Below are the rankings of some of the greatest world champions, according to the author Jigar Raisinghani. Do you agree? If not, who are in your top 10 and by what order?
Chess: The Greatest of the Greats
Jigar Raisinghani | June 24th, 2011
Siegbert Tarrasch correctly said “Many have become chess masters, no one has become the master of chess.” The 8×8 board has been puzzling man from centuries. There have been several great players in the history of chess but as the title suggests, this article introduces you to the greatest of them. Not on the basis of ratings, this article talks about the 10 greatest legends which have dominated the chess kingdom much before world championships started. So, let us go back in time to meet them.
1) GREATEST OF THE GREATS: Gary Kasparov (1963-..)
Started ruling the chess kingdom at the age of 22, youngest ever undisputed champion in 1985, he remained #1 until his retirement in 2005. But as they say “ Every Chess master was once a beginner”, the saying holds for the champion too.
Gary started learning his training at the age of 10 at Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school. In 1979, he accidently entered into a professional tournament which he won. Later he was ranked 2nd in 1983. In 1984, he challenged for the World Title but lost to Karpov in a 48 game match. But the following year he won the title and defended it 3 times. After he left FIDE in 1993, the title remained split for 13 years. Later he lost his title to Kramnik in 2000.In 2005, he announced his retirement after winning the prestigious Linares tournament for the ninth time. He was #1 when he retired and also dominated the arena for 20 years.
2) ANATOLY KARPOV (1951-…)
Youngest ever Soviet National Master(age 15), World junior chess champion in 1969, defeated Korchnoi and Spassky in 1974 and challenged Fischer for the World Title, Fischer resigned and Karpov became the Champion by default. Reigning from 1975-1985 and 1993-1999 but disputed, with 160 first place tournaments, he lost his title to Gary Kasparov in 1985 after defending it successfully just a year before. He won the 1995 Linares tournament which is considered to be the strongest tournament in history. After defending his title to Kamsky in 1996, he conceded his title in 1999 in protest over FIDE rule changes to the way title was decided.This qualifies him to be among the greatest players in history.
3) THE LONGEST CHAMPION LIFE: EMANUEL LASKER (1868-1941)
The longest ever(27 years) to dominate the chess world, Emanuel Lasker began his reign in 1894 by defeating Steinitz by 10 wins, 5 losses and 4 draws to win the World Title. Later in 1907 he defended his title against Marshall and won flawless. The following year he beat Tarrasch( 8Wins,3 losses,5draws) to continue his reign. 2 years later, Schlenter and Janawski challenged Lasker but were unable to snatch the Title rather the latter couldn’t grab even a single win. Finally in 1921, he was defeated by Jose Capablanca to lose his World Title. But as a matter of fact, even after being defeated by Capablanca, he remained ahead of him in terms of ranking. He might be not a contributor but was surely a brilliant player and he would be remembered for that.
4) Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900)
“Austrian Morphy”, as the champion was branded, was a great contributor to the modern day chess. In 1873 , he introduced a new style of positional play which was considered cowardly as it differed from all out attack method.In 1866 he defeated Adolf Andersson, the then Strongest active player in the world. 1873-1882 , the period when he only ended up playing one match, against Blackburne but won it flawless 7-0. He made his come back in 1882. In 1886, he beat his bitter rival Zuckertort for “championship of the world” and successfully won it.
He continues his reign for next 8 years defeating Gunsberg and Chigorin but as mentioned earlier lost to Emanuel Lasker in 1894.Unfortunately, The great contributor to the world died in 1900 due to poverty.
5) Jose Capablanca (1888-1942)
Capablanca , undisputed master of the Blitz chess, he began his chess at the age of 4. At 13 defeated the Cuban champion, at 18, defeated the US Champion Frank Marshall 15-8 . Finally in 1921, he won the World Championship and ended the Lasker reign and set up himself as the new World Champion which he successfully defended for next 6 years. In 1922, he gave a stunning performance by playing simultaneously against 103 players, won 102 and drawn 1. But in 1927, he lost his title to Alexander Alekhine and ended his reign. Later he went on to play more tournaments but never reached the peak and retired in 1931. He wanted to make a come back as World Champion in 1934 but unfortunately did not manage to do so.
6) BOBBY FISCHER (1943-2008)
Fischer, began his career at the age of 14, winning 8 US Championships, at 15 , became the youngest Grandmaster and the youngest ever candidate for World Championship. In 1970 he won 20 consecutive matches in “1970 Interzonal”. By 1972, he defeated Boris Spassky to become the World Champion. In 1975, he did not defend his title due to an inability to agree on conditions with FIDE. Later he got into various controversies and conflicts. But no player till date has has such a large margin between themselves and the rivals. His major issue was with the playing conditions and money involved in championships.
7) Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946)
Alexander Alekhine, one of the strongest players of Russia by 16 , and strongest player in the world by 22, as mentioned earlier, began his reign by defeating Capablanca in 1927. His major objective was to snatch the Title from Capablanca which his successfully did by 6 wins, 3 losses and 25 draws. But held on to his title by defending it against Bogoljubov in 1929 and 1934 but lost in 1935 to Euwe. But he regained it in 1937 and held it until his death in 1946.
8) Mikhail Botvinnik (1911-1995)
Coached the greats, Kasparov, Karpov, Kramnik, he was not a great player but also a great contributor to developing World chess championship. In 1930, he became the Soviet Champion . Due to World War 2 he was unable to challenge Alekhine but he did so in early 1940’s by defeating a strong Soviet field for the title of “Absolute Champion of USSR” but it never eventuated with the death of Alekhine in 1946. He began his reign in 1948 which continued till 1963. He defended his title against David Bronstein in 1951 which ended in a draw and then in 1954 an another draw against Smyslov but finally lost to him in 1957. But he earned a rematch in 1958 to regain his title but again lost to Mikhail Tal in 1960 which he again managed to win in 1961 in a rematch to finally lose it in 1963 to Tigran Petrosian. He retired in 1970 and devoted himself to development of chess programs and training yound Soviet Players.
9) Paul Morphy (1837-1884)
Considered to be the greatest player in history by many, considered to be the most gifted chess player to have ever lived, he could have made these statements true if he would have chosen chess as a career. At the age of 9, he was the best player in New Orleans & easily defeated General Winfield Scott in 1846. At the age of 12, he defeated the Hungarian master Johann Lowenthal in 3 matches. In 1857, Morphy participated in the first American Chess Congress which he won to become the champion of United States. In 1858, he defeated all the English Grandmasters except Staunton. Later he moved onto France and defeated Adolf Andersson (7W, 2L, 2D) and was then considered the strongest player in the world at the age of only 21. But he retired from chess shortly and only played occasionally.
10) Vishwanathan Anand (1969-…)
The highest rated player in the world and World Chess Champion, he held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000-2002 when the title was split. He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007. He defended his title successfully against Vladimir Kraminik in 2008 and again in 2010 against Veselin Topalov. As the reigning Champion , he will face Boris Gelfand, the winner of Candidates Tournament for World Chess Championship 2012. Anand is one of the six players to cross the 2800 mark. He officially gained the #1 on November 1 , 2010. Anand is the most versatile player as he is the only one to win world championship in many formats including Knockout, Tournament, Match, Rapid and Blitz.
Source: http://www.sportskeeda.com
Fischer in 6º?? Oh, oh, Houston, we have a problem…
My list:
1) Kasparov
2) Lasker
3) Fischer
4) Capablanca
5) Alekhine
6) Steinitz
7) Botvinnik
8) Karpov
9) Morphy
10) Tal
“In 1984, he challenged for the World Title but lost to Karpov in a 48 game match”
This part on Kasparov is not really correct- that match was basically cancelled when Karpov started to crack under the pressure and inability to win one last game to reach six wins.
Otherwise, I got no real complaint about the top two. Fischer should really be #3, but I can understand why he isn’t- he refused to defend the title the one time he held it, and let’s face it- other than that golden period of 1971-1972, he might not even have been considered the #1 player of his generation, though I don’t doubt he was the most talented.
Generally the list is pretty good. Fischer should be ranked much higher, because of the size of the gap between him and his competition. I would put him at Number 2. Steinitz and Morphy should be honored as pioneers, but do not belong on such a list. Botvinnik must make the list, right above Alekhine.
— George Kane
Quote en.wikipedia.org
Title inflation
In 1972 there were only 88 GMs with 33 representing the USSR. The current FIDE ratings list includes over 1000 grandmasters. According to one researcher, ratings inflated by about 100 points between 1985 and 2000. Nigel Short, a product of the era when computer chess technology was in its infancy, was rated the third best player in the world in 1989 with a rating of 2650; in the 21st century such a rating would only be good enough for a player to reach the top 50 or 60, with the third best player in the world usually rated around 2750. In September 2010 the top three players are all rated at or above 2800. Other minor factors come into play: there are more tournaments worldwide and cheaper air travel makes them more accessible to globe-trotting chess professionals, who include many players from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe whose movements are no longer restricted as they were before the 1990s. Additionally, players can make norms in tournaments that would have been previously considered too short for norms, making norms easier to get and allowing for more norm tournaments to be held.
