In message , tomic
writes
"oxtut" wrote in message
. com...
From a search of all the Fide rating lists it seems that at his peak
Kasparov was just as far ahead of the level of contemporary strong GMs
as Fischer was.

Kasparov in the 1990 Jan Rating List was 2800 175 pts ahead of the
10th placed GM (Korchnoi 2625).

Fischer in the 1973 Jan rating List was 2785 175 pts ahead of the 10th
placed GM
(Smyslov 2610)

Add this to the fact that Kasparov held on to this sort of superiority
for far longer and this points to Kasparov's superiority over
Fischer.

But you must discount Kasparov's ELO rating cause inflation of the rating
(5-10 rating points every year).

I would be interested to know how you might justify your claim that
there is an ELO rating inflation in the order of 5 to 10 points per
year.

Year - 1970 average ELO of top 5 active players = 2642:
1 2690 B. Spassky;
2 2660 B. Larsen;
3 2630 L. Portisch;
4 2630 R. Fischer;
5 2600 S. Gligoric;

Year - 1980 average ELO of top 5 active players = 2683:
1 2725 A. Karpov;
2 2705 M. Tal;
3 2695 V. Korchnoi;
4 2655 L. Portisch;
5 2635 L. Polugaevsky;

Year - 1990 average ELO of top 5 active players = 2714:
1 2800 G. Kasparov;
2 2730 A. Karpov;
3 2680 B. Gelfand;
4 2680 V. Ivanchuk;
5 2680 J. Timman;

Year - 2000 average ELO of top 5 active players = 2775:
1 2851 G. Kasparov;
2 2769 V. Anand;
3 2758 V. Kramnik;
4 2751 A. Shirov;
5 2748 A. Morozevich;

I make that to be an average (top 5 active player) ELO increase of:
+4.1 per year from 1970 to 1980;
+3.1 per year from 1980 to 1990;
+6.1 per year from 1990 to 2000;
+4.4 per year from 1970 to 2000.

I suggest that the adoption of serious computer training and analysis
techniques in the early 1990s accounted for most of the "anomalously
high" increase in average ELO's during that decade. Now that all top
players make significant use of computer training, we appear to be back
to a "ratings inflation" in the order of +4 per year among the top
active players.

That's the same like you compare the merit
US dollars today and 15 or 50 years ago.

In my opinion, the original poster made a valid and interesting
observation.

--
Regards - Jim (reply to: News AT outcrops DOT co DOT uk)

Woman went into a bar and asked for a double entendre.
So the landlord gave her one.