Who's your top 10 chess players ever?

1- Capablanca - The chess legend. He's just so cool.

2- Kasparov - needs no introduction

3- Karpov - Was overshadowed by Kasparov so he doesn't get the attention he deserves, but if you look at the head to head record between them you get the idea of how close they were in talent. In their five world championship matches, Karpov scored 19 wins, 21 losses, and 104 draws in 144 games against Kasparov.

4- Morphy is Morphy.

5- Alekhine - I'm not a fan of his, but it takes someone exceptional to beat Capa. He had some crazy combinational skillz.

6- Tal - He had Awesome flowing through his veins.

7- Fischer - The result of the combination of 12-15 hours of chess study a day and inhuman memory. (supposedly) He could recall every move of every game he ever played and remember every book he ever read... which is every notable book and articles ever written in english and russian. He lacks the stable mind needed to stay at the top though and he isn't the natural player many people believe him to be. (In my opinion).

8. Petrosian - Cause I like him

9 - Lasker - Master of defending and winning inferior positions, he stayed world champion for 27 years!

10 - Botvinnik - amazing glasses


Honorable mention : Smyslov, Spassky, Steinitz and Heinzkat for his tactical ability and witty comments.

1. Paul Morphy, brought skill, beauty and reason to the board in the renaissance of chess
2. Robert Fischer, the crazy genius of chess who burnt out like a shooting star
3. Gary Kasparov, true inheritor of Fischers throne minus some of the madness and some of the spark
4. Anatoly Karpov, a truly great player overshadowed by Kasparov
5. Mikhail Tal. I had a friend of mine translate some of the Russian youtube videos for me. A truly remarkable man, not only for chess, but for his mind and spirit too
6. Vladmir Kramnik, there are some absolutely inspired plays by Kramnik which will live forever
7. Alexander Alekhine, destroyer of Capablanca
8. Jose Raul Capablanca, a player whose dynamism was not matched until the appearance of Tal
9. Judit Polgar
10. Anthony 'Tony' Miles. First UK grandmaster and a crazy brummie

A shame that we are stuck with only 10. The first three on my list should be lumped together in one rank

I think the real measure should be; how many of games of value have they produced? Playing some good games is wonderful promotion of chess and therefore plays a huge role in its popularisation.

Therefore I come to this completely objective list of persons

1 - P.C. Morphy. I have replayed at least one (at the Opera house in Paris), he created many "never seen before" combinations
2 - R.J. Fischer. I have replayed at least one and it was were pretty good (vs. D. Byrne)
3 - G. Kasparov. I have replayed one game of his (vs. Topalov) and it was pretty good
4 - M.N. Tal. I can't exactly remember replaying any game of his but he's in this list solely for writing "Life & Games"
5 - V.B. Kramnik - I've replayed a couple of his Corus 2010 games, he must be there, for the rest I cannot recall replaying anything except his 1991 win vs. Brodsky
6 - G.P. Chandler for that Re7+ Be6#
7 - K. Korch for producing several gems on the Internet
8 - D.V. Montanu for producing several gems on the Internet
9 - V.M. Ivanchuk - I wouldn't be able to give you any game from beginning to end but he just should be here for being the "cool autistic guy"
10 - S. Loyd for creating an abundance of pretty chess diagrams

Capablanca, Alekhine, Botvinnik, Karpov, Euwe, Timman, Lasker are all names for me with no games

Kramnik
Karpov
Kasparov
Gligoric
Capablanca
Fischer
Lasker
Morphy
Alekhine
Greco

Pretty much in that order. Ask me tomorrow, and I'll give a different answer.

Morphy,Tal, Fischer, Adams, Cold, Moro, Bird, Anand, myself and Capa 🙂

Originally posted by Maxacre42
1- Capablanca - The chess legend. He's just so cool.

2- Kasparov - needs no introduction

3- Karpov - Was overshadowed by Kasparov so he doesn't get the attention he deserves, but if you look at the head to head record between them you get the idea of how close they were in talent. In their five world championship matches, Karpov scored 19 wins, 21 lo ...[text shortened]... ntion : Smyslov, Spassky, Steinitz and Heinzkat for his tactical ability and witty comments.

(my try for a top 10 in terms of chess strength. my favorite top 10 definitely wouldn't include fischer and kasparov)

1-2.Kasparov
1-2.Kramnik

3.Karpov
4.Fischer
5.Anand

6-8. Alekhine
6-8. Capablanca
6-8. Botvinnik

9. Petrosian
10. Smyslov

if Carlsen keeps playing at his current level for 5+ years, he will certainly be there.

Originally posted by philidor position
(my try for a top 10 in terms of chess strength. my favorite top 10 definitely wouldn't include fischer and kasparov)

1-2.Kasparov
1-2.Kramnik

3.Karpov
4.Fischer
5.Anand

6-8. Alekhine
6-8. Capablanca
6-8. Botvinnik

9. Petrosian
10. Smyslov

if Carlsen keeps playing at his current level for 5+ years, he will certainly be there.

I know this has all been discussed in various threads in the past, but for those new to this topic, the link below might help:

http://db.chessmetrics.com/CM2/Summary.asp?Params=1840AASSSSS3S000000000000111000000000000010100

[edit] This is assuming your top 10 chess players are those who you think are the top ten strongest (which doesn't necessarily mean favorite)

I like this list:

#1 Garry Kasparov 2875 1989-Jan through 1993-Dec
#2 Emanuel Lasker 2854 1894-Jan through 1898-Dec
#3 José Capablanca 2843 1919-Jan through 1923-Dec
#4 Mikhail Botvinnik 2843 1945-Jan through 1949-Dec
#5 Bobby Fischer 2841 1969-Jan through 1973-Dec
#6 Anatoly Karpov 2829 1986-Jan through 1990-Dec
#7 Alexander Alekhine 2827 1929-Jan through 1933-Dec
#8 Viswanathan Anand 2818 1997-Jan through 2001-Dec
#9 Vladimir Kramnik 2812 1998-Jan through 2002-Dec
#10 Harry Pillsbury 2799 1899-Jan through 1903-Dec

Difficult for me to say, but my list (players ranked by strength, style, and quality of games they played) would probably go:

1. Lasker
2. Kasparov
3. Fischer
4. Capablanca
5. Petrosian
6. Karpov
7. Alekhine
8. Morphy
9. Carlsen
10. Anderssen

1.Alekhine
2.Miles
3.Pachman
4.Tarassch
5.Nunn
6.Topalov
7.Short
8.Ward
9.Horner
10.Lamb

Thats a joke, right?

Originally posted by Maxacre42
1- Capablanca - The chess legend. He's just so cool.

2- Kasparov - needs no introduction

3- Karpov - Was overshadowed by Kasparov so he doesn't get the attention he deserves, but if you look at the head to head record between them you get the idea of how close they were in talent. In their five world championship matches, Karpov scored 19 wins, 21 lo ...[text shortened]... ntion : Smyslov, Spassky, Steinitz and Heinzkat for his tactical ability and witty comments.

Originally posted by clandarkfire
Thats a joke, right?