then you'd be forced to discount everyone before Steinitz simply because of the vast increase in theory that occured during his time. In that case, I'd put my money on Fischer.
If, on the other hand, you were to take all the greats of chess and allow them to re-mature today, from the beginning, then I'd say that Emnaual Lasker probably would emerge strongest. Incidentaly, his book, Lasker's Manual Of Chess is a great book.

[Unclestuwantsu]

I take back everything I said after reading that Capablanca never read a chess book in his life. I knew he was very lazy or it was just because he was a true genius and understood chess without having to study which he was probably the only person who could ever do that. He never studied opening theory, and was probably the best player in the world around 15 when he crushed Frank Marshall America's best player with 8 wins and only 1 loss. It's also interesting to hear that when Capablanca did a sim to some of the best talented juniors in Russia, he won all but drew to a 12 year old boy , Mikhail Botvinnik. He then whispered in his ear that he would become champion one day. Plus the fact that he played lightning fast as did Morphy, and as does Anand, it makes sense that he would be even with his knowledge from the 20's and 30's would be in the top 10.

PS Capablanca never had a chess set at home!

[E.Thang]

I think if you could put all players past and present in a room today, Kasparov would be the strongest. If you could strip all the players of opening book knowledge, it would be a toss up between Fischer and Kasparov. The problem with chess today, especially at the lower levels is that it's not always the best 'player' that wins, as it is the one who has memorized the particular opening being played. In many grandmaster games, the real game doesn't even begin until the 15th to 20th move, and in some lines of the Kings Indian, 25th move.
And while I like Bobby Fischers games, he was and still is a complete loser in every other facet of life. I admire his games, but not the man himself.

[pawnxing]

Fischer was a complete wacko. Ask anyone who knew him personally to give you an account of the man behind the legend and they'll tell, off the record, that he was a complete nut case.

He won the 1972 WC by berating the not only the competition but the entire chess association. Who played into his every whim becuase of poor judgement and financial reasons.

That competition should have never taken place and Spassky should have won by defualt because of his in ability to show up on time.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Fischer-The-2nd:
Hmm... Very hard question there, who do I like the most? Hmm... http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/images/smiley/88.gif
The World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer of course.
I'll agree with Grim_O's views and spare the time to write them myself.

Plus he is one of the higest rated players ever. With Capablanca and Kasparov.

__________________________________________________ _______________________________
FREE BOBBY FISCHER!

Click here http://www.freebobby.org/<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

[Unclestuwantsu]

Well what would be great is in the future we have computers that simulate the styles of the great GM's in the past but chessmaster tried that and it didn't work too well. I mean I almost crushed the Reshevsky personality brilliant today but the computer found some insane defense and perpetual check like it usually does in lost positions and it was a draw. This is also a great lesson in quality of your pieces and what to do as black in the King's Indian Defense and the advantages of being a human against a computer in closed positions. In this game I sacrificed a bishop and the exchange for a powerful attack that looked unstoppable and would have been if I found out how to stop perpetual check. To view this game all you have to do is copy the text until the last move don't copy the 1/2-1/2 sign then paste it by going to paste then pgn in Chessmaster 9000 or 10th Edition.

[Event ""]
[Site ""]
[Date "2004.9.6"]
[Round ""]
[White "Reshevsky"]
[Black "GM Spassky"]
[TimeControl "600+1"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 O-O 5.O-O d6 6.Nc3 e5 7.d3 c6 8.h3 h6
9.e4 Be6 10.Be3 Nbd7 11.Qd2 Kh7 12.Qc2 Nh5 13.Rfd1 f5 14.exf5 gxf5
15.Bd2 Rg8 16.a3 Qe7 17.Rac1 Bh8 18.Ne2 Rg6 19.b3 Rf8 20.Bb4 c5 21.Ba5
f4 22.g4 Ng7 23.Qd2 h5 24.g5 Nf5 25.h4 Bf6 26.gxf6 Qxf6 27.Ng5+ Rxg5
28.hxg5 Qxg5 29.Ng3 Rg8 30.Kf1 h4 31.Bd8 Qg7 32.Qe2 hxg3 33.Qh5+ Nh6
34.Be4+ Kh8 35.Be7 gxf2 36.Qh1 Nf6 37.Bxf6 Qxf6 38.Kxf2 Rg3 39.Qh5 Rh3
40.Qe8+ Bg8 41.Rh1 Ng4+ 42.Kg2 Ne3+ 43.Kf2 Qh4+ 44.Ke2 Rh2+ 45.Rxh2
Qxh2+ 46.Ke1 f3 47.Bxf3 Nc2+ 48.Rxc2 Qxc2 49.Qg6 Qc1+ 50.Ke2 Qc2+ 51.Kf1
Qc1+ 52.Kg2 Qd2+ 53.Kh3 Qe3 54.Qf6+ Kh7 55.Qe7+ Kh8 56.Qf6+ Kh7 57.Qe7+
Kh8 58.Qf6+ 1/2-1/2