WORLD'S TOP 10 ALL-TIME BEST CHESS CHAMPIONS!




WORLD'S TOP 10 ALL-TIME BEST CHESS CHAMPIONS
as of May 2015 by JCS
RANK FIRST NAME (MIDDLE) LAST NAME BIRTH & DEATH YEAR AGE NATIONALIY WCC
No.
 1 Garry Kimovich            Kasparov  1963 - living 52 Russian  13th
 2 Robert James "Bobby"      Fischer   1943 - 2008   64 American 11th
 3 José Raúl                 Capablanca 1888 - 1942   53 Cuban    3rd
 4 Anatoly Yevgenyevich      Karpov    1951 - living 63 Russian  12th
 5 Emanuel                   Lasker    1868 - 1941   72 German   2nd
 6 Mikhail Moiseyevich       Botvinnik 1911 - 1995   83 Russian  6th
 7 Alexander Aleksandrovich  Alekhine  1892 - 1946   53 Russian  4th
 8 Paul Charles              Morphy    1837 - 1884   47 American n.a.
 9 Wilhelm                   Steinitz  1836 - 1900   64 Austrian 1st
10 Viswanathan "Vishy"       Anand     1969 - living 45 Indian   19th
http://www.net-comber.com/chess-greats.html



     PLEASE READ ON TO FIND OUT HOW THE ABOVE LIST
     OF THE ALL-TIME BEST CHESS PLAYERS WAS DERIVED.

Most everyone seems to have their favorite chess player(s), just as people have favorite
movie(s). But in what way could one movie be any better or worse than another movie? There
must be some measure of objectiveness using some set of criteria. Reasons need to be given
to answer the question as to 'why' one movie is better or worse than another. So it goes
with many things in life including the best chess players of all-time.

Before any criteria can be imposed, the item or quality to be measured must be well defined.
People talk about the 'strongest' or 'greatest' player. Is there a difference between the
strongest or the greatest? Others mention the longevity of a player.

Carlsen has been WCC (World Chess Champion) for 1 1/2 years (11/2013 to 5/2015). Does that
make Carlsen automatically weaker and not as good as Capablanca who reigned as WCC for 6
years (1921-1927)? If Carlsen continues as WCC for say 7 years, does that in itself some
how make Carlsen stronger than Capablanca? NO! Can each passing month make Carlsen stronger?
NO! This type of thinking is a fallacy of time.

Can a WCC help it, if in only 1 year, a super strong challenger comes out of nowhere and
takes over as WCC? Or the opposite, maybe no strong challenger appears for many years and
allows the WCC to reign as WCC much longer? Or as Fischer said (paraphrased) 'are world
rulers great simply because they ruled longer'? NO!

Past WCCs were allowed to set criteria that challengers had to meet. Like requiring
challengers to put up money they didn't have, thwarting competition. Or many WCCs simply
refused to play any matches thus prolonging their reign. Can these artificial variables
that make a WCC last longer make a player stronger or greater? Again, NO! Time is not a
magic bullet that can alter a player's strength for better or worse.

If a Russian Olympic weight lifter sets a world record by lifting 400kg over his head and
dies ten minutes later, is he still not the record holder? Would he have been any stronger
of a weight lifter had he held the title longer by living another 100 years? No.

This notion of longevity or longer time as champ simply cannot make a player a better player
or a stronger player. Longevity might make him more famous but that's it. But we are not
looking for famous players or great players or even long time champions, but are only
looking for the strongest players. It does not matter how short of time it might have been
that they were THE strongest player, they were still THE strongest player.

Paul Morphy stopped playing chess in public competitively not much later than 1860 when he
was only 23. It was his choice to limit his longevity, but he was at the time, the strongest
chess player the world had ever seen. Jose Capablanca died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1942,
resulting from high blood pressure. He was only 53. Circumstances beyond human control limit
the longevity of others - does that make them any less great?

When the term 'great' is used, some people confuse it with being famous. It's nice that
chess champions became famous or were famous. It promotes the game by increasing awareness
of chess. But being famous cannot make a player a stronger or weaker player.

Is an actress a better actress simply because she is more famous than another actress?
Is a soccer player a better player if he has a larger fan club than another player? No. We
may admire certain chess players, but does that increase their playing strength? No way.
Being super famous doesn't add one iota to a person's capabilities. The same goes for
being great.

