There is no consensus on who is the greatest chess player of all time, but it is a topic often discussed by fans and addressed by writers. Many countries claim to have invented the chess game in some incipient form. ...

Determining the greatest player of all time is complicated by a number of factors. For example, it is generally agreed that if 19th century master Paul Morphy (or someone of his era) came back to play 20th century champion Garry Kasparov (or any other modern champion) without preparation, Morphy would be crushed because chess understanding has advanced over time, and modern grandmasters analyze openings much more deeply than ever before. These considerations alone, however, do not mean that Morphy was not as great a player as Kasparov, they only mean that Kasparov has advantages due to living later. Perhaps Morphy would be able to quickly absorb modern theory and rise to the top again. Paul Charles Morphy (June 22, 1837 - July 10, 1884), The Pride and Sorrow of Chess, is considered to have been the greatest chess master of his time, an unofficial World Champion and, is considered by many, including some grandmasters (see below) the greatest chessplayer who has ever lived. ... Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (, pronounced with stress falling on the second syllable: kas-PA-rov) (born April 13, 1963) is a chess grandmaster and one of the strongest chess players in history. ...

One possible criterion for all-time greatness is the amount by which a player exceeded his contemporaries. For example, Morphy was head and shoulders above the competition of his day in a way that Mikhail Botvinnik never was. And Philidor was so far ahead of his contemporaries for a long time everyone else had to take a handicap. But should Botvinnik be considered less great a player for having worthy rivals? Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik (Михаи́л Моисе́евич Ботви́нник) (August 17, 1911 - May 5, 1995) was a Russian International Grandmaster and long-time World Champion of chess. ... François-André Danican Philidor (September 1, 1726 - August 31, 1795) was a French chess player and composer. ...

And by another criterion, namely length of time at the top of the chess world, Botvinnik's achievements must be considered far greater than Morphy's (even though his reign as World Champion was interrupted by Vasily Smyslov and Mikhail Tal). But then his reign was nowhere near as long as Philidor's, although there was no official world title back then. Furthermore, Emanuel Lasker was the undisputed champion for 27 years, a reign no other player has even approached. However, he played infrequently in later years, and there was no standardized system for championship matches: champions played challengers whenever both agreed to a match. Especially in today's world, with dozens of possible challengers to the championship, longevity is a poor determinant of skill. Image:Smyslov. ... Mikhail Tal Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal (Latvian: Mihails Tāls, Russian: Михаил Нехемьевич Таль) (November 9, 1936 - June 28, 1992), born in Riga, Latvia, was the eighth World Chess Champion. ... Emanuel Lasker (December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player and mathematician, born at Berlinchen in Brandenburg (now Barlinek in Poland). ...

Yet another complication in determining who was the greatest is the dichotomy between talent and hard work. Capablanca's natural gift for chess was arguably unrivaled, but he lost his title to Alekhine because Alekhine prepared much more diligently for their match. Is this evidence that Capablanca was in fact a better player who lost due to laziness, or evidence that due to his laziness Capablanca was in fact the inferior player? José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (November 19, 1888 - March 8, 1942) was a famous Cuban chess player in the early to mid twentieth century. ... Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine (sometimes spelled Aljechin) (in Russian, Александр Александрович Але́хин), (October 31 or November 1, 1892 - March 24, 1946) was a chess master, one of the great world chess champions. ...

Statistical methods

Statistical methods to determine the identity the strongest player of all time may seem to offer some chance of objectivity, but here too there is disagreement and controversy.

Perhaps the best-known statistical model is that devised by Arpad Elo. In his The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present (1978), he gave ratings to players corresponding to their performance over the best five-year span of their career. The players who have the highest ratings in this system are José Raúl Capablanca (with 2725), Mikhail Botvinnik (2720), Emanuel Lasker (2720), Mikhail Tal (2700), Alexander Alekhine (2700) Paul Morphy (2690) and Vasily Smyslov (2690). Elo ratings continue to be assigned to modern players (updated lists are issued by FIDE every three months), and several have surpassed Capablanca's 2725 (Garry Kasparov achieving the highest Elo rating of all time), but a general view that Elo ratings have become inflated over time makes it hard to compare modern figures with Elo's originals. For example, the average rating of FIDE's Top 100 Players in the 21st century increases annuallly: . Árpád Élő (1903-1992) is the creator of the ELO rating system. ... The ELO rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in two-player games such as chess and Go. ... The Fédération Internationale des Échecs or World Chess Federation is an international organization that connects the various national chess federations around the world. ... Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (, pronounced with stress falling on the second syllable: kas-PA-rov) (born April 13, 1963) is a chess grandmaster and one of the strongest chess players in history. ...

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Elo was of the opinion that it was futile to attempt to use ratings to compare players from different eras; in his view, they could only possibly measure the strength of a player as compared to his contemporaries. He also stated that the process of rating players was in any case rather approximate; he compared it to "the measurement of the position of a cork bobbing up and down on the surface of agitated water with a yard stick tied to a rope and which is swaying in the wind" (Chess Life, 1962).

