In your opinion, who is the greatest chess player of all time?

I personally think it goes to Kasparov, what about you all?

In terms of absolute level of play, Carlsen. I've seen 2 studies that show there has been an elo deflation over the years, plus the understanding of the game itself has increased as well over the years, so I think it is a reasonable conclusion to take Carlsen

@MFXX said in #2:
> In terms of absolute level of play, Carlsen. I've seen 2 studies that show there has been an elo deflation over the years, plus the understanding of the game itself has increased as well over the years, so I think it is a reasonable conclusion to take Carlsen
Agreed

Alexander Alekhine (indeed he is not in this world anymore)

@MFXX said in #2:
> In terms of absolute level of play, Carlsen. I've seen 2 studies that show there has been an elo deflation over the years, plus the understanding of the game itself has increased as well over the years, so I think it is a reasonable conclusion to take Carlsen

The one study I've read suggests Capablanca is the GOAT.

ailab.si/matej/doc/Computer_Analysis_of_World_Chess_Champions.pdf

2700chess.com/files/highest300.png

If we consider ELO inflation, we can see that Kasparov, Fischer (and Karpov a bit) were ahead of their time. Kasparov ten years and Fischer forty years.

Still, Carlsen is around 2850 in classic for a decade now. He holds the record in classic (2889), rapid (2919), and Blitz (2986), currently leading all three lists.

@schachnils said in #6:
> 2700chess.com/files/highest300.png
>
> If we consider ELO inflation, we can see that Kasparov, Fischer (and Karpov a bit) were ahead of their time. Kasparov ten years and Fischer forty years.
>
> Still, Carlsen is around 2850 in classic for a decade now. He holds the record in classic (2889), rapid (2919), and Blitz (2986), currently leading all three lists.
you are right

"Great" to me doesn't necessarily mean the best results (at least among humans).

In playing strength only it may well be Magnus. But he is standing on the shoulders of giants... And have the benefit of computers for improving.

If you consider the possibilities of training and playing of the time the master lived in, I'd say Emanuel Lasker. And he did other things than chess too.

A candidate would be Paul Morphy.

About inflation:

There is a consensus that players are actually better today. Much better, and it’s not necessarily reflected by the Elo rating. Of course not, the whole pool has moved forward.

I have no particular favorite. They all were fantastic!