Isn't a chess game, or better, a series of chess games between the same two people a way to
measure who is the better player between the two? Here 'better' equates to stronger. THE
strongest player, then, can beat all comers in a controlled series of chess games as in a
tournament over a short period of time. Think about it, is there a better yardstick than
that? Tournaments prove something, length of time doesn't prove or change anything.

It's possible a player may improve with time, but he can also get worse over time. As time
passes a player may become much weaker not stronger. The point is that 'time' itself can't
be the CAUSE of a players change in strength, either up or down. Reading comic books
in lieu of chess books could be a real CAUSE in a change in a player's strength of play.

There is nothing wrong with comic books, it's just that a champion needs to constantly and
continually maintain his edge over the competition. If they allow other things to get in
the way of that - their edge will evaporate. Poor diet, poor sleeping habits, aging and
medical problems are physical things that detract from one's chess ability. Playing
strength varies over time for a host of reasons, none of which is time.

One can't assume that a longer lasting WCC was automatically getting better as time pased.
If fact he could have been getting worse. Eventually, a horse growing old, will not be able
to win the Kentucky Derby horse race. Longevity has robbed them of their strength.

DEFINITION:
We are only looking for the best players who are or were among the strongest players of
all-time - players at their peak rating of power or strength of play. We ARE NOT looking
for great chess players or famous chess players or long reigning WCCs.

On one website a person said he liked Smyslov as a great chess player because Smyslov was
also a great opera singer! Smyslov was a baritone singer, and only positively decided upon
a chess career after a failed audition with the Bolshoi Theatre in 1950. My hat is off to
Smyslov! But what does singing have to do with the price of tea in China?
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasily_Smyslov

On this web page, the author has not generated his own list of the top 10 like others have
done. No, but he has only located and selected existing lists of top 10s. 10 lists from
wikipedia and an additional 10 lists from 7 other websites are used. Finally a third set
of ten website each with their own top 10 list was obtained and added to the collection.

A logical and mathematical yet simple algorithm was devised to collate and merge all 30
lists into one complete or composite list of top 10.

This one new combined list is more encompassing, farther reaching and greater in scope than
any single list of the 30 lists can be. This new list is probably more meaningful and more
authoritative than the any of the individual original 30 lists. Each of the original 30
lists have been treated as equal in value to each other.




Below, in blue, are 10 different top 10 lists gleaned from wikipedia.org.


 1   Carlsen  Fischer    Fischer    Kasparov   Fischer    Fischer    Morphy     Morphy     Capablanca Lasker
 2   Kasparov Kasparov   Kasparov   Karpov     Kramnik    Kramnik    Staunton   Steinitz   Alekhine   Kasparov
 3   Caruana  Botvinnik  Botvinnik  Fischer    Kasparov   Capablanca Steinitz   Capablanca Lasker     Karpov
 4   Aronian  Capablanca Lasker     Botvinnik  Botvinnik  Kasparov   Tarrasch   Botvinnik  Fischer    Botvinnik
 5   Anand    Lasker     Capablanca Capablanca Capablanca Karpov     Chigorin   Petrosian  Botvinnik  Anand
 6   Topalov  Alekhine   Alekhine   Lasker     Karpov     Smyslov    Alekhine   Tal        Petrosian  Alekhine
 7   Kramnik  Karpov     Karpov     Korchnoy   Smyslov    Botvinnik  Capablanca Spassky    Tal        Steinitz
 8   Grischuk Korchnoy   Anand      Spassky    Tal        Alekhine   Spassky    Reshevsky  Smyslov    Kramnik
 9   Nakamura Smyslov    Kramnik    Smyslov    Petrosian  Anand      Tal        Gligoric   Spassky    Petrosian
10   Giri     ?          Steinitz   Petrosian  Euwe       Tal        Reshevsky  Larsen     Bronstein  Carlsen


These 10 lists of top 10 are from different people using different criteria, some from past eras.
Any person on any of these lists is obviously an all time great chess player by some reckoning.
Current or modern chess players, like Carlsen and Anand, are at a disadvantage in getting on these
lists since they were unknown when several older lists were formulated and compiled.

Two of these 10 lists are from Fischer (both with Morphy at #1). Fischer didn't include himself
on his own lists, this works to Fischer's disadvantage. Kasparov, Anand and Carlsen are not on
Fischer's 2 lists either but Capablanca is on both.

