Now that Vishy Anand has won the World Chess Championship in 3 different formats (knockout, tournament, and match), where would you rank him among the great World Champions in history?
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Among the best ever?
One of the best ofcourse. But we will never know if he is better than Bobby or Kasparov.
Ramesh
I think Fisher, Karpov and Kasparov had more adventage over their challengers.
But Vishy is great.
I think Fisher, Karpov or Kasparov one time had more adventage over their challegers …
But Vishy is great.
Anand is a great player, no doubt about it. However, he does not have the dominance of e.g. Karpov or Kasparov in their primes, when they won almost every tournament they competed in. Fischer also was not too dominant for a long period either. So in my view Anand follows after Kasparov, Capablanca, Krapov, Alekhine. Thereafter it is getting tight.
three different formats is irrelevant here. many players of earlier eras didn’t get to compete WC in different formats. so not a fair comparison. tournament format WC shouldn’t count at all in chess imo. it’s like winning any super-GM tournament like say linares. kasparov and fisher stand out from the rest. because of their dominance of their respective eras. i’ll put kasparov slightly ahead though because he never backed out from a challenge. taking on men, machines even the world over and over again. and almsot always coming out on top. also is the highest rated player ever and has had the best ever run in tournaments. kasparov lasted at the top for almsot two decades. on the other hand, fischer backed out from playing karpov and remained untested against his strongest adversary at the time. even though he was a genius. i would place karpov at 3. again because of his longevity. playing those grueling wc matches against kasparov, participating in tourneys till date, achieving the highest ever tournament rating at the age of 45!
anand is at the same level as kramnik and topalov. a few notches below bobby, garry and anatoly. all three have had good runs, their days in the sun, but hardly as dominant and durable as the other three. so no, anand definitely not among the best ever. imo.
Certainly better than Euwe! hehe 🙂
Well I think every world Champion has a place in history, but of course I don no think he is among the best ever, not comparable to Karpov, Kasparov, Fischer, Capablanca or Alekhine.
I would say no, only because of all the computer assistance they are getting since the end of the 90’s.
but that from a <1400 player.
Anand is not the best ever, but he has an extraordinary talent and deserves to be the actual champion.
Congratulations to you, Mr. Anand!
Anand is one of the best players in current chess world but he can’t compare with Kasparov.
I am a Anand fan , but I think Kasparov and Fischer has more rights along with Karpov to be called the best ever . But Anand at his best could rank qeual with these people in his sheer brilliance…but over a period of time his play is probably a little lower. Sigh its tough to be the best ever even after u do so much like Anand has done already in hi career !
Honestly speaking, we are in a world that genius players can’t last long as players rely on computer too much.
Definitely! Not only for his level of play but his wide appeal, impact on Asian chess, his personality (no controversies) etc.
The only format that matters is the match. Winning three formats is less good than winning three matches, not more.
Of course, the knockout tournament is just a type of tournament, not a 3rd format. In addition, the KO wasn’t a world championship, merely a disputed FIDE Championship, so the whole “3 formats” thing is bogus in many ways.
Anand is a 1-time champion who has defended his title once. That’s pretty good right there, without inflating it. Only 9 of the 15 World Champions have ever had a successful title defense.
I think vishy is the greatest.
Kasparov dominated the sport for a very long time as the world champion.
But I think the old format of defence of one title is much easier to dominate the sport and gives challengers a very long short at winning a title.
Kasparov after beating Anand, split the Chess federation and was not willing to defend his title.
So in that context I feel Kasparov was nervous of getting beaten by Anand.He also lost to Kramik,who was eventually crushed by Anand.
I think Kasparov was one of the greatest and Anand is easily in tha league and has also dominated the sport for a very long time.
I feel there are currently a few young players who could easily dominate this sport in future.
I love Anand and to me is easily one of the greatest without all the fuss or drama personalties of the Kasparov’s or the Karpov’s or bobby fisher.
Anand is a great player. Best ever? Well, most of us putzes are certainly not equipped (talent wise) to answer that.
Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Fischer. Karpov,Kasparov
They were way ahead of their contemporaries.
Botvinik won and lost em…Smylsov won and lost..Euwe…tal same thing.
Petrosian was an usual phenom…..and in his prime…the immovable wall.
Kramnik, like Alekhine avoided the hardest tests by avoiding their most dangerous opponents after winning the crown. Fischer crapped out…and did the same when he got on top. Best ever? My vote is …hmmm…I really don’t know. Neither does anyone here..but to be considered as such….Anand needs to dominate for a while. Something he simply does not do. He’s great and I congratulate him. Great match. But c’mon. He’s not the best ever…..just the latest.
Happy Holloween!
