Who do you consider the greatest chess player in history (GOAT): Kasparov, Carlsen, Fischer or Capab

@NotMagnusCarlsen42 said in #13:

... "Most ahead of his peers", what about Morphy?

Back then, the chess world was so amazingly primitive that they still thought chess tournaments were a pretty neat idea. (With apologies to the late Douglas Adams.)

It was stated that MC has never beaten GK. But the actual encounters are few from what I know, and never in a best match. In the interview below, GK seems to imply that MC would win, since he stands on the shoulders of the past-more chess knowledge. But what if GK in his prime also had that? GK says it would not be GK but a different person.

Here is what GK says:

https://youtu.be/Np1zODg5cqc?si=nE5MZ2wo8giduLsR

Carlsen definitively. Magnus Carlsen is bound to be the greatest player in history. There have never been so many powerful tools to improve at chess, and the density of GMs today is at its highest. Yet, Magnus has remained above all other GMs for more than 10 years.

@kindaspongey said ^

... "Most ahead of his peers", what about Morphy?

Back then, the chess world was so amazingly primitive that they still thought chess tournaments were a pretty neat idea. (With apologies to the late Douglas Adams.)

But I said most ahead of his peers; no one was a super GM back then.

Also wasn't Douglas Adams the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

(A great series by the way)

@NotMagnusCarlsen42 said in #13:

... "Most ahead of his peers", what about Morphy?

@kindaspongey said in #21:

... Back then, the chess world was so amazingly primitive that they still thought chess tournaments were a pretty neat idea. (With apologies to the late Douglas Adams.)

@NotMagnusCarlsen42 said in #24:

... But I said most ahead of his peers;

And I thought that it was worthwhile to note the state of the peers in 1858.

@NotMagnusCarlsen42 said in #24:

no one was a super GM back then.

"... before Morphy everyone was pretty tactical; the quality of play did not get too positional until Steinitz (1866-1894). ..." - NM Dan Heisman (2002)
https://web.archive.org/web/20140627084053/https://www.chesscafe.com/text/heisman19.pdf

@NotMagnusCarlsen42 said in #25:

Also wasn't Douglas Adams the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

Yes, I modified an Adams sentence about digital watches.

"Magnus has remained above all other GMs for more than 10 years"

• He only drew his classical matches against Karjakin and Caruana, winning only in rapid tie breakers.

Carlsen obviously

@tpr said ^

"Magnus has remained above all other GMs for more than 10 years"

• He only drew his classical matches against Karjakin and Caruana, winning only in rapid tie breakers.

Sadly the nature of modern Chess is the predominance of draws in classic style tourneys. Do you recallKarpov and Korchnoi? So many games and draws that one of them, got ill with weight loss, etc, and they had to postpone the remainder of the tourney. I would like to see how many draws Kasparov had in his title defenses. And I believe at this level it has only got worse, with the use of engines and pregame planning.