Any methodology used will necessarily have strengths and weaknesses. There is no perfect way to
make a definitive list. Many believe it is only possible to rate or compare players who have sat
down and actually played against each other. Thus any list of the best players is highly subjective
but still contain significant merit.

How can these 10 lists of top 10 be boiled down into one composite list of all-time top 10?
One way is to count the number of times each of the names appears in the whole table.
But that would not take into account the ranking of whether the name was at or near the top
(1) or bottom (10) of a particular list.

The answer is to subtract the ranking of each name on each list from 11 and sum these together.
Example: Anand is found on 4 of the 10 lists, ranked as follows, 5, 5, 8 & 9. Subtract each of
these numbers from 11, then total those differences:
11 - 5 = 6
11 - 5 = 6
11 - 8 = 3
11 - 9 = 2         6 + 6 + 3 + 2 = 17, Anand gets 17 points.
Notice that when Anand is ranked higher on a list (like 5) he gets a greater reward or more
points (e.g. 6). While a lower ranking on a list (9) gives him a lower score (2).

31 different Chess champions were found on the first 10 lists and are in alphabetical
order with raw scoring included:

NAME      POINTS    RAW SCORING
--------------------------------------------------------
Alekhine      32    (2 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 8) = 34                          Rank on  Points
Anand         17    (5 + 5 + 8 + 9) = 27                                  a list   awarded
Aronian        7    4 = 4                                                   1       10
Botvinnik     54    (3 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 5 + 7) = 34                    2        9
Bronstein      1    10 = 10                                                 3        8
Capablanca    55    (1 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 7) = 33                    4        7
Carlsen       11    (1 + 10) = 11                                           5        6
Caruana        8    3 = 3                                                   6        5
Chigorin       6    5 = 5                                                   7        4
Euwe           1    10 = 10                                                 8        3
Fischer       55    (1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 4) = 11                            9        2
Giri           1    10 = 10                                                10        1
Gligoric       2    9 = 9
Grischuk       3    8 = 8
Karpov        36    (2 + 3 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 7) = 30
Kasparov      61    (1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 4) = 16
Korchnoy       7    (7 + 8) = 15
Kramnik       27    (2 + 2 + 7 + 8 + 9) = 28
Larsen         1    10 = 10
Lasker        36    (1 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6) = 19
Morphy        20    (1 + 1) = 2
Nakamura       2    9 = 9
Petrosian     16    (5 + 6 + 9 + 9 + 10) = 39
Reshevsky      4    (8 +10) = 18
Smyslov       16    (6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 9) = 39
Spassky       12    (7 + 8 + 8 + 9) = 32
Staunton       9    2 = 2
Steinitz      22    (2 + 3 + 7 + 10) = 22
Tal           15    (6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10) = 40
Topalov        5    6 = 6
Tarrasch       7    4 = 4

31 Chess champions in ranking order from the
first group of 10 lists on wikipedia above:

RANK NAME          POINTS
-------------------------
 1   Kasparov      61
 2   Capablanca    55
 3   Fischer       55
 4   Botvinnik     54
 5   Lasker        36
 6   Karpov        36
 7   Alekhine      32
 8   Kramnik       27
 9   Steinitz      22
10   Morphy        20
---------------------
11   Anand         17
12   Petrosian     16
13   Smyslov       16
14   Tal           15
15   Spassky       12
16   Carlsen       11
17   Staunton       9
18   Caruana        8
19   Aronian        7
20   Tarrasch       7
21   Korchnoy       7
22   Chigorin       6
23   Topalov        5
24   Reshevsky      4
25   Grischuk       3
26   Nakamura       2
27   Gligoric       2
28   Giri           1
29   Bronstein      1
30   Larsen         1
31   Euwe           1




SECOND SET OF TEN LISTS OF TOP 10 CHESS PLAYERS:

These 10 additional lists were searched for and found on 7 other internet websites:

