A member of the Polgar Chess Center asked these 2 questions tonight:
– Bobby Fischer is the greatest American born player of all time. After Fischer, who is the greatest modern player who was born in the United States? Is it Larry Christiansen, Joel Benjamin, Nick DeFirmian, John Fedorowicz, etc?
– Who is the greatest American player who was NOT born in the United States? Is it Gata Kamsky, Alex Onischuk, Yasser Seirawan, Hikaru Nakamura, etc?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
How about (1) Morphy, and (2) Reshevsky?
Modern players 🙂 not ancient 🙂
Born in the US – Larry Christiansen.
Not born in the US – Gata Kamsky.
Modern US born: Christiansen
Not born in the US: Not sure why Reshevsky would be considered ancient. If Reshevsky is considered Modern, I would think Reshevsky deserves at least honorable mention. And Kamsky is one of the best not US born if not the best not US born.
Morphy and Reshevsky. They’re both modern.
Larry “Mark” Christiansen.. by far best American born US (GM)
Larry among those born here, and Yasser among those born overseas.
Of modern players, which I assume means a contemporary of Fischer or later, I would probably say Larry Evans.
Of immigrant Americans, my nod goes to either Samuel Reshevsky or Gata Kamsky. I think Susan Polgar deserves honorable mention in this department.
naturaly talent Christiansen…….kamsky and nakamura
Gata is the best!
Morphy Fisher Nakamura very exiting players
foget the rest
Fischer is no longer an American player.
why fisher is not longer un american player??
Joel Benjamin is the greatest American born talent since Fischer. Remember Joel was the 1st American to break Fischer’s record of America’s youngest master ever. Add 3 US Championships as well as 2 US Jr. Championships to that. I’ll give him the edge over Christiansen.
“why fisher is not longer un american player??”
He still is an un-American player.
Yasser Seirawan for the second question.
Anonymous said…
why fisher is not longer un american player??
if you don’t know -you don’t need to know
Fischer is an un-American player, you are right on that.
He has adopted Icelandic nationality, so is no longer an American player.
As American accepts foreigners who become American, it loses Americans who become .. Icelanders.
Morphy and Kamsky.
Yasser Seirawan. He arrived in the USA at the young age of 7, before he had the slightest skill at chess.
And Yasser was a WCChamp candidate repeatedly, an elite among grandmasters.
It only helps that Yasser was from the Seattle area 😉
G
Dumb and provocative question, I’d rather say.
Actually, we can give Anand a citizenship, and he will be the best non-us born player .
J/k .. LOL
For question #2, how about Susan Polgar? 🙂
nitwits*
American born: Many say Morphy, but Pillsbury is often overlooked — he gets my vote. If we’re talking very modern, as in the past 30 years or so, I’d have to say Larry Christiansen.
For the second question, although not necessarily the strongest, one of the most successful and enduring foreign-born Americans is Walter Browne.
Maybe not the best, but a nod to Robert Byrne, who qualified for the Candidates matches in the seventies.
Kamsky was at least no. 3 in the world at one point, so I’d have to give him the “Foreign Born” title.
It doesn’t matter though, we’re all Americans!
I vote for John Fedorowicz as the most American of the American born top players … Go Fed!