Fischer is the greatest: Anand
Press Trust of India
Thursday, January 15, 2009 (Kolkata)
Three-time world chess champion Viswanthan Anand on Thursday said he was lucky to meet American Bobby Fischer who according to him was the greatest ever chess player.
Asked to compare between Fischer and Kasparov, Anand said, “It’s difficult to comapre… But, Fischer made the biggest impact in the game. He is a very special person, and I was fortunate to meet him two years ago… He passed away recently, now I consider that I was lucky to meet him.”
However, Anand, who recently defended his world championship title against Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn, said Kasparov was remarkable as he had a longer reign than that of Fischer.
“While Fischer was great in 1970s, Kasparov had a much longer reign from 1984 to 2005… Which is really remarkable.”
The 40-year-old, however, rued that he did not have much chance to play against Kasparov who retired three years ago.
“It’s sort of a pity but that’s life… It would have nice to have a big match with him. He is obviously a great player. But I didn’t have the chance to play to Kasparov in the last few years. In 2005, when he retired, there was no possibility to play against him,” he told reporters.
But he felt now the competition had become too close at the highest level of the game. Five years ago, there was a huge difference between the three of of us – Anand, Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov – and the rest. But now, only 30 points separate the top six players.”
“In different years, there are different players… In 2002, it was Topalov who was very difficult to face… In 2007, it’s Carlsen. Every year there’s some new talent who brings something new to the game.”
Here is the full article.
misleading headline. no where does he say fischer is the greatest. only that he made the biggest impact. doesn’t necessarily mean the greatest ever.
A dime store chess set on a cardboard board. I bet the squares are red and black!
And yes, Bobby could slaughter any GM in the world with that dime store chess set.
Think about that when you pull out your fancy House of Staunton chess set…
It was never the shoes that made Michael Jordan great.
Think about that.
Actually Fischer had very strong feelings on what made a chess set worthy to play a serious game on. Think about that.
Hey, this is the Internet.
Think about that.
In pictures and films of Fischer with his own set, it was never like this one. He seemed to favor an east-European one. This one is probably a prop bought by the photographer.
Remember Fischer demanded a Jaques set for his 1972 World Championship match.