 1  Kasparov      Kasparov   Lasker     Capablanca Capablanca Fischer    Fischer    Fischer     Kasparov    Kasparov
 2  Karpov        Karpov     Alekhine   Fischer    Kasparov   Capablanca Kasparov   Kasparov    Fischer     Fischer
 3  Lasker        Lasker     Botvinnik  Kasparov   Fischer    Morphy     Morphy     Botvinnik   Lasker      Capablanca
 4  Steinitz      Capablanca Karpov     Karpov     Lasker     Kasparov   Capablanca Capablanca  Botvinnik   Lasker
 5  Capablanca    Fischer    Kasparov   Morphy     Morphy     Karpov     Karpov     Lasker      Capablanca  Botvinnik
 6  Fischer       Steinitz   Capablanca Lasker     Alekhine   Alekhine   Alekhine   Alekhine    Alekhine    Alekhine
 7  Alekhine      Alekhine   Fischer    Steinitz   Karpov     Tal        Botvinnik  Karpov      Karpov      Karpov
 8  Botvinnik     Morphy     Steinitz   Alekhine   Botvinnik  Spassky    Tal        Anand       Anand       Anand
 9  Morphy        Botvinnik  Morphy     Botvinnik  Carlsen    Najdorf    Spassky    Kramnik     Kramnik     Kramnik
10  Deep Blue IBM Anand      Petrosian  Tal        Tal        Petrosian  Petrosian  Tarrasch    Pillsbury   Pillsbury

7 Websites: listverse.com, elist.com, enkivillage.com, ez-net.com, chess.com, 2 from youtube.com and 3 from
chessmetrics.com the 1, 2 & 3 year peak lists were used.

19 Chess Champions in alphabetical order with raw scoring included from
the second group of 10 lists:

Sorted by
NAME      POINTS    RAW SCORING
----------------------------------------------------------------
Alekhine      50    (7 + 7 + 2 + 8 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6) = 60
Anand         10    (10 + 8 + 8 + 8) = 34
Botvinnik     43    (8 + 9 + 3 + 9 + 8 +7 + 3 + 4 + 5) = 56
Capablanca    75    (5 + 4 + 6 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 4 + 4 + 5 + 3) = 35
Carlsen        2    9 = 9
Deep Blue      1    10 = 10
Fischer       80    (6 + 5 + 7 + 2 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 2) = 30
Karpov        60    (2 + 2 + 4 + 4 + 7 + 5 + 5 + 7 + 7 + 7) = 50
Kasparov      88    (1 + 1 + 5 + 3 + 2 + 4 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1) = 22
Kramnik        6    (9 + 9 + 9) = 27
Lasker        59    (3 + 3 + 1 + 6 + 4 + 5 + 3 + 4) = 29
Morphy        35    (9 + 8 + 9 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 3) = 42
Najdorf        2    9 + 9
Petrosian      3    (10 + 10 + 10) = 30
Pillsbury      2    (10 + 10) = 20
Spassky        5    (8 + 9) = 17
Steinitz      19    (4 + 6 + 8 + 7) = 25
Tal            9    (10 + 10 + 7 + 8) = 35
Tarrasch       1    10 = 10

Combine the previous scores from first group of 10 lists by adding these new
scores from the second group of 10 lists making a new COMBINED list of totals
of all 20 lists finding 34 champions sorted by name:

              1st   2nd    Total score
Sorted by     LIST  LIST   of all
NAME          of 10 of 10  20 lists
-----------------------------------
Alekhine      32 +  50 =   82
Anand         17 +  10 =   27
Aronian        7       =    7
Botvinnik     54 +  43 =   97
Bronstein      1       =    1
Capablanca    55 +  75 =  130
Carlsen       11 +   2 =   13
Caruana        8       =    8
Chigorin       6       =    6
Deep Blue IBM        1 =    1
Euwe           1       =    1
Fischer       55 +  80 =  135
Giri           1       =    1
Gligoric       2       =    2
Grischuk       3       =    3
Karpov        36 +  60 =   96
Kasparov      61 +  88 =  149
Korchnoy       7       =    7
Kramnik       27     6 =   33
Larsen         1       =    1
Lasker        36 +  59 =   95
Morphy        20 +  35 =   55
Najdorf              2 =    2
Nakamura       2       =    2
Petrosian     16 +   3 =   19
Pillsbury            2 =    2
Reshevsky      4       =    4
Smyslov       16       =   16
Spassky       12 +   5 =   17
Staunton       9       =    9
Steinitz      22 +  19 =   41
Tal           15 +   9 =   24
Topalov        5       =    5
Tarrasch       7 +   1 =    8
-----------------------------
Totals       549 + 550 = 1099   (20 lists * 55 points per list) - 1 = 1099
                                One of the 20 lists was missing a 10th entry causing the -1.