A later statistician who has used a similar method to Elo's to retrospectively rate players is Jeff Sonas, who calls his system Chessmetrics. This system takes account of many games played after the publication of Elo's book, and claims to take account of the rating inflation that the Elo system has apparently suffered. The players with the highest five-year Chessmetrics averages are Garry Kasparov (2875), Emanuel Lasker (2854), José Raúl Capablanca (2843), Mikhail Botvinnik (2843) and Bobby Fischer (2841) [2]. Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (, pronounced with stress falling on the second syllable: kas-PA-rov) (born April 13, 1963) is a chess grandmaster and one of the strongest chess players in history. ... Emanuel Lasker (December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player and mathematician, born at Berlinchen in Brandenburg (now Barlinek in Poland). ... José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (November 19, 1888 - March 8, 1942) was a Cuban world-class chess master in the early to mid-twentieth century. ... Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik (Михаи́л Моисе́евич Ботви́нник) (August 17, 1911 - May 5, 1995) was a Russian International Grandmaster and long-time World Champion of chess. ... Bobby Fischer. ...

One caveat is that a Chessmetrics rating takes into account the frequency of play. According to Sonas, "As soon as you go a month without playing, your Chessmetrics rating will start to drop" [3]. While it may be in the best interest of the fans for chess-players to remain active, it is not clear why a person's rating, which reflects his/her skill at chess, should drop if the player is inactive for a period of time.

Sonas, like Elo, acknowledges that it is useless to try and compare the strength of players from different eras. In his explanation of the Chessmetrics system [4], 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 1970's or Jose Capablanca in the early 1920's 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.

In a recent ChessBase article, Sonas uses Chessmetrics to evaluate historical annual perfomance ratings and comes to the conclusion that Kasparov is the most dominant, followed closely by Karpov. ChessBase is the dominant commercial database program for storing and searching records of games of chess. ...

Warriors of the Mind

In contrast to Elo and Sonas's systems, Raymond Keene and Nathan Divinsky's book Warriors of the Mind (1989) is a rare example of a rating system which claims to directly compare the strength of players active in different eras and so determine the strongest player of all time. Considering games played between sixty-four of the strongest players in history, they come up with the following top-ten: Raymond Keene is an influential figure in the chess world off the board, bringing many notable chess events to London. ... Nathan Divinsky is a mathematician and chess enthusiast who is also known for being the former husband of the 19th Prime Minister of Canada, Kim Campbell. ...

1. Garry Kasparov, 3096
2. Anatoly Karpov, 2876
3. Bobby Fischer, 2690
4. Mikhail Botvinnik, 2616
5. José Raúl Capablanca, 2552
6. Emanuel Lasker, 2550
7. Viktor Korchnoi, 2535
8. Boris Spassky, 2480
9. Vasily Smyslov, 2413
10. Tigran Petrosian, 2363

These "Divinsky numbers" are not on the same scale as Elo ratings (the last person on the list, Johann Zukertort, has a Divinsky number of 873). Garry Kasparov Garry Kimovich Kasparov (, pronounced with stress falling on the second syllable: kas-PA-rov) (born April 13, 1963) is a chess grandmaster and one of the strongest chess players in history. ... Anatoli Yevgenyevich Karpov (Анато́лий Евге́ньевич Ка́рпов) (born May 23, 1951) is a Russian chess grandmaster and former World Champion. ... Bobby Fischer. ... Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik (Михаи́л Моисе́евич Ботви́нник) (August 17, 1911 - May 5, 1995) was a Russian International Grandmaster and long-time World Champion of chess. ... José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (November 19, 1888 - March 8, 1942) was a Cuban world-class chess master in the early to mid-twentieth century. ... Emanuel Lasker (December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player and mathematician, born at Berlinchen in Brandenburg (now Barlinek in Poland). ... Viktor Korchnoi (also Korchnoy, Kortchnoy, Kortschnoj, etc) (Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й) (born March 23, 1931) is a professional chess player. ... Boris Spassky Boris Vasilievich Spassky (also Spasski) (Бори́с Васи́льевич Спа́сский) (born January 30, 1937) is a French (formerly Russian or Soviet) chess player and former world champion. ... Image:Smyslov. ... Tigran Petrosian Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian (June 17, 1929 - August 13, 1984) is a former world chess champion. ... Zukertort, early 1880s Johannes Hermann Zukertort (7 September 1842 Lublin – 20 June 1888 London) was a leading Polish-Jewish chess master. ...

Several criticisms can be levelled against the list: for example, because only games played by people in the list against others in the list were considered, the sample size was relatively small; furthermore, the formula used appears to take no account of the fact that players tend not to play at a constant level throughout their career and that games played in old age may not be especially relevant when considering the strength of a player at their peak. It contains several apparent anomalies: the relatively unhailed Semyon Furman, for instance, is at number 26, while first World Champion Wilhelm Steinitz is only at number 47. The list remains notable as an effort to objectively determine the strongest player of all time, but has never been treated as more than a curiosity by the chess community. Semen Abramovich Furman (December 1, 1920 - March 16, 1978) also known as Simeon Furman was a Soviet chess player (International grandmaster) and chess theorist. ... Wilhelm Steinitz Wilhelm Steinitz (May 17, 1836, Prague, Czech Republic (then Austrian Empire) - August 12, 1900,New York City, United States) was an Austrian chess player, and the first official World Champion of chess. ...

External links

• A Chessbase article on Elo, including the top 47 rated players from The Rating of Chessplayers, Past and Present
• Chessmetrics homepage
• A critique of the Warriors of the Mind system