Chess

[HighVoltageLover]

Bobby Fischer...

[bluevodka]

Bob is d best out there. He's the king.

[zoudangles]

It's gotta be Bobby Fischer. You judge a champion by the quality of his opponents, and Bobby Fischer almost single-handedly took on the Soviet chess machine. And these weren't patsies - in Bobby Fischer's time Spassky, Petrosian, Tal, Botvinnik, etc were all very active, and he ruled them.

[geneticfreak]

Bobby Fischer

[Simikiel]

Fischer. he dominated majority of the tournaments he joined, plus on the way to the championship match, he posted consecutive 6-0 victories over taimanov and (was it, nakalimutan ko na eh) larsen. majority of the time na nagchampion sya sa tournament na sinalihan nya lamang sya ng 2 1/2-3 pts. sa 2nd placer. he doesn't only beat his opponent, he demolished them. kung magkasabay ang generation nila ni kasparov, tatalunin din nya yun; remember, si kasparov (though talagang napakagaling din) eh sangkatutak ang seconds.

[kingsville]

Eugene Torre..

 

sa Pinas!

 

All-time? I would say Kasparov, too..

[Brownman]

Robert James "Bobby" Fischer

 

Classic Fisher/Spasky(sp)

[BladeTrinity]

bobby fischer

[bluegloves]

as of now, maybe kasparov..

many games and quality of players fought.

fisher picked his opponents who he knew he could beat.

fisher's not really a fierce competitor.

he's good against those he chooses to play against. :thumbsupsmiley:

[oracle_man]

^^

While it can be argued that Kasparov is better than Fischer, I have never seen any basis or proof that Fischer picked easy opponents. Nobody can pick his opponents in Candidates tournaments, heck, in a simple chess tournament, you can not even choose.

[oracle_man]

fisher picked his opponents who he knew he could beat.

 

He had no choice. When you are a world champion, you will of course be confident (and should) that nobody can defeat you! So in that sense, Fischer had no choice - he knew he could defeat anybody. In his way to the being the World Champion in 1972, he annihilated his opponents and I am sure he felt he was invincible at that time. To wit, in the 1971 Interzonal, he won it 3.5 points ahead of the 2nd placer. He won his last 7 matches in the said tournament. He won his first two Candiates Matches via 6-0 sweeps against Taimanov (the Soviet gov't suspended him for the "embarrassment") and Larsen. In his 3rd and final Candidates Match series against former World Champion Petrosian, he won the first game giving Fischer the distinction of having the second longest winning streak against the world's top chess players (7 in Interzonal, 6 1st round, another 6 in the 2nd round, and the first game of the final round). The longest winnng streak by the way happened 1800s (Steinitz). Fischer won the final 4 games to win the series (5 Wins, 3 Draws, 1 Loss to Petrosian) to advance and challenge Spassky, who incidentally before that match, Fischer had never beaten (2 Draws and 3 Losses). He then achieved a then-record ELO rating of 2785. After beating Spassky (12.5 to 7.5), his ELO rating actually lowered to 2780.

Edited August 8, 2008 by oracle_man

[burn4nokia]

the great bobby fischer

[Solitude00]

Yup, no way Fischer could've picked oponents in tournaments. At that time, Interzonals were round robin tournaments, and there were even candidates tournaments for a while. Fischer got his GM title by being the youngest World Championship Candidate ever at that time, age 15 ... not these relatively easier to obtain "GM norms."

 

BTW, ELO ratings are supposed to suffer from a built in "inflation" so I believe it is not really reliable to compare ELO ratings from different time periods.

 

Anyway, I'll add another name to the list. For games that make you go WOW when played over, I'd pick the games of Jose Raoul Capablanca ... World Champion from 1916 (I think) to 1924. He lost the title to Alekhine, and was never given a chance for a rematch because Alekhine was a player who did choose his opponenets - and he never let Capablanca challenge again. At that time, there was no FIDE yet and the Champion could choose his challengers. =)

Edited August 9, 2008 by Solitude00

[oracle_man]

Yup, no way Fischer could've picked oponents in tournaments. At that time, Interzonals were round robin tournaments, and there were even candidates tournaments for a while. Fischer got his GM title by being the youngest World Championship Candidate ever at that time, age 15 ... not these relatively easier to obtain "GM norms."

 

I believe what was played in round robin fashion in the 1960s was the Candidates Matches (For the uninitiated - Interzonals determine the top 8 and the Candidates Matches (among the top 8) determine the one and only challenger.). Fischer actually boycotted the Candidates Matches (and ergo, the Interzonals) for awhile because Russian players were colluding amongst themselves -> 3 or 4 will draw their matches among them easily and 1 or 2 will drop their matches to the 3 or 4 who will draw easily. This way, it was virtually impossible for a non-Russian to win the Candidates Matches Tournament. Because of this, FIDE changed the Candidates Matches into the still currently used system - knockout system in the late 60s or early 70s. In the 1971 Candidates Matches where Fischer emerged victorious, the knockout system was already being implemented.

 

BTW, ELO ratings are supposed to suffer from a built in "inflation" so I believe it is not really reliable to compare ELO ratings from different time periods.

 

Definitely agree. That's one of the reasons why I mentioned that when Fischer beat Spassky for the crown, his ELO actually went down. This only goes to show the great gap of "level" from Fischer to the rest of the field at that time.

Edited August 11, 2008 by oracle_man

[game_boy]

the late great bobby fischer