Top 10 Best Chess Players of All Time

[@WatchMojo]

Who do you think is the chess GOAT? How long before Magnus takes the top spot? Let us know in the comments! For more content like this, click here: kzbin.info/aero/PLmZTDWJGfRq38dipUsu7kyZ-vZa3twFHd&si=8u5CYML17kwwUhGW

[@joshuagorski9452]

#1. Ron Weasley

[@pias-04]

1.Hans Niemann.

[@hanansalong9936]

NOT PUTTING MAGNUS ON TOP 1 IS A CRIME🔥🔥🔥🤘🤘🤘🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭

[@naresh_biswas239]

I CAN'T BELIEVE WATCHMOJO ... MADE THIS LIST...

[@pias-04]

They want views in any possible way as world chess tournament is going on, they targeted the chess fans.

[@Move_I_Got_This-b3v]

Liberals play checkers.

[@System.Error.]

especially when the contenders are chinese and indian, literally a total of 35% of the world population

[@leobertoalbano]

True. So True. The Idea Of A Top 10 Best Chess Players Of All Time Because WatchMojo Created This List Since Maybe 2013 Or 2014.

[@naresh_biswas239]

True True.. #DingGukesh

[@oliver-04]

Anand needs to be Top 10!!! Apart from that, this list is not bad

[@mohan9465]

having kramnik over anand is just bullshit....anand has won more super tournaments and more world championships in general along with rapid and blitz plus world cups plus anand won two candidates tournaments as well while kramnik was gifted to play kasparov in championship when it was actually shirov who won against kramnik (winner will play against kasparov) but due to sponsers kasparov chose anand first but failed due to some contracts and in end kramnik got the opportunity to play kasparov

[@timwheeler8523]

Krammik is top 5 of all time .... easily

[@nghiafischer14]

​@@timwheeler8523toilet gate

[@Zigzag6969]

​@@timwheeler8523anand is above kramnik any day

[@sharmelfattakhov5041]

They were pretty even for the most part of their careers and Kramnik is also very much deserving to be among the greats, but Anand is undoubtably one of the most influential chess players ever and it is a shame for him not to be included on this list.

[@darklord747]

Kramnik had an absolutely massive impact on theory.

[@blackman7186]

Kramnik being on the list but not Anand is just sad and disappointing. Like, come on.

[@ARIXANDRE]

Chess deserves a spot in the Olympics way more than Break Dancing

[@g_clayton]

I think it was suggested many times before, but the matches can go for so long that it's not viable

[@System.Error.]

Fast classical or Rapid can be good

[@leobertoalbano]

Maybe? Time Will Tell.

[@bushidoh8316]

​@@g_claytonThey could do rapid.

[@muhammedamanullah5893]

nope, Magnus himself said no need for chess in the Olympics and it's only better if we remove some sports from it

[@ritamsarkar3906]

#1 Magnus #2 Kasparov #10 Anand

[@matthewrogers9750]

Anand should be in the top 10. Was as good if not better than Kramnik.

[@LoganNagol]

Easily. I would put Fabi above Kramnik too

[@jedbo409]

@@LoganNagolyou can’t compare them

[@aarondalton4979]

You can't have kramnik and not anand, anand is definitely in the top 10 no other complaint though

[@arganchess8592]

Kramnik then: Kramnik Now :🤖😖👺

[@jason6141]

Anand not on here is insane, he should be in like the 4-6 range probably

[@sethteeter5225]

I feel like caruana deserves atleast an honorable mention hes been keeping up with the best for nearly a decade and has the 3rd highest peak rating of all time

[@gudius]

Magnus is number 1 for me and feel like vishy deserved to be in top 10 but decent list

[@abhishekrai7335]

