Fischer:
The 10 Greatest Players of all Time

Bobby Fischer picks whom he considers to be the ten greatest players of all time
and then explains the method of his madness.

Bobby Fischer came up with the idea of making a list of his choices for the 10 greatest chess players of all time and presented it to Frank Brady, editor/owner of the shortly-lived magazine, Chessworld. The magazine folded after 3 issues because of financial trouble, but some of the content of those 3 issues are quoted even today. Before founding Chessworld, Brady, later the author of Bobby Fischer: Chess Prodigy, was the editor of Chess Life and financial manager of USCF.
Fischer wrote the article with the help of Neil Hickey, the spouse of Lisa Lane (Hickey), the long-time U.S.Women's Champion. Ironically, Fischer had this to say about Lisa Lane when it was related to him the she considered Fischer "probably the greatest chess player alive":
"That statement is accurate, but Lisa Lane really wouldn't be in a position to know. They're all weak, all women. They're stupid compared to men. They shouldn't play chess, you know. They're like beginners. They lose every single game against a man. There isn't a woman player in the world I can't give knight-odds to and still beat."

~ read excerpts from the 1962 Harper's interview by Ralph Ginsberg here ~

1. PAUL MORPHY
Perhaps the most accurate player who ever lived, he would beat anybody today in a set-match. He had complete sight of the board and seldom blundered even though he moved quite rapidly. I've played over hundreds of his games and am continually surprised and entertained by his ingenuity.

2. HOWARD STAUNTON
His games are completely modern, but very few of them show brilliancies. He understood all the positional concepts we now hold so dear.

3. WILHELM STEINITZ
He always sought completely original lines and didn't mind getting into cramped quarters if he thought that his position was essentially sound.

4. SIEGBERT TARRASCH
Razor-sharp, he always followed his own rules. In spite of devotion to his own supposedly scientific method, his play was often witty and bright.

5. MIKHAIL TCHIGORIN
The first great Russian player and one of the last of the Romantic School. At times he would continue playing a bad line even after it was refuted.

6. ALEXANDER ALEKHINE
Never a hero of mine. His style worked for him, but it could scarcely work for anybody else. His conceptions were gigantic, full of outrageous and unprecedented ideas. It's hard to find mistakes in his games, but in a sense his whole method was a mistake.

7. JOSE CAPABLANCA
He had the totally undeserved reputation of being the greatest living endgame player. His trick was to keep his openings simple and then play with such brilliance that it was decided in the middle game before reaching the ending -- even though his opponent didn't always know it. His almost complete lack of book knowledge forced him to push harder to squeeze the utmost out of every position.

8. BORIS SPASSKY
He can blunder away a piece, and you are never sure whether it's a blunder or a fantastically deep sacrifice. He sits at the board with the same dead expression whether he's mating or being mated.

9. MIKHAIL TAL
Even after losing four games in a row to him I still consider his play unsound. He is always on the lookout for some spectacular sacrifice, that one shot, that dramatic breakthrough to give him the win.

10. SAMUEL RESHEVSKY
From 1946 to 1956 probably the best in the world, though his opening knowledge was less than any other leading player. Like a machine calculating every variation, he found moves over the board by a process of elimination and often got into fantastic time pressure.

What else Fischer had to say about

Morphy:

"A popularly held theory about Paul Morphy is that if he returned to the chess world today and played our best comtemporary players, he would come out the loser. Nothing is further from the truth. In a set match, Morphy would beat anybody alive today."
"Perhaps the most accurate player who ever lived, he would beat anybody today in a set-match. He had complete sight of the board and seldom blundered even though he moved quite rapidly. I've played over hundreds of his games and am continually surprised and entertained by his ingenuity"
"Paul Morphy was a great chessplayer, a genius... Morphy, I think everyone agrees, was probably the greatest genius of them all..."
Bobby Fischer, Yugoslavia press conference, 1992

