Friday, October 31, 2008

What is Anand's Position Amongst the Crowds of World Champions in Chess History

I started a poll in this few years back thinking of which world champion is most favorite to us (look at the right side Poll#1 Greatest Chess Player). Susan is running a post on this in her blog today on this same topic.

My own opinion is Kasparov! But he will be closely followed by Capablanca, Morphy and Fischer. After them the other players whom I would rank almost equally would be Karpov, Anand, Botvinnik, Lasker and Alekhine.

Why Anand in this rank? Because of his versatile style of chess. He is one of the most naturally talented chess player (along with Capablanca) who didn't get big chess mentors (like Kasparov got Botvinnik and it's true for other Russian champions as well). Anand is a very sharp player and his raw speed of chess is simply unmatchable by anyone else, not even Kasparov! Also he plays quite well against top Computers although his blindfold may not be the best in the market. Kramnik was a great rival of Anand if we study both of their careers and Anand has repeatedly triumphed over him last few years showing his spirit even better than what Kasparov did against his great rival Karpov. Anand is playing in a time when the gap between top chess players are marginal which I believe only Kasparov had to face amongst the earlier champions. Anand's career is not over and he is already in top best chess players ever to many chess players / fans like me.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

hey ashik, u didnt mention my favourite player mikhail tal in your list, who is i think is a strong candidate to be one of the best chess players in the history of the game considering that he is quite unorthodox in style,who wasnt afraid of taking risks, and above all he is considered as the best player in the game as far as chess intuition is concerned.now a days chess has become more mechanical. lots of theories available.many positions are highly analysed.not easy to take too many risks, you are bound to be punished if u do that. but i still believe that chess has its own romantic flavour when u watch the games of the great mikhail tal.