@Sarg0n Peak rating doesn't matter. How can you compare intelligence strength with rating?
A player with high strength will have high rating but high rating doesn't necessarily imply high strength. That's basic knowledge.
Many people believe that rise in average rating over time is mostly due to an anomaly known as ratings inflation, making it impractical to compare players of different eras.
Even if compared, then Sonas method is quite good:
Fischer, Kasparov, Boitvinnik, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Karpov, Anand, Kramnik, Steinitz
But Divinsky's method is more reliable (method accepted by most theorists) :
Kasparov, Karpov, Fischer, Boitvinnik, Capablanca, Lasker, Korchnoi, Spassky, Smyslov, Petrosian
According to combined voting of experts,
Fischer, Kasparov, Capablanca, Keres, Petrosian, Carlsen
See relative strength of players over time with different categories here:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_top_chess_players_throughout_historySo, actual debate is Fischer or Kasparov and I weigh in for former. Kasparov vs Carlsen debate is simply insult to Kasparov.