Sonas, like Elo, acknowledges that it is useless to try to compare the strength of players from different eras. In his explanation of the Chessmetrics system, he says:
Of course, a rating always indicates the level of dominance of a particular player against contemporary peers; it says nothing about whether the player is stronger/weaker in their actual technical chess skill than a player far removed from them in time. So while we cannot say that Bobby Fischer in the early 1970s or Jose Capablanca in the early 1920s were the “strongest” players of all time, we can say with a certain amount of confidence that they were the two most dominant players of all time. That is the extent of what these ratings can tell us.
Best regards
Stef
This person..sorry if I offend, does not seem to know much about chess. Too many errors and of course it’s obvious he’s not well schooled in Chess’s rich history.
Sorry but he’s not competent.
To @kuritovGM
“Fischer in 6º?? Oh, oh, Houston, we have a problem…”
ah-ah-ah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNxS4j3zmwk
Best regards
Stef
I disagree with Fischer being #6. I think he must be in the top 2.
Well Anand at 10th place? what is your problem with the Indian?. He is playing top class chess for the last 20 years, despite a compettition as strong as kramnik, who was equal to kasparov at his best.
No other champion had to face the troubles and indifference from FIDE than Anand. Still he is champion.
1.) Kasparov – Anyone who can successfully defend a title against Karpov four times deserves a nod over Fischer, who couldn’t work up the stones to face Karpov even once.
2.) Fischer – I’d put him at #1 if he had successfully defended his title at least once, especially given his 6-0 wins in candidates matches. It boggles the mind to think of what he could have achieved if he had the Internet at his disposal. I’m giving him the nod over Karpov only because at his peak, he had a much wider gap over the next best players than Karpov did, whether or not ELO ratings support that notion – Fischer didn’t just beat his top competition, he stomped them out of existence.
3.) Karpov – The most active and competitively successful champion; his tournament successes while he held the title warrant his inclusion in the top three, as do his tremendous battles with Kasparov.
4.) Capablanca – Anyone who has played through some of his evergreen games against top-flight competition should agree that he belongs in the top five.
5.) Alekhine – His dominance during the mid-1930s was Fischeresque.
6.) Lasker – Despite his absurdly long reign, he deserves no higher on this list because of his gaps of eight and eleven years between title defenses.
7.) Anand – Deserves inclusion based his current level of play and victories in multiple formats.
8.) Petrosian – He put away the grossly overrated Botvinnik once and for all and stopped Fischer’s 20-game streak, plus had an impressive title defense against Spassky.
9.) Spassky – Won his title in impressive fashion after crushing victories over Geller, Timman and Korchnoi for another shot at Petrosian, and was the consummate sportsman in 1972 when he could have walked away with the title without playing.
10.) Smyslov – The most underrated world champion of all time, who excelled at every phase of the game. I’ve honestly learned more from his games than I have from those of any other world champion, and I’ve studied dozens and dozens from each one.
Before anyone asks or comments, I didn’t include Morphy because the title wasn’t official during his day. I understand that many might feel I’m not being fair to Morphy and I’m probably not, but it’s a judgment call.
The article says that Capablanca “successfully defended for next 6 years”. When did Capa successfully defend the title?
Considering the comments made by Stef
(Friday, June 24, 2011 6:42:00 PM CDT) you may find that Anand is rated much below than he deserves.
He should be at 2nd if not first
Kasparov is clearly number one.
Not only for his results, but also for his “evaluation function.”
Unlike Tal and Topalov, who were good but went wrong at times, Kasparov was remarkably consistent after his sacs. Only Karpov could consistently find ways to defend and draw.
Remember the Karpov statement complaining about the press? Paraphrased, it went something like this — Kasparov wins brilliantly, or Kasparov self destructs. I just show up.
So, I’d put Karpov at 2, because really, when you look at their scores with each other, they are mostly even, give or take a few.
For the rest, who knows. Fischer gets a lot of credit probably because of his book — that sort of helped people learn how to play the game. He had a great few years, and could have stayed a legend, but ruined it with Fisher-Spassky II.
Please, Anand just defeated Kramnik and Topalov in some mini-matches and has not eve been able to hold on to the world number one ranking for any appreciable time. Maybe if he proves himself in some real 24 game matches of holds on to the number one ranking he might one day qualify for mention on this list, but right now? No way.
