Best chess players

Magnus Carlsen

This young Norwegian is the current chess phenomenon. He has been dominating since his youth and since 2013 has been the world champion. Carlsen achieved the highest ELO rating in history in 2013 (2872 points). Magnus Carlsen posses incredible talent, intuition and chess feeling. At the age of 13 he managed to draw with Garry Kasparov, who later became his coach. Carlsen also excels in speed chess - rapid chess and lighting chess. In today´s computer world, all chess players are carefully prepairing and studying the initiation of the game. This player is, on the other hand strongest in mid game and endgame. Carlsen earned himself a nickname "Mozart of the chess" and many people consider him to be the best player of all time. But we will see - he is only 27 years old.

Garry Kasparov

Before Magnus Carlsen entered chess world, there were no doubts about the strongest chess player. It was Russian Grandmaster Garry Kasparov. Between 1985 and 2000 he was the world champion for the whole 15 years. In 1985 Kasparov became the youngest world champion - he was only 22 years old. Kasparov played a wonderful and aggressive chess full of various baits and combinations. His battles with Anatolij Karpov became famous. He kept the highest ELO rating for most of his career. Kasparov is on our list for being considered the best chest player of history. Interesting is that Garry Kasparov is the first world champion who lost to the computer (Deep Blue).

Bobby Fischer

This American chess player has truly a gift from the god. When he was 14 years old, he won the national USA championship and at the age of 15 he entered the Candidates Tournament where he became the grandmaster. In 1972 Fischer gained the title of world champion when he defeated USSR player Boris Spassky. This was almost the end of his career - he stopped playing chess for 20 years after this match. It was typical for Fischer that when he gained even a slightest advantage from the beginning of the game, he managed to win. He also made minimal mistakes. Bobby Fischer was a complex and precise chess player who had a great will to win.

José Raúl Capablanca

This Cuban chess player who was the world champion between the years 1921-1927, was renowned for his machinelike precise game. He learned to play chess at the age of 4. He had incredible talent and was not worried about preparation for the game. Still, he could win game after game. Capablanca practically was not losing and was considered almost invincible. At the top of his career, he lost only 6 games during 14 years (had not lost a game for the whole 8 years). He excelled in the opening, middle game and end game. He influenced the chess play as only a few before him.

Emanuel Lasker

Emanuel Lasker was a German mathematician, but mainly he was a chess Grandmaster who was the world champion between 1894-1921. In 1921 he was defeated by José Raúl Capablanca who took this title from him. Lasker is considered to be the first chess player who used psychology in chess. He claimed that it is not the sets of wooden figures that are facing each other but two personalities. He deliberately said that he was making weak and controversial moves to confuse the opponent and get him into a confusing situation. He was playing in a very smart way, ruling the chess world for long 27 years.

2021-03-20 by Peter