The Greatest Let the debate ensue!

Descripción

The Greatest Let the debate ensue! Who is the greatest chess player of all time, the GOAT? Who is in the top ten? Let the debate ensue!

How do you measure greatness? Is Morphy «greater» than Carlsen? Can such judgements be made, and do they mean anything?

The Greatest

This fascinating topic is tackled head on in The Greatest by prolific chess author Cyrus Lakdawala. Avoiding presentism with carefully established criteria, Lakdawala considers «pure strength factors», such as dominance over peers, longevity, and tournament wins, as well as other categories such as: Who was most ahead of their time? Who advanced chess theory most?

All these factors are discussed at length alongside 80 fully annotated and instructive games from every era to back up the author’s arguments. A fascinating read on a fascinating topic.

The Greatest Let the debate ensue!

Cyrus Lakdawala is an International Master, a former National Open and American Open Champion, and six-time State Champion. He has been teaching chess for over 40 years, and coaches top US juniors.

The Subject which Launched 10,000 Arguments

Is it really possible to catalogue greatness? It’s no different than claiming that Johann Sebastian Bach was a ‘better’ composer than John Lennon. Any time the debate of who is the
greatest chess player of all time arises on my Facebook page, two things occur with absolute predictability:
1. I get way more hits and comments than posts on any other subject.
2. We live in the era of the easily offended and the perpetually outraged. Violent fights break out, with name-calling, unfriending and blocking.

Cyrus Lakdawala

Everyone’s list is different, so if someone posts that Anand doesn’t make it to his or her 10 greatest players of all-time list, the Anand super-fan is certain to respond: “I strongly urge
you to stay on your medication! Anand is the GOAT and would crush Carlsen or Kasparov with an 8-0 sweep, in a 14 game match!” Then the response is: “Idiot! Kasparov defeated
Anand in a world championship match! How can Anand be ahead on the list?” “You are the idiot! Anand was but a child when he played Kasparov!”…and so on, and on.

The Greatest Let the debate ensue!

Then there were violent arguments about Kramnik not being on my top 10 list, since he beat Kasparov. Someone insisted that my list is a touch racist, since it consists mainly of
white males (they forgot that Capablanca and Anand were not white males), while someone else accused it of being sexist, since Judit Polgar wasn’t in my top ten. Sigh. Anyway, I beg
you not to send me hate messages if my list will be different than yours (which it is certain to be).

The Greatest

The Greatest Let the debate ensue!