1) Fischer
2) Kasparov
3) Karpov
4) Anand
5) Capablanca
6) Alekhine
7) Lasker
8) Morphy
9) Tal
10 Carlsen 🙂 in the future!
The author ranked the greatest ‘world champions’, not the greatest players or careers. I would assume that this considered:
– how impressively they won the world title
– how long they held the title
– how often and how impressively they defended, and
– the strength of the challengers they played
Fischer scores high on the first, but definitely low on #3 and 4. He cannot be among the top 3. Tal may have been one of the most naturally gifted players of all time, but he was WC for a very short period. Anand’s ‘greatness’ as WC is still a work in progress, but he should already score better than Tal, Spassky, Smyslov, Euwe, and Petrosian, so #10 is a fair ranking.
Overall, the positions look wise and well-analyzed to me.
How can anyone compare chess players of different Era. It is stupid to make a comparison like this. You can only compare people who played at the same time. I cannot even imagine about players who played 50 years back. So how can we compare them. There is a defenite difference with players after the computer revolution and before that. The training, the facilities, travel, playing oppertunities, even the media coverage was different. Let us forget about the number 1 – 10. Keep it as the best 10 players in history with out thinking who is the best of them all..
Yes. Anand of course. Petrosjan, too. Kasparov and Karpov first and second – who should doubt about it?
okay
The picture says it all. It’s Bobby at number ONE !.
Fischer was too scared to defend his title even once… hes lucky to make the top 10 at all. He wouldn’t be on my top 10 list.
Where is Carlsen??
The list should be
1.Fisher
2.Kasparov
3.Capablanca
4.Kaporv
5.Carlsen
6.Alekhine
7.Morphy
8.Tal
9.Botvinnik
10.Steinitz
1.Fisher,Carlsen,Kasparov,Morphy,Capablanca
5.Karpov
6.Alekhine
7.Pillsbury
8.Tal
9.Lasker
10.Anand
11.Steinitz
12.Smyslov
13.Keres
14.Alekhine
15.Petrosian
16.Spasky
17.Kramnik
18.Stein
19.Aronien
20.Botvinnik
21.Anderson
22.Euwe
23.Kortsjnoi
24.Bronstein
25.Reshevsky
1) Kasparov
2) Fischer
3) Karpov
4) Capablanca
5) Alekhine
6) Lasker
7) Anand
8) Tal
9) Botvinnik
10)Spassky
Steinitz and Morphy are honorable mentions along with Smyslov and Petrosian.
Smyslov is incredibly underrated by people from west. He was one of the 10 best players in the world from a period of 45 years ( 1938-1983) and had a positive personal score against almost everybody, even when he had already past his prime. Smyslov was the best in the world for about 10 years although only one as world champion.That is, I believe, why he is so underrated in west.
My list:
Kasparov
Karpov
Capablanca
Smyslov
Alekhine
Anand
Tal
Fischer
Botvinnik
Petrosian
What is the real criteria here? If it’s the skill of the champion as opposed to his contemporaries, Fischer is an easy #1.
If it’s the quality of his reign (defending titles regularly, actively playing in tournaments and doing well in them), Karpov and Kasparov are so far ahead of the rest of the field that I’d put them in a class by themselves with Alekhine at third. In that case, I’m not sure I could even include ten on the list because some didn’t hold the title long enough to earn a spot on the list (Tal, Smyslov, and for the time being Anand) except for in a “by default” sense by those insisting on including ten people no matter what.
I choose to look at it the first way. In that case, I would agree with Remington3200’s list with one exception: replace Spassky with Tal, move Smyslov to ninth and put Tal in tenth. Like him or her (Remington3200), I would exclude Botvinnik, mostly because he found a way to lose the title every time he won it, with the exception of a weak showing in his lucky escape against Bronstein. I would put Alekhine one spot above Capablanca, too, so I guess that’s two exceptions. 🙂
To Spikad ” where is Carlsen?”
Idiot! We are looking at the 10 best world champs! and FYI Anand has a plus against Carlsen in Classical chess;that’s why he chickened out of the candidates!
Mutsen
1.Fischer
2.Capablanca
3.Kasparov
4.Alekhine
5.Karpov
6.Botvinnik
7.Tal
8.Smyslov
9.Morphy
10.Lasker,Steinitz,Spassky
1. Topalov
1. Topalov
1. Topalov
1. Topalov
1. Topalov
1. Topalov
1. Topalov
1. Topalov
1. Topalov
Hey guys, I am the original author of this article.
I went through the comments and i agree that there are certain flaws which i would like to apologize for.
But there is certain misunderstanding as the article was Originally titled as “Chess: Greatest of the Greats”.
The article just tries to talk about great legends of chess. The article was not aimed at ranking the champions. The players who have reigned at different times cannot be compared easily just as TAJ MAHAL cannot be compared to EIFEL TOWER. The article just tries to give credits to the champions and not rank them. I have mentioned Kasparov first because I believe he has been the greatest till date.