Is Bobby Fischer the best chessplayer of all time?

I am sorry for the usage of the term "clowns", because I use it often; in contrast to computers we humans are all clowns (Nakamura once said this about himself). It is disrespectful in this context, sorry!

So get over it, Fischer faced a comparatively weaker resistance than he would face today.

Disagree. Fischer would have won the position in game 1 Carlsen-Caruana.

No in fact a fusion of aaron nimzowitsch and bobby fischer is god XDDD

Fischer would had never played under this conditions nowadays. :D :D :D

Actually, there is one famous game of him where he used the Rossolimo against Spassky, Sveti Stefan 1992. The glorious pawn sac b2-b4! Like it very much.

Fischer would have liked the use of his Fischer clock (now called increment) but he would not accept the TV cameras. A 12 game match with tiebreak would not be to his liking either.
That 11th game of Sveti Stefan 1992 with the splendid 21 Nf5+ and also other games of that match make believe that Fischer was stronger than the best players today. In 1992 he was old (compared to the retired Kasparov) and had no tournament praxis.
Also Kasparov instantly found the saving sacrifice e5 in the first game during live commentary, so also Kasparov may be inherently stronger than the best players today.

I can beat Fischer any time any day.

@Sarg0n I can not understand how they are able to play today under this conditions. At the photos you see about 5 camerateams sitting 2 meters away from the playing table of Carlsen and Caruana. There must be an enormous sound of clicking of all the cameras. I guess it influences the qualitiy of the games. I think the game should be played in a seperate room and be tramsmitted to the viewers. But more photos more publicity.But at the end of the day Fischer was able to create even more publicity with his excentric behaviour of a genius suffering of his genius life :)

Of course players today would beat players from the past as theory has moved on so far.
But honestly if you took the best players from each era and they had access to the same theory you would find that they would be evenly matched. The raw talent has always been there in each generation but the information moves on. Get a time machine and bring Morphy to 2018 and arm him with modern theory and he would be amaong the best in the world. The same for Botvinick, Capablanca, Karpov, Fisher, Lasker or whom ever.
Fisher won the world championship by beeing completely single minded and devoting his life to chess more completely than probably anyone in history. Combine that with a will to win second to none and an amazing talent. That is why he was world champion. BUT, it was an end in it self for him. He was never interested in being a great champion like Botvinick or Lasker.

@HORRORMAKER , discipline. Botvinick trained in smoke filled rooms when he realised cigarettes put him off. I once played a match in a room where a band was doing a sound check, didn't bother me in the slightest.

@horrormaker

I would put Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov at all about approximately equal in strength, given that there was about one clear decade between these three ...something which does matter quite a bit. Those chess heroes from many decades before like Capablanca, Lasker, Morphy etc just too hard to evaluate.

For sure all of today's top 50 superGM's are far more knowledgeable overall than any of the above in Chess ...but Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov were all so very special, albeit in some many very differing ways.

Pity that Karpov-Fischer never happened, even for one single game - though they both crushed Spassky (who was very strong and very tactical and very attacking, if quite a bit lazy qua workrate). Both used the same idea or approach of utilizing new and surprising openings to avoid Spassky's known openings. Same idea as in all WC matches. Try lines that the opponent is maybe not so familiar with.

Same idea in Caruana-Carlsen at this moment too. Make the fight revolve more around not so much previously explored lines. In games 1 (and just now in game 3) the fight is still centering around the Nezhmetdinov-Rossolimo Sicilian way of taking on c6 with the white bishop.

Rashid a Soviet IM (never a GM, though the GM title was only awarded by committee in the '50's when Rashid was already 45 y.o.) Rashid Nezhmetdinov an utterly brilliant chess tactical genius (and an early Karpov trainer) used the Rossilimo Sicilian so many times as White, to great effect.

It's just so very nice to see Caruana-Carlsen now playing the Nezhmetdinov-Rossilimo variant of the Sicilian at the very highest level of the game. Nezh was beyond belief in attack and very often chose this simplistic attack on the basic Sicilian defence. Fischer also resurrected openings long-dead, as did Karpov and Kasparov too.

Now we are see a super battle in Caruana-Carlsen in this rarer line (new moves even possible on move 10 or so). Very fascinating this new exploration of some very old lines, at the very highest level of the game. Long may it continue!