I wouldn't say you can make any arguements that Kramnik absolutely shouldn't be in the list. But of course these lists will always subjective. Some of his achievements- - A top 10 player for 27 years, from 1993 to 2019, most of which was spent as world number 2 and 3. - The second chess player in history to hit 2800, all the way back in the year 2001! - Won at least 27 classical chess super tournaments, one of the highest in history. - Has positive head-to-head scores against the following top players: Kasparov, Topalov, Ivanchuk, Shirov, Polgar, Gelfand, Aronian, Leko, Svidler, Short, Radjabov, Adams, Morozevich, etc... and an equal score with Anand, and -1 vs. Carlsen. - One of the greatest opening theoreticians in all of modern chess, an opinion expressed by many top players. - Also note that his rating and performance declines in some of his peak years from 2003-2005, which was caused by a rare and dreadful case of "Ankylosing spondylitis", which is a rare type of arthiritis. - A 3-time world chess champion. Dethroned Kasparov, the only top player to play so many games against the 'Beast of Baku' come out on top. Defeating V. Topalov in 2006 while forfeiting 1 entire classical game, game 5, plus under heavy allegations. And Leko in 2004 under quite poor health conditions. People do tend to forget how much of a legend this guy really is, I think mainly because of the fact that people simply don't know much about his career, except for the well known fact that he defeated Kasparov in 2000.

[@vaibhavkumar-ql2fw]

Joke list if Anand ia not in the list

[@pokethegreat4145]

What do you expect from Europeans?

[@jasonkoch3182]

I'd put Anand on the list over Kramnik anyway, but especially now.

[@nghiafischer14]

​​@@jasonkoch3182he's miles clear of that yapping machine. However imo Alekhine is slightly better

[@GON-f9l]

​@@pokethegreat4145 Watchmojo is not even european Mr. inferiority complex

[@pokethegreat4145]

@GON-f9l welp sir my bad. Its Canadian. Still it doesn't change the fact that these western nations don't value asians

[@monkwithsword4983]

Imagine not adding 5 time world champion in this list😮they should add Anand that man one of the greatest of all time, remaining in top 10 consistently more than 20 years

[@houseleenee]

and Vishy still is in the top 10 with all this youngsters around! definitely a flawed list

[@boss_charms5768]

and still close to the top 10 until now.

[@jbonillav1]

Kasparov had years beign the best of all time but I believe the crown now belongs to Carlsen

[@jorgeromero5122]

Kasparov was on the top for to many years, more than Magnus still

[@Move_I_Got_This-b3v]

@@jorgeromero5122 Yeah but he wasn't a triple crown winner. And his ELO was never as high as Magnus. Magnus has 10k games memorized. He knows every move, name, and date of each game.

[@jorgeromero5122]

@@Move_I_Got_This-b3v Elo is not a good metric to compare players from different eras, as it has been increasing over time. Blitz tournaments started in 2012, in Kasparov's time they did not exist. Magnus has not had a rival as strong as Karpov was for Kasparov.

[@flamongo6942]

@@jorgeromero5122 he's had even stronger oponents than karpov in his prime as peak fabiano peak hikaru or peak ding magnus is objectively THE most accurate player of all time by computer measurement has the highest elo of all time by far and not having an equal rival does not disqualify him for the goat title but the opposite is the case

[@jorgeromero5122]

@@flamongo6942 First we have to understand that every best player of each era was the best so far, if we speak strictly of the level of play, since chess has been studied more and more. Magnus for example was trained by Kasparov himself when he was a child. On the subject of who had more competition, it is debatable of course. I am sure that most will not agree with you. Anand, Karpov, and Kramnik, Leko, vs Fabiano and Hikaru and Levon. Magnus is a more complete player, but he still needs to prove a bit more to surpass Kasparov in my opinion.

[@Hugh_Jannis]

#1 is Frank Reynolds, he single handedly beat the Russians

[@digocr]

Tal is the GOAT. Nobody could do what he did. And it’s not about winning more, or being champion for more years, but making chess as exciting as can be. “I see a move (a sacrifice?), and I’m not completely sure it’s correct, but it’s SO interesting I cannot avoid playing it to see the outcome”.!!!!!! “I’m fascinated by the beauty of the game, regardless of winning or losing”. Anand said if anyone came and asked Tal “let’s play” he was ready. He escaped hospital close to death to play a blitz tournament! THAT is the goat.