Vishy is a Primus Inter Pares champion, like Botvinnik. The 3 formats thing is bogus, yes, since 2 of the formats are widely regarded as dubious (and one of them didn’t even win him an Undisputed Championship title at all).
Beating a top challenger does give him a big lift, but it’s a little early to try to judge his place in history. If he stopped now, he’d be well below most champions. Certainly below Karpov, Kasparov, Fischer, Capablanca, Alekhine, Steinitz, Lasker, and maybe others. But his career isn’t over yet.
I would say Kasparov is the best ever. He has proven his longevity and faced all his challengers including machines because of his dominance. I could not see any chess player who is as dominant as Kasparov in his time.
Fisher no doubt is a genius. Unfortunately, that trait also made him “crazy” and ending in not being able to really show the world how good he could have been after he became a world champion. Had he defended his title againts Karpov, he would have been there with Kasparov as “either or” best of the best.
Having said that, I think Vishy is one of the greats just like Capablanca, Alekhine and Karpov (may be a bit above). He is one of the best in speed chess in the modern era. He also is the 1st asian to be a world champion. He is a representation of a big segment of society or people in the chessworld.
Well, Anand plays on, so just wait and see.
For me he is a hero. Did you watch him preparing Kramnik out?
Did you watch his offensive style of playing?
Forget Bobby and Garry, live in the present time, enjoy the champ we have now!
okay
http://chess.liverating.org/
Anand still has to play against
NUMBER ONE .
we can’t possible live in the present when pondering upon a question on the “best ever”..
Still NUMBER ONE hails from BULGARIA
TOPALOV
kramnik and topalov six years younger than anand. i think both will strengthen further before slipping away. carlsen could be there challenging them though in a couple of years time..
I started a poll in my chess blog http://chess4you.blogspot.com few years back thinking of which world champion is most favorite to us –
http://ashik.freepolls.com/cgi-bin/pollresults/002
My own opinion is Kasparov! But he will be closely followed by Capablance, Morphy and Fishcer. After them the other players whom I would rank almost equally would be Karpov, Anand, Botvinnik, Lasker and Alekhine.
Why Anand in this rank? Because of his versatile style of chess. He is one of the most naturally talented chess player (along with Capablanca) who didn’t get big chess mentors (like Kasparov got Botvinnik and it’s true for other Russian champions as well). Anand is a very sharp player and his raw speed of chess is simply unmatchable by anyone else, not even Kasparov! Also he plays quite well against top Computers although his blindfold may not be the best in the market. Kramnik was a great rival of Anand if we study both of their careers and Anand has repeatedly triumphed over him last few years showing his spirit even better than what Kasparov did against his great rival Karpov. Anand is playing in a time when the gap between top chess players are marginal which I believe only Kasparov had to face amongst the earlier champions. Anand’s career is not over and he is already in top best chess players ever to many chess players / fans like me.
The great thing about Anand is that almost ALL his predecessors were ahead talent wise with their contemporaries.
Vishy is fighting tough level Chess in equal footing with his contemporaries which make his championship more desirable.
NEVER compare Chess champions from different era(s) as to their level of strenght.
If you will put chess champions, past and present, to a tournament; who do you think will prevail?
Of course, Vishy will come out on top.
Karpov is still playing (Cap D’ Agde). He was even defeated by Caruana in a game… Do you think his level of play is COMPARABLE to that of ANAND? No way, Jose!
Give the man his due. He may not be the best of all, but this ERA is his.
ANAND DEFENDED HIS CROWN IN A STYLISH FASHION. HE WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP. PERIOD.
FISCHER-MORPHY FANATIC,
Camoteng Kahoy
karpov is 57 and anand is 39. should also mention that. you peak at chess in your 30s. once you hit 40, your brain starts to lose it’s potency at a much quicker rate. karpov exceptionally managed to win linares well into his 40s with the highest ever tournament rating! anand is the best today but nowhere close to being counted amongst the best ever sorry..
good wiki article this..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparing_top_chess_players_throughout_history
Little Billy Esquire of Bentover, Wyoming is the best chess player ever.
No he is not one of the all-time greats!
Alekhine, Fischer and Kasparov are the best players of all time.
You cannot compare the present generation players with old generations.
The computers are playing half of the the present games at the top level.
When we talk of the dominance of past Greats vis a vis Vishy’s feats,we forget to take into account the spread,both horizontally and vertically i.e. quantity and quality,that the chess world has today as comapred to the past when chess was not so widespread and the theoritical knowledge was confined to a blessed few.In these circumsatncest it indeed is a fabulous achievement that Vishy has been among the top 3 for more 12 13 years now without a break plus his winning WCC in 3 formats,his 5 chess Oscars,his rapid and blitz world championship wins,his top 3 finishes in nearly 99% times in high category tournaments etc.etc.(the list is almost endless)surely make him to be counted among the top 3 ever if not the Best.
