Fischer by an enormous margin. He won the US Championship with 11 points in 11 games. In his 3 World Championship Candidates matches he won by a combined score of 18.5 to 2.5 against Taimanov, Larsen, and Petrosian. No player not named Paul Morphy has ever destroyed his opponents like Fischer.
I don't see why anyone would pick Magnus because he basically tied his last 2 World Championship matches and had to win on rapid tiebreaks which is ridiculous. No World Championship match should be decided that way. Magnus is a great player but in match play he just doesn't annihilate people the way Fischer did.
Magnus is merely fabulous but Fischer was at a level that will likely never be achieved again.
Erwin Wackernagl
By the way, those old masters had hobby players as competition compared to the chess density today. So go home with those old myths.
Magnus ist the best player of all time cause Fabiano is not. If Magnus would not exist then Fabiano would be the best player of all time. Fischer was the hero of his time - but i don't believe that he is even in the top 3 best american players of all time. He would not beat Caruana, he would not beat So, he would not beat Nakamura. As CM Sargon said - former times were a Kindergarten against this park of real monsters around in the chess world today....
Longevity - Kasparov
Peak performance - Fischer
Talent - Morphy (just my opinion)
Objectively speaking it would have to be Gary, he was the best in the world for 20 years, basicly until he retired, Fischers reign lasted to short, it was very impressive but not long enough, also, Gary defeated multiple generations of players..
Magnus is a special case, I dont think that he will ever catch Gary but this "engine" era is very different and to be by far the best player for a decade is certainly not easy, maybe if he does it until 2028. or 2030. and he is still on top than he may be considered the GOAT, but I doubt its going to happen..
what is goat agian
Every chess player who continually improves and learns while enjoying this beautiful game :^)
You can't really compare old masters with the newer once. In our time we have software that helps improving on top. But you can't really compare Morphy with Aljechin, Lasker and Botvinnik, Capablanca and Fisher and so on. Time changes, and every time has his old masters who teached a new generation how to play.
The greatest of all time to me doesn't mean the strongest player of all time. I think every generation gets stronger, so the GOAT would always be in the current generation.
I think most would agree the current generation knows opening theory better than the previous.
Some say the current generation rely too much on opening theory and aren't as good in the middle and end game as previous generations.
I don't know. It's fun to talk about, though. But there isn't a wrong answer unless you pick anyone besides Carlsen.
The real G.O.A.T is Karpov.
Everyone knows it's Paul Morphy. It's just not very popular to say it aloud ;)