[@IAmDavid91]

Fischer, Kasparov and Carlsen are better than him He's still one of the greatest ever undisputedly

[@bharatmatakijay3449]

Not saying as an Indian, but as somehow who's been following chess passionately, I can safely say that Vishwanathan Anand any day will be in top 10. Not just bcoz he's been world champion, but look at the time period for which he literally kept performing at the top level. From late 90s to around 2017-19, that's close to 20 years for which he was in the top 5. How many apart from Fischer, Kasparov or now Carlsen, you can think of who had such a sustained dominance???

[@miyamotomusashi6450]

Lasker

[@peterquinones3522]

Kids today dont realize that Bobby Fischer was a celebrity on the level of Beyonce or Taylor Swift today. General Motors offered him 10 million dollars to do a car commercial - in 1972 money!! Try sn experiment. Ask 100 random people in a mall who Magnus Carlsen is. You' ll be lucky if 5 out of100 know. In 1972 Bobby Fischer would have 100% name recognition all over the world.😮

[@ericrossoni]

Yeah cuz Bobby wasn’t American. Ask any European player who Carlson is and they know.

[@BiffTeka]

@@ericrossoni There is no way that Magnus Carlson has anywhere near the name recognition Bobby Fischer had or had, and anyone who thinks so is completelyb delusional.

[@bearbear6896]

Very well timed topster

[@alexpatel9333]

Anand the most influential player of all time. Look at the current crop of players. Almost all of them are because of Anand. Ridiculous to put Kramnik over

[@PsychologyAttack]

@@alexpatel9333 Its not a list of influencial players, its a list of best players.

[@Ploeppsel]

to be honest you can argue about the number 10 spot but I don't think it's clear cut either way.

[@buddhahr1]

​@@PsychologyAttack He won world championship 5 times... Not enough!?

[@maximussaktish]

The top 3 is obvious

[@GreeneHouseProductions]

Definitely knew the top 3 would be those players. Just wasnt sure the order. All are/were great

[@0ldMatty2]

Awesome video :)

[@schess75]

How can Capablanca be ahead of Karpov and also a top 10 list must have Anand too!

[@AlejandroMartinez-vk7ys]

Impressive and very well researched list. Facts are on point and very accurate.

[@hanansalong9936]

MAGNUS CARLSEN IS THE G.O.A.T 🔥🔥🔥❤️❤️❤️🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭

[@TheRealCoryKent]

Bobby Fisher was such a friendly, likable guy back in the day. I sure wish we could have heard all his thoughts and seen that smile for much longer.

[@jizzervirusreptikonski8756]

My personal favourites: Kasparov, founder of Stockfish, Fischer, Tal Favourite non super GM players and teachers: Chessnetwork, Tal Baron, John Bartholomew, Simon Williams, Frager68

[@MichaelSmith-lb9pt]

To do a fair comparison there are 2 possibilities: one pretend all players were born around the same time, say the past, so they do not have current chess knowledge or acquired at the time they played. So go back to Morphy's time, I think Morphy would beat all players. Now, jump to the future so Morphy, Capablanca, Fischer etc. were born around the time of Magnus Carson, thereby having access to computers and all current theory. This would be very interesting, I give a slight edge to Morphy for his ability to grasp theory, understand positional play and incredible calculating ability. But who knows. Fischer would study night and day. I think the answer would be which player would make the fewest mistakes, because a topl level chess many games are won due to a mistake.

[@smfaisalahmmed4888]

But I still believe that in a pound for pound debate magnus would be at top.

[@waheedabdullah6371]

Remind me why there is no, "King me", in chess & "checkmate" in checkers?

[@Jeremiah_Rivers76]

That's reserved for checkers.

[@waheedabdullah6371]

But there should've been a, "Checkmate", in CHECKers

[@Reaperguy67]

​@@JJ.-BB You should stop harassing others. It proves how miserable you are

[@JJ.-BB]

​@@Reaperguy67 all you do is harass and bully and I have proof and evidence you sent threats

[@Reaperguy67]

​@@JJ.-BB you have no proof of me sending threats. You sent them and I have proof of you harassing others and wishing people to die in lava. All you do is blame things on others.

