Bobby Fischer or Magnus Carlsen - Who's the best chess player of all-time?

[Osculater]

Bobby Fischer is teh BJ Penn of chess, Joe!

 

[Quadtavius Tuck]

I'm voting Fischer because he had lots of great and wise opinions about things other than Chess, making him an omnimaster

 

[Fedorgasm]

Further analysis revealed that it was all a load of bullocks; he did admit to cheating in online games in his teens on Chess.com, but statistical analysis of his over-the-board-games showed no signs of cheating.

And Fischer is the goat.

That's not quite the whole story.

Chess.com also released their own analysis that showed more than 100 games online where he likely cheated. So he's lying about only cheating online twice when he was much younger.

The statistical analysis of his over the board games found "no determinative evidence of cheating" which basically means they can't prove it. It doesn't mean he didn't cheat.

The only reason chess.com unbanned him is because he sued them AND Magnus. The whole thing was thrown out by a judge, but it did result in the 3 parties coming to an agreement. Not all the terms were disclosed, but I bet Hans promised to never cheat moving forward, if they would agree to stop publicly calling him a cheater.

Anyhoo, I still think he cheated. The government body over those tournaments had become VERY lax about security and anti cheating measures. And Magnus has lost many times and he's always been gracious in defeat. He never accused anyone of cheating before. If a dude that understands the game as well as he does says something's off, I'm apt to believe him. Even if he couldn't prove it.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

I think I would put Kasparov ahead of Fischer. Fisher at his best during his peak was incredible but that was of short duration. His well documented mental issues held him back from having a longer career at his peak. I would take Magnus over Fischer. For anyone interested this was a phenomenal biography on Fischer.

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Whenever I read these praises on books I can't help to imagine how it would be to have stuff like:

"meh"
- Washington Post

" kind of boring"
- New York Times

" it's okay"
- Boston Globe

"decent read for the loo"
- The Guardian

 

[Sweater of AV]

That's not quite the whole story.

Chess.com also released their own analysis that showed more than 100 games online where he likely cheated. So he's lying about only cheating online twice when he was much younger.

The statistical analysis of his over the board games found "no determinative evidence of cheating" which basically means they can't prove it. It doesn't mean he didn't cheat.

The only reason chess.com unbanned him is because he sued them AND Magnus. The whole thing was thrown out by a judge, but it did result in the 3 parties coming to an agreement. Not all the terms were disclosed, but I bet Hans promised to never cheat moving forward, if they would agree to stop publicly calling him a cheater.

Anyhoo, I still think he cheated. The government body over those tournaments had become VERY lax about security and anti cheating measures. And Magnus has lost many times and he's always been gracious in defeat. He never accused anyone of cheating before. If a dude that understands the game as well as he does says something's off, I'm apt to believe him. Even if he couldn't prove it.

So "he likely cheated" implies "he's lying" but "they can't prove it" implies "it doesn't mean he didn't cheat?" That's not really a fair assessment. Also, it's not just that they couldn't prove it, they literally couldn't find any statistical evidence that he cheated over the board, including against Magnus. If you believe their analysis for him cheating online then you have to be consistent when they say they don't believe he did against Magnus.

I don't doubt he's cheated online and probably more than twice but there's literally zero actual evidence of Hans ever cheating over the board. Also, tons of people have cheated online. On a side note, Kramnik is currently on a hilarious witch hunt after many top players, including Hikaru, which not surprisingly is going nowhere.

Magnus didn't handle that very well imho. He had zero proof of anything, withdrew, and was acting like a bit of a baby with the accusations. Hans is an abnormal player with strange results and he rubs a lot of people the wrong way. He can beat great players and lose to much worse players. No one mentions him cheating over the board when he loses bad games.

Anyways, it's impossible to know anything for certain. One thing to note is Hans has come back pretty strong and is back over 2700 after basically not being able to play. At the end of the day, he's an extremely good player that is going to keep getting better. Hopefully Magnus agrees to play him at some point.

 

[Randlewand]

Does the goat lose to anal beads?

 

[Mulder_81]

Any of ya ever seen the movie Pawn Sacrifice with Bully Maguire as Bobby Fischer?

 

[djacobox372]

Bobby Fischer, and it's not all that close... even Magnus agrees. There was a much more distance between Fischer and the other great players of his era than there is between Magnus and his competitors.

 

[Madmick]

Objectively, overall, or the best relative to their time?

Best prime/peak relative to their time? Fischer. Followed by Morphy.
Best career relative to their peers? Kasparov.
Best overall player in history irrespective of time or strength of the pool of top players? Carlsen.

 

[Madmick]

The real hypothetical question is who would win a Chess960 match? A 29-year-old Fischer, Carlsen, or Kasparov.

 

[Frode Falch]

Magnus. He's a legit drunken master who casually beats grandmasters while drunk off his ass and rapping along to Dre.

What?

 

[Sweater of AV]

Bobby Fischer, and it's not all that close... even Magnus agrees.

No, no he doesn't. He typically says it's Kasparov to be diplomatic and somewhat humble.

 

[aerius]

What?

The World’s Best Chess Player Has a Second Life as an Online Speed Chess Prankster

Magnus Carlsen has been livestreaming himself cracking jokes and letting loose as he destroys the unsuspecting competition.

slate.com

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

I read a tip for the world chess championship last year so i bet on it, it didn't win, don't remember who i bet on, that's my story.

 

[Halifax]

I think I would put Kasparov ahead of Fischer. Fisher at his best during his peak was incredible but that was of short duration. His well documented mental issues held him back from having a longer career at his peak. I would take Magnus over Fischer. For anyone interested this was a phenomenal biography on Fischer.

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Remember the time Kasparov was doing a political run and the 4 chan guys decided to send the old flying penis drone in during his presser? Lol

 

[Halifax]

For traditional chess, it's gotta be Carlsen.

Fischer was a genius though. Chess 960 was a brilliant innovation which took away the memorization and forced folks to play off instinct, intuition and creativity.

 

[AFanNotAFighter]

Would have been interesting if Capablanca had played in modern times.

 

[jeff7b9]

In the chess community it is pretty much consensus that Magnus is the #1, with some folks saying he needs to LITTLE more work to pass Kasparov, but most saying Magnus is already there.

Bobby is usually considered #3 behind them, due to lack of body of work.


The interesting question is, how good would Bobby be if he had access to all the same tools Magnus had (Including that Magnus benefitted from studying Bobby and other great past players.) Or how good would Magnus be if he only had old books and chess magazines like Bobby?

Aka what if it was magically an actual level playing field?

 

[jimbob27]

Anatoly Karpov has the best boss music.

 

[Quadtavius Tuck]

Anatoly Karpov has the best boss music.

Fake