The Games of Robert J. Fischer

Was Bobby Fischer the Greatest Player Ever? The question often asked is: Was Bobby Fischer the Greatest Player Ever? It is clear that Fischer was better than any player who preceded him, including Capablanca who, according to Professor Elo in his book "The Rating of Chess Players, Past and Present" ISBN 0923891277, was the greatest player prior to Fischer. However, Capablanca was only slightly better overall than his contemporaries, Lasker and Alekhine. Elo rated Capablanca at 2725 followed by Lasker and Botvinnik tied with 2720 and then Alekhine at 2690. The question now is: Was Fischer better than his successors, Garry Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov, Anand and Topalov? The answer usually given is that there is no comparison. Kasparov was only slightly better than Karpov. In fact, over their five matches for the World Chess Championship over a period of six years, their score was almost dead even, with Kasparov ahead by only 68-66 in the 134 games that they played. Now compare this to the score of 12 - 7 in games actually played in the Fischer-Spassky Match. Not only was Fischer much better, but Spassky was without doubt the second best player in the world, as compared to most other eras when there was and still is great doubt as to who was the second best player.