[@k.k.2749]

The problem with Magnus Carlsen is that he gave up his world championship title. I think he was afraid to lose the title by defeat, so he gave it up. Keep in mind that he could not beat both Karjakin and Caruana in classical time format during their world championship match and even coming close to losing to them, the games ended in a tie, so tie breaks decided the match by rapid format. They should play more than the usual 12 games like in the old days to find a winner, rather than going into rapid tie breaks. After all this is the classical world championship. Magnus Carlsen is one of the greatest chess players, but it's such a shame that he gave up the title.

[@hayeonkim7838]

Thanks for interesting and valuable video as always ❤❤❤

[@miroslavjanecek9993]

Kasparov Carlsen Fischer Karpov Morphy Alekhine Lasker Capablanca Anand Steinitz

[@ddburdette]

In my youth, when I was passionate about chess, my idol was José Capablanca.

[@Anonymous-g2s]

Capablanca was not honest claiming that he never studied chess, a lot of people take that literally. Considering as how he played all the same openings and improvements that others played he clearly both studied chess a lot in youth and kept up with the games of others. He wouldn't be world champion if he didn't.

[@johnyoung8144]

Stockfish.

[@Dontsubscribe106]

Absolutely true

[@byryn.]

Mittens.

[@S.Kostan_1970]

#3 Karlsen #2 Kasparov #1 Stockfish

[@Zeezeebot]

I feel like Levy defintly deserves honorable mentions spot

[@jozefserf2024]

Fischer is the strongest, Capablanca the most talented and Morphy the greatest. Karpov, Kasparov and Kramnik are all pretty close. Anand started off well but transformed from an instinctive supertalent into an analytical player.

[@sebu1301]

Alexander Alekhine is always forgotten from these lists. Some of the most insane combinations are by him. He's actually considered the GOAT by some people.

[@PMD-Insight]

Great List! Now do Top 10 Gamers Of All Time

[@alexandrekassel3794]

And Steinitz doesn't even deserve an honorable mention ? Wow.

[@jasonkoch3182]

You can't give everyone an honorable mention. Steinitz, Euwe, Smyslov, Petrosian, Spassky, Ding are all world champions who didn't get a mention. Not to mention players like Andersson, Bronstein, Zukertort, Reti, Taimonov, Susan Polgar, Nona, Vera Menchik, Fabi (third highest rating of all time), Ho Yifan. Somebody is always going to be left off.

[@nghiafischer14]

​@@jasonkoch3182left women off they're hard to compare

[@Anonymous-g2s]

@@jasonkoch3182 Andersson or Anderssen? Big difference. Also while female chess is great for what it is, none deserve to be mentioned among the all-time greats. The best a female achieved was a brief top 10 appearance. Ding my butt.

[@pias-04]

Chess engine, future or not I tell you something, if It's not rain man than none can beat the magnus even with a higher technology in far future because It's Impossible for to human too go beyond magnus level. Why I love magnus, because he reached the extreme form without collapsing what none could do ever. Gary, fisher would have collapsed to memorize 20k games and place. What magnus know is the 43move of some player beside him playing in 2010 in some country even in what competition.

[@emiliobello2538]

the documentary Magnus should have been in Norwegian and should have been Oscar nominated

[@kimmichszn8900]

Morphy was definitley not a top 10 best ever player, but in terms of greatness he was definitely, lists for "best" players in chess is quite unfair because every generation learns from the previous so every generation is stronger than the one before, "great" is a much better word in this context.

[@marufhasanmishkat13]

Top 5 chess players 0. Magnus Carlsen 1. Drunkenstein (drunk magnus) 2. Bobby Fischer 3. Garry Kasparov 4. Anatoly Karpov 5. Paul Morphy

[@BedrockBlocker]

Carlsen vs Kasparov I don't care who is first but not putting Vishy is a crime.

[@Storiesboardlife]

Tal has the best quote there is sacrificing an my sacrificing

[@Aweng_Zweng]

Magnus is the goat. The level can't be compared to older times - those without engines.

