This world Championship between Carlsen and Caruana features two very strong Grandmasters. I wonder however who would be playing for the world title in 2018 if players of the past such as Botvinnik, Tal, Capablanca, Fischer, Morphy, or other greats of the past were not only at their peak today, but had access to today's massive chess databases and other tools of our computer age. Would we be seeing these same men competing for the title, or others? Any thoughts?

Botvinnik would have embraced it.

Fischer would have memorised the relevant areas of the database.

Tal would look at the games but find it very disheartening if he
ran a strong computer over some of his games. Then shrug his
shoulders and carry on.

Capablanca would be too lazy to even bother.

Lasker would demand a fee for having his games in the D.B.

The main difference (IMO) with todays hi-tech and the golden olden days
is how rapidly games go around the world. Before D.B's and live games you
could use a TN or a good variation or pet line in some cases for years. If it
did not produce a brilliancy in under 30 moves then there is a good chance of it
not getting published in a newspaper column.
Books about the event often came out a few years later.

Today the TN is known world wide and often a bust is computer
discovered before the original game even finishes.