I have to severely question here what is meant by "strength" if Morphy can
be tossed out there. I wonder if Morphy could even compete against a modern
2500 player and manage to survive the opening. The answer is,
realistically, probably not.
But if you say, "well give him time to study and book up and all that", well
then, the greatest chessplayer of all time might potentially have been a
goatherder in central Africa who never even heard of chess.



"Matt Nemmers" wrote in message
news:r4EFc.3146$JR4.3060@attbi_s54...
"Kim" wrote in message
m...
there has been much debate as to who is the best chess player of all
time and it seems it almost always comes down to 2: bobby fischer and
gary kasparov. setting aside that debate for the moment (just
assuming that they are 1 and 2, you pick the order) who would you
consider next in line?

Even the top two are open to speculation, though one can hardly argue with
you two choices.

Assuming those two are at the top of the wallchart, I'd have to say that
Morphy and Capablanca would certainly give them a run for their money.

Regards,

Matt