The next list is a composite list of all 34 chess players sorted by descending
overall points with combined scoring from all 20 lists:

               OVERALL
RANK NAME       POINTS
----------------------
  1  Kasparov      149
  2  Fischer       135
  3  Capablanca    130
  4  Botvinnik      97
  5  Karpov         96
  6  Lasker         95
  7  Alekhine       82
  8  Morphy         55
  9  Steinitz       41
 10  Kramnik        33
----------------------
 11  Anand          27
 12  Tal            24
 13  Petrosian      19
 14  Spassky        17
 15  Smyslov        16
 16  Carlsen        13
 17  Staunton        9
 18  Tarrasch        8
 19  Caruana         8
 20  Aronian         7
 21  Korchnoy        7
 22  Chigorin        6
 23  Topalov         5
 24  Reshevsky       4
 25  Grischuk        3
 26  Gligoric        2
 27  Pillsbury       2
 28  Najdorf         2
 29  Nakamura        2
 30  Euwe            1
 31  Bronstein       1
 32  Giri            1
 33  Larsen          1
 34  Deep Blue       1




Found: another 10 websites with top 10 lists. Nine of them appear very normal
and are similar to many others lists. However, a list from India (IN) is a
little different, but it is useable.

These 10 websites are loaded with information and have write ups about these
great chess players. It is worth your time to visit these sites.

     FACTSIKNOW             - Top 10 Chess Players In History, Parts I & II
     Techtainment           - Top Ten Chess Players In History
     CooRank                - Top 10 Best Chess Players
     Fact Fun               - Top 10 Best Chess Players In History
     SPORTS MUNTRA          - Top 10 Male Chess Players Of All Time
     Ten-O-Rama             - Top Ten Greatest Chess Players Ever
     The Top Tens           - Top 10 Best Chess Players
     World Blaze IN         - The Top 10 Chess Players In The World
     worldsrichpeople.com   - Top 10 Greatest Chess Players Of All Time
     ONLINECHESSLESSONS.NET - 10 Greatest Chess Players Of All Time

This is the third set of 10 top 10 lists:


 1 Kasparov   Kasparov   Kasparov   Kasparov   Kasparov   Kasparov    Kasparov   Kasparov   Kasparov   Kasparov
 2 Fischer    Kramnik    Karpov     Fischer    Karpov     Fischer     Fischer    Fischer    Karpov     Karpov
 3 Anand      Anand      Lasker     Capablanca Lasker     Karpov      Karpov     Capablanca Lasker     Lasker
 4 Carlsen    Karpov     Steinitz   Alekhine   Steinitz   Capablanca  Botvinnik  Karpov     Fischer    Steinitz
 5 Karpov     Leko       Capablanca Karpov     Capablanca Lasker      Lasker     Lasker     Capablanca Capablanca
 6 Aronian    Shirov     Fischer    Lasker     Fischer    Alekhine    Capablanca Carlsen    Botvinnik  Fischer
 7 Botvinnik  Topalov    Alekhine   Anand      Alekhine   Morphy      Alekhine   Morphy     Alekhine   Alekhine
 8 Kramnik    Bareev     Botvinnik  Kramnik    Botvinnik  Tal         Tal        Anand      Anand      Botvinnik
 9 Capablanca Adams      Morphy     Botvinnik  Morphy     Anand       Steinitz   Tal        Steinitz   Morphy
10 Lasker     Ponomariov Anand      Tal        Anand      Steinitz    Morphy     Alekhine   Morphy     Deep Blue


Notice that Garry Kasparov is #1 straight across the top of these 10 lists from all ten websites.
This gives Garry another 100 points toward the final standings. Five of these lists have Fischer
at #2 and four others put Karpov at #2.

Here are the tallies for this 3rd set of 10 top ten lists with 21 different tremendous players.
The table is sorted by descending points:

NAME            POINTS
----------------------
Kasparov           100
Karpov              78
Fischer             67
Lasker              56
Capablanca          54
Alekhine            33
Anand               30
Botvinnik           27
Steinitz            26
Morphy              16
Kramnik             15
Carlsen             12
Tal                  9
Leko                 6
Shirov               5
Aronian              5
Topalov              4
Bareev               3
Adams                2
Ponomariov           1
Deep Blue            1
----------------------
Total              550

Now, add all 30 lists together! Tally up all three sets of 10 websites each.
There are 30 sets of all time top 10 world chess players. There are 39
great chess players listed below altogether, sorted by descending
total points:

                   1st &
                   2nd   3rd   TOTAL
RANK NAME          lists list  POINTS
-------------------------------------
  1  Kasparov      149 + 100 = 249
  2  Fischer       135 +  67 = 202
  3  Capablanca    130 +  54 = 184
  4  Karpov         96 +  78 = 174
  5  Lasker         95 +  56 = 151
  6  Botvinnik      97 +  27 = 124
  7  Alekhine       82 +  33 = 115
  8  Morphy         55 +  16 =  71
  9  Steinitz       41 +  26 =  67
 10  Anand          27 +  30 =  57
----------------------------------
 11  Kramnik        33 +  15 =  48
 12  Tal            24 +   9 =  33
 13  Carlsen        13 +  12 =  25
 14  Petrosian      19       =  19
 15  Spassky        17       =  17
 16  Smyslov        16       =  16
 17  Aronian         7 +   5 =  12
 18  Topalov         5 +   4 =   9
 19  Staunton        9       =   9
 20  Tarrasch        8       =   8
 21  Caruana         8       =   8
 22  Korchnoy        7       =   7
 23  Leko            6       =   6
 24  Chigorin        6       =   6
 25  Shirov          5       =   5
 26  Reshevsky       4       =   4
 27  Grischuk        3       =   3
 28  Bareev          3       =   3
 29  Pillsbury       2       =   2
 30  Najdorf         2       =   2
 31  Adams           2       =   2
 32  Gligoric        2       =   2
 33  Nakamura        2       =   2
 34  Deep Blue       1 +   1 =   2
 35  Giri            1       =   1
 36  Larsen          1       =   1
 37  Euwe            1       =   1
 38  Ponomariov      1       =   1
 39  Bronstein       1       =   1
----------------------------------
Total                        1,649




This is the same table as shown at the top of this page.

WORLD'S TOP 10 ALL-TIME BEST CHESS CHAMPIONS
as of May 2015 by JCS
RANK FIRST NAME (MIDDLE) LAST NAME BIRTH & DEATH YEAR AGE NATIONALIY WCC
No.
 1 Garry Kimovich            Kasparov  1963 - living 52 Russian  13th
 2 Robert James "Bobby"      Fischer   1943 - 2008   64 American 11th
 3 José Raúl                 Capablanca 1888 - 1942   53 Cuban    3rd
 4 Anatoly Yevgenyevich      Karpov    1951 - living 63 Russian  12th
 5 Emanuel                   Lasker    1868 - 1941   72 German   2nd
 6 Mikhail Moiseyevich       Botvinnik 1911 - 1995   83 Russian  6th
 7 Alexander Aleksandrovich  Alekhine  1892 - 1946   53 Russian  4th
 8 Paul Charles              Morphy    1837 - 1884   47 American n.a.
 9 Wilhelm                   Steinitz  1836 - 1900   64 Austrian 1st
10 Viswanathan "Vishy"       Anand     1969 - living 45 Indian   19th
http://www.net-comber.com/chess-greats.html


No doubt, in the years to come, lists like these will slowly change.
A child chess prodigy born today could make the list by 2035 or so.
Very few others will climb their way onto this exclusive list before then.
Anand (age 45) is already #10 and on his heels is Carlsen (age 24) at #13.

Of the ten champs in the table above, 5 were born in the 19th century and 5 were
born in the 20th century. Will 5 be born in this 21st century?

By JCS 5/23/2015.



Top of Page
WORLD'S TOP 10 ALL-TIME BEST CHESS CHAMPIONS as of May 2015 by JCS
RANK	FIRST NAME (MIDDLE)	LAST NAME	BIRTH & DEATH YEAR	AGE	NATIONALIY	WCC No.
1	Garry Kimovich	Kasparov	1963 - living	52	Russian	13th
2	Robert James "Bobby"	Fischer	1943 - 2008	64	American	11th
3	José Raúl	Capablanca	1888 - 1942	53	Cuban	3rd
4	Anatoly Yevgenyevich	Karpov	1951 - living	63	Russian	12th
5	Emanuel	Lasker	1868 - 1941	72	German	2nd
6	Mikhail Moiseyevich	Botvinnik	1911 - 1995	83	Russian	6th
7	Alexander Aleksandrovich	Alekhine	1892 - 1946	53	Russian	4th
8	Paul Charles	Morphy	1837 - 1884	47	American	n.a.
9	Wilhelm	Steinitz	1836 - 1900	64	Austrian	1st
10	Viswanathan "Vishy"	Anand	1969 - living	45	Indian	19th
http://www.net-comber.com/chess-greats.html