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Only Chess

26 Jul 10

chesstora

Joined: 31 May 10
Moves: 1772

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.

gorookyourself

Joined: 20 Jul 10
Moves: 1072

26 Jul 10

1 edit

I like how you have Karpov up near the top, but do to the fact that you neglected to mention Alekhine, I am forced to hate you. I also think your list is biased.

Diophantus

Up a

gumtree

Joined: 13 Jan 10
Moves: 5151

26 Jul 10

Purdy
Berliner
Timmerman
Rittner
Estrin
Penrose
Ragozin
Baumbach
Schmid
Umansky

10 for you to chew on. Let's see how many recognise them.

nimzo5

Ronin

Hereford Boathouse

Joined: 08 Oct 09
Moves: 29575

26 Jul 10

Morphy
Lasker
Pillsbury
Capablanca
Alekhine
Fischer
Kasparov

the other spots are up for grabs..

gorookyourself

Joined: 20 Jul 10
Moves: 1072

26 Jul 10

Originally posted by nimzo5
Morphy
Lasker
Pillsbury
Capablanca
Alekhine
Fischer
Kasparov

the other spots are up for grabs..

Lasker 😉 May be the all time best, after me of course.

clandarkfire

Grammar Nazi

Auschwitz

Joined: 03 Apr 06
Moves: 44348

26 Jul 10

1.Capablanca
2.Kasparov
3.Morphy
4.Alekhine
5.Karpov
6.Nezhmetdinov
7.Fischer
8.Tal
9.Lasker
10.Botvinnik

Maxacre42

Joined: 16 Oct 09
Moves: 2448

26 Jul 10

2 edits

Originally posted by Diophantus
Purdy
Berliner
Timmerman
Rittner
Estrin
Penrose
Ragozin
Baumbach
Schmid
Umansky

10 for you to chew on. Let's see how many recognise them.

Berliner sure was special!

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.

cmsMaster

Joined: 02 Feb 06
Moves: 8557

26 Jul 10

Originally posted by Diophantus
Purdy
Berliner
Timmerman
Rittner
Estrin
Penrose
Ragozin
Baumbach
Schmid
Umansky

10 for you to chew on. Let's see how many recognise them.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?page=2&tid=39859&eresult=

Maxacre42

Joined: 16 Oct 09
Moves: 2448

26 Jul 10

1 edit

Originally posted by gorookyourself
Lasker 😉 May be the all time best, after me of course.

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.

gorookyourself

Joined: 20 Jul 10
Moves: 1072

26 Jul 10

Originally posted by clandarkfire
1.Capablanca
2.Kasparov
3.Morphy
4.Alekhine
5.Karpov
6.Nezhmetdinov
7.Fischer
8.Tal
9.Lasker
10.Botvinnik

Definitely agree with the players just not the order.

nimzo5

Ronin

Hereford Boathouse

Joined: 08 Oct 09
Moves: 29575

26 Jul 10

Spassky used to say that Kortchnoi was a fabulous attacker, a good analyst, and a strong endgame player and yet he lacked one thing... talent.

gorookyourself

Joined: 20 Jul 10
Moves: 1072

26 Jul 10

Originally posted by Maxacre42
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.

That 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"...

nimzo5

Ronin

Hereford Boathouse

Joined: 08 Oct 09
Moves: 29575

26 Jul 10

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.

toeternitoe

Joined: 28 Mar 10
Moves: 3807

26 Jul 10

Originally posted by Diophantus
Purdy
Berliner
Timmerman
Rittner
Estrin
Penrose
Ragozin
Baumbach
Schmid
Umansky

10 for you to chew on. Let's see how many recognise them.

Purdy Cecil
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.

Maxacre42

Joined: 16 Oct 09
Moves: 2448

26 Jul 10

1 edit

Originally posted by nimzo5
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.

In his five world championship matches vs Kasparov, Karpov scored 19 wins, 21 losses, and 104 draws in 144 games.

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 🙂