Who is the best positional player of all time?
for example Carlsen, Karpov, Capablanca, Gelfand, Adams, Leko, Giri, Andersson, Petrosian, Smyslov.
Steinitz. He went all positional before it was cool and then all the cool kids ripped his style
@zembrianator but Philidor was even before Steinitz.
Tigran Petrosian and Karpov.
I don't have a clue. Of course I studied games of all these world class players, but I guess, I am not remotely qualified to make a valid judgement.
Yes, Petrosian and Karpov over the board and Philidor and Steinitz in theory. Especially Karpov is unreached in my opinion. Kasparov is just a good theorist and an excellent transformer of advantages (the best together with Aliekhine). Has always had positional weaknesses (defending slight disadvantages).