Given the fact that Karpov and Kasparav came out of the well-oiled and super-efficient Russian Chess Factory, Anand and Fischer must be considered greater as they grew and triumphed without a fostering infrastructure.
For me its still
Talent wise
1. Kasparov
2. Fischer
3. Alekhine
4. Capablanca
and 5. Anand.
from Work ethic and sportsman spirit
Its Anand All the way from Number 1 to Number 10
He has never complained cribbed,showed ego or grudge against FIDE, his competitors, quietely goes about doing what he is best at “Playing chess” and being a good role model for upcoming players.
Let us not compare! was Borg better than Federer or Sampras better than Laver or Budge beter than everybody else?? All were truly great. Same goes with Anand. Consistently among the top three for over a decade, World Blitz Champ many times over,World Chess Champion in three different formats,has won the Chess Oscar many times etc etc – truly one of the all time greats.These days with computers, a lot of so -so players are able to compete well. The last great pre computer era chess Champion was Bobby F, and even he had to put in a tremendous amout of work. Capa was probably the last great player to be champion merely on talent alone! Vishy also is extremely talented and would surely have played great chess during the pre computer era too. Not so Topalov for instance.Anand definitely stands amongst the greatest.
anand is truly in the elite group of the greatests. like many pointed in this blog, he has not received any formal training unlike as was part of the soviet machinery. today soviets are simply jeolous of others, being not able hold on what they used to be. the fact is that fischer was even better than kasparov considering kasparov had a team behind him and was the first world champion to utise the vast database with the computer. i think morphy should be considered as the greatest, even above kasparov, as morphy had to rely only on his natural talent and still produced the all time beautiful games. anand has dominated in countless tournaments even when kasparov and karpov played, so there is nothing invincible about them. with natural talent, anand is not below kasparov, but it is also the fact that kramnik is par below these poople and should not be mentioned at all when it comes to the elite group. he is just an average player surviving on hype.
i believe anand is in the same bracket along with kasparov, fischer. in talent, he is the greatest and is in the same class of capablanca or even better.
1-Emanuel Lasker
2-Emanuel Lasker
3-Emanuel Lasker 🙂 He was champion for 27 years old something like this so why will I discuss who is the best champion it’s clear he was the “best champion”! ıf you had asked who was the best player I would tell you Nezhmetdinov or Anderssen!
I agree with some of the previous posts. The “three formats” thing is complete nonsense. There is only ONE classical world championship format which Anand won in 2007. He now defended the title. That’s it. The FIDE KO tournaments were a complete joke; noone takes them seriously. Or do you really think that Khalifman or Ponomariov were world champions in the same line as Lasker, Capablanca, Botvinnik or Kasparov?
By the way, congrats to Anand, the 15th classical world chess champion!
Give how the FIDE KO’s allow any top 30 player a reasonable shot to win, it is all the more credit to Anand that he won twice there in 3 attempts (Karpov was not really in it the one he won)- no other top player is close!
Anand is well ahead of Kramnik on my best ever list. He is definitely top 10. He is in 7th place on wikipaedia accoriding to world titles won, Kramnik 8th (due to both won 3 but Anand had 2 undisputed ones to one.)
It goes:
1 Lasker 7 (7 undisputed)
2 Kasparov 6 (4 undisputed)
3 Karpov 6 (3 undisputed)
4 Botvinnik 5 (5 undisputed)
5 Steinitz 4 (4 undisputed)
6 Anand 3 (2 undisputed)
7 Kramnik 3 (1 undisputed)
8 Petrosian 2 (2 undisputed)
The rest have won at most once.
Maybe Kramnik and Petrosian should be counted about equal- 2 disputeds for one undisputed difference. Same with Kasparov and Botvinnik, with Karpov below them.
So then you would get (counting disputed as 0.5):
1 Lasker 7
2-3 Kasparov, Botvinnik 5
4 Karpov 4.5
5 Steinitz 4
6 Anand 2.5
7-8 Kramnik, Petrosian 2
Ofcourse you can give different values to disputed (down to 0 where Botvinnik moves above Kasparov, Steinitz Karpov, and Petrosian Kramnik), especially according to FIDE KO ones or classical ones. Also the level of play, opponent etc. is subjective but best ever champions list would count those- as well as sometimes world ranking and tournament success (eg Kramnik was never ranked top as champion)
Interstingly Kramnik and Anand have roughly half Kasparov and Karpov’s disputed/undisputed titles at the moment.