There are a few reasons for this and to cut down on the length of this article I had to make some choices as to what to include.įirst is the matter of style. I found the process of mapping out the top ten players’ repertoires both fascinating and challenging. Their chess careers have yet to conclude and I felt it would be difficult to place them among the legends on my current list. Another world champion who didn’t make it onto the list was Max Euwe, who would definitely be on a top 15 list.įinally, I left off currently active players such as Vishy Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, and Magnus Carlsen.
Mikhail Tal was on earlier versions of my list before I finalized it. Several non-world champions, Paul Morphy, Aaron Nimzowitch, Akiba Rubinstein, David Bronstein, and Viktor Korchnoi, who appear in other top ten lists didn’t make it onto this list. There were a few notable players left off the list. However, after that there was no other trends that I could decipher other than the recurrence of the other players on my list. For example, most lists placed Kasparov, Fischer, and Capablanca in their top three, although in various orders. Also, I looked at the opinions of several masters for their top picks. In creating my list, I did review a few other lists, including ones that used statistics to create ELO ratings for the players of previous generations. I’ll share who I think the Top Ten Chess Players of All Time were, but I’m also going to survey their opening repertoires and see what we can learn about them. I’ll share my opinion, but I’ve put little spin on it this time. In general, I don't think I played too good, but it was enough to change the flow and score some wins," quoted Nepomniachtchi as saying.Top Ten Chess Players of All Time & Their Opening MovesĮveryone loves to speculate as to who was the best ever. So first of all, I tried to stop blundering and pull myself together.
"I basically lost two normal points with two big blunders, against Shakh and Maxime. Ian Nepomniachtchi was however successful in defeating the Indian Grandmaster with a fraction of a difference of 4.5/5 who managed to maintain his first place. Anand was also successful in dominating Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest on his comeback to competitive chess.
He then went on to share points with French GM Maxime Vachier Lagrave in the third round. But Anand's bounce-back was even stronger as he took down Jan Kryzstof Duda. However, it was not all smooth sailing for the Indian Grandmaster as Dutch GM Anish Giri proved victorious in the very first match. Playing with white, it took just 30 moves for Anand to dominate Kasparov. Vishwanathan Anand's stats in Zagreb Rapid and Blitz, Croatia Five-time world champion, Anand who played for the first time after a gap of 17 months did not ever let his opponent undervalue his potential as it took him only a matter of half an hour in the fourth round to breeze past his Russian counterpart. Indian Grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand yet again proved that 'winning is a habit' when he took out Russian Grandmaster, Garry Kasparov during the Croatia Grand Chess Tournament on Saturday.