26 Jul 10
1 edit
At several points in his life; Bobby Fischer was asked who are the best 10 chess players. I now pose that question to members of RHP. If I may opine first; my list isn't in any type of order just 10 players who I think are great.
Karpov
Kasparov
Fischer
Petrosian
Korchnoi
Tal
Kramnik
Aronian
Anand
Carlson
You may now opine my dear chess friends.
26 Jul 10
2 edits
Originally posted by DiophantusBerliner sure was special!
Purdy
Berliner
Timmerman
Rittner
Estrin
Penrose
Ragozin
Baumbach
Schmid
Umansky
10 for you to chew on. Let's see how many recognise them.
My 10 best players ever in no particular order.
Carlsen
Anand
Kasparov
Karpov
Fischer
Capablanca
Alekhine
Smyslov
Tal
Morphy
Honorable mentions: Petrosian, Botvinnik, Kramnik, Korchnoi and Spassky.
I know Korchnoi was great and should probably be on the list but I haven't seen his games and I frankly don't know enough about him unfortunately.
26 Jul 10
1 edit
Originally posted by gorookyourselfI think Lasker is overrated, his play was far from being as precise as other champions, and he did some dodgy things to retain his title for so long. I think putting him in front of Karpov is just gross.
Lasker 😉 May be the all time best, after me of course.
26 Jul 10
Originally posted by Maxacre42That was me being biased. I know a lot of people deserve to be on a "Best of all time" list but there are too many. The best of ten needs to be upgraded to the "Best 50"...
I think Lasker is overrated, his play was far from being as precise as other champions, and he did some dodgy things to retain his title for so long. I think putting him in front of Karpov is just gross.
26 Jul 10
Originally posted by DiophantusPurdy Cecil
Purdy
Berliner
Timmerman
Rittner
Estrin
Penrose
Ragozin
Baumbach
Schmid
Umansky
10 for you to chew on. Let's see how many recognise them.
Berliner Hans
Timmerman? you mean Timman Jan?
Rittner rings a bell but nope,can't say
Penrose Jonathan
Ragozin? think there's an opening variation named after him but that's all
Baumbach?
Schmid is it Lothar?
Umansky?
toet.
26 Jul 10
1 edit
Originally posted by nimzo5In his five world championship matches vs Kasparov, Karpov scored 19 wins, 21 losses, and 104 draws in 144 games.
With Karpov we will never know what ideas were his and what was the machine behind him. He beat Kortchnoi twice that way.. and then failed to beat Kasparov 3x.. I doubt that Karpov would have enjoyed such a dominance in the computer age that he did in the 70's.
If Kasparov was arguably the best player ever, Karpov deserves to be in the top 10. Every top player today has help and it is mostly with the openings. The soviet machine certainly did not play his impeccable endgames and choking middlegames for him.
By machine I do hope you mean the soviet machine, because the computers during his reign did not help at all, they were terrible. Karpov did not dominate in the computer age at all!
let's not forget this is not a list about the top 10 natural talents! or else Sultan Khan would be there 🙂