WORLD'S TOP 10 ALL-TIME BEST CHESS CHAMPIONS
as of May 2015 by JCS
RANKFIRST NAME (MIDDLE)LAST NAMEBIRTH & DEATH YEAR AGENATIONALIYWCC
No.
1Garry Kimovich Kasparov 1963 - living 52Russian 13th
2Robert James "Bobby" Fischer 1943 - 2008 64American 11th
3José Raúl Capablanca1888 - 1942 53Cuban 3rd
4Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov 1951 - living 63Russian 12th
5Emanuel Lasker 1868 - 1941 72German 2nd
6Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik 1911 - 1995 83Russian 6th
7Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine 1892 - 1946 53Russian 4th
8Paul Charles Morphy 1837 - 1884 47American n.a.
9Wilhelm Steinitz 1836 - 1900 64Austrian 1st
10Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand 1969 - living 45Indian 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
RANKFIRST NAME (MIDDLE)LAST NAMEBIRTH & DEATH YEAR AGENATIONALIYWCC
No.
1Garry Kimovich Kasparov 1963 - living 52Russian 13th
2Robert James "Bobby" Fischer 1943 - 2008 64American 11th
3José Raúl Capablanca1888 - 1942 53Cuban 3rd
4Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov 1951 - living 63Russian 12th
5Emanuel Lasker 1868 - 1941 72German 2nd
6Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik 1911 - 1995 83Russian 6th
7Alexander Aleksandrovich Alekhine 1892 - 1946 53Russian 4th
8Paul Charles Morphy 1837 - 1884 47American n.a.
9Wilhelm Steinitz 1836 - 1900 64Austrian 1st
10Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand 1969 - living 45Indian 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