[@markadams7046]

I believe Paul Morphy should be number 1. He didn't have as many shoulders of giants to stand upon because he was biggest of giants whose shoulders are what all modern players stand upon.

[@hanansalong9936]

NOT PUTTING MAGNUS ON TOP 1 IS A CRIME🔥🔥🔥❤️❤️❤️🤘🤘🤘🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭

[@completelyuselesstrivia5319]

Top 6 is perfect. Depending on how you rank players, Morphy is either an HM or a top 4 player. Personally don't put Morphy in rankings like this, too difficult. Would have Anand 7, Kramnik 8, Lasker 9 and Alekhine/Tal at 10. If you deeply analyse Tal's games, you'll see that he makes a lot of unsound sacrifices.

[@jasonkoch3182]

True, but even with his unsound sacrifices, he still dominated a lot of the best players in the world at the time.

[@dominicrufiespiritu7069]

Here in the Philippines we have Eugene Torre and Wesley So

[@hanansalong9936]

Wesley sa america un tsaka wala naman un laking pinapaiyak ni magnus un

[@nitantom]

WTF Kramnik before Anand Shit list

[@buddhahr1]

No matter you are 5 times world champion, dethroned Kramnik, who is considered as one of the best, among top 10 even in his 50's, Anand would not get a place in top 10 list! Only problem is skin colour...

[@houseleenee]

I can accept the exclusion of Alekhine but no Anand in the list means the list is flawed, with all due respect for Morphy and Lasker. How did you make your researches? Unbelievable blunder.

[@SaltyBoogers0918]

An unexpected list... not a bad one as well

[@YushaIbtida]

Just imagine a player with innate talent of Fischer with the aid of modern super engines. Literal god of chess that player would have become.

[@seriovarga7700]

Do a top 10 podcaster list

[@charlesa1234]

Im happy to see Paul Morphy in this list. #7

[@brianbrown771]

If Fabiano was only like 20-30 points behind magnus and had higher elo than any of these guys, than where is he....

[@suchac01]

Zhis has to be an IA list

[@jasonkoch3182]

I don't think I've ever heard anyone pronounce Vishy's name quite like that. Also, I am convinced that no one in chess actually knows how to pronounce Alekhine.

[@bonafide9781]

Lest we forget Bingo Heeler. “Their little prawn children go to kindy together.”

[@sammywurtman6302]

Why only world champions? Fabiano and Levon should easily make the list (3 and 4 highest elos ever)

[@iamabhi31]

Samay Raina is missing here

[@miquelcanosasanteularia1678]

Tal is great but I would probably take kramnik >

[@thewhitewolf58]

If you believe someone "does bad moves on purpose" you will probably believe anything your told.

[@danielg1910]

Bong Cloud. Case closed.

[@danielg1910]

Bong Cloud. Case closed.

[@jasonkoch3182]

At the time, Lasker was so much better than everyone else that he played a lot of unorthodox moves that looked bad. With engine analysis today, it's easy to tell just how good he actually was but at the time the moves were so out-of-nowhere that it was believed he was intentionally playing bad moves to try to throw off his opponents.

[@thewhitewolf58]

@jasonkoch3182 It is rather easy to cope and pretend people are flawless angels and the train reck is "all according to plan."

[@naresh_biswas239]

#DingGukesh

[@beerguy177]

Deep Blue gets my vote

[@Swilla12]

Good job Dewey Wilkerson!

[@kaigankaigankaigan3905]

You know that we're in the middle of World Chess Championship, don't you?

[@leobertoalbano]

I Love Chess! ♟️😍

[@lad4702]

Nerds who never leave the house and SPAM 92939483929939448 daft 🗑 comments on every video tend to be chess fans kid 🥱😴😴😴

[@GratefulPrimate]

Bart Simpson is the GOAT ... of something

[@MADBD619]

Check and Mate, baby!

[@lincolndethomasis6602]

No Shirov or Ivanchuk in the honourable mentions?

[@evenisher]

why Boris Spasky it's not metioned?

[@bradleyj7801]

because it wasn’t a top 100 list

[@jasonkoch3182]

Because somebody is going to be left off. Steinitz, Euwe, Smyslov, Petrosian, Spassky, and Ding are all world champions who didn't get a mention.

[@jmenceladus1332]

Great player, but probably not top ten, top 20 definitely

[@abdvids]

Alekhine not being in the top 10 is sadge

[@CutterHistorical]

Ironically I did a video about Magnus Carlsson last week

[@DirtyDeedsDoneDirtCheapD4C-1]

Tal could be placed higher in the list imo

[@flamongo6942]

pretty decent list for watchmojo put anand in the list instead of botvinnik and switch places with kramnik and switch carlsen and kasparov and call it a day

[@jasonkoch3182]

I don't think you can have a top 10 list that doesn't include Botvinnik. Anand should be on the list over Kramnik, though.

[@PsychologyAttack]

@@jasonkoch3182 Anand over Kramnik? Why?

[@Ploeppsel]

Botvinnik has to be in this list. He was world champion for a really long time and reclaimed it twice.

[@PsychologyAttack]

@@Ploeppsel True, although it was a bit easier to be champ back in his day. Champ didnt need to win. If a match is drawn, a champion automatically won. Also back in the day, if a champ lost the match( which happened 2 times, to Tal and Smyslov) a champ got an immediate rematch the next year. Still, Botvinnik was a great player.

[@VergilLunar]

No Anatoly Karpov!? The "FINAL BOSS" of chess didn't get #1 on the list!? Blasphemy!

[@AskNaman]

He did

[@tanishthakare6610]

he is there

[@VergilLunar]

@@AskNaman He's the final boss, should have been number 1. They missed out on a good joke

[@VergilLunar]

@@tanishthakare6610 But not as number 1, would have added a layer of humor

[@jasonkoch3182]

Kasparov is the final boss, not Karpov.

[@digocr]

2:24 random citations!? 🤣

[@charlesgardner7258]

I thought Alexander pichushkin would be on here who else thought that put this emotion ✋if so

[@paysoh1609]

GothamChess is the ChessGoat. 🎉

[@keetch_]

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (former n°2) once suggested this : 1 : Magnus Carlsen 2 : Garry Kasparov 3 : Bobby Fischer 4 : François-André Philidor 5 : Anatoli Karpov kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnS6gpmBetKCatU

[@Leikjarinn]

no DING CHILLING LIREN !?!?!?!?

[@botortamas]

Someone’s binged Queens Gambit 😂

[@manasv1714]

how the hell is vishy anand not on this list? ABSOLUTE JOKE

[@MichaelSmith-lb9pt]

Perhaps this is favoritism on your part. Quite often we have our heroes - sports, music, etc. and tend to say they are the best of all times. But at least in chess it is very objective, so during any current era, we know who was the best at the time. Magnus is and has been for about 10 years the best chess player in the world. His tremendous advantage (which current players also have) namely computer analysis and being able to play ten of thousands of games definitely helps in your chess abilities. Therefore , if players from the past had such tools at their disposal it would greatly enhance their chess skills. When I study Morphy's games, myself and other chess players eg. Fischer is amazed by how incredible his chess games are, especially when you realize the limited chess knowledge available at the time of Morphy. Bobby Fischer picked Morphy as the most talented player ever, and in a set match Morphy, if given time to study current theory, beat any player who ever played the game. Michael Smith

[@PrinceFlynnRider]

I'm 9 hours late to the party and by God, y'all should NOT have made this one...

[@EshwariManideep]

who came to listen to what They say about Tal......

[@S.Kostan_1970]

Looks like Kramnik cheated Mojo somehow )

[@LoffysDomain]

10th place. Interesting.

[@allthingsequal347]

List about right

[@NaveedKhan-ij8wh]

To end the debate "Magnus Carlsen is Greatest Of All Time".

[@alaag.h.9905]

Anand? Really?

[@jorgeadairramos7469]

Hello good morning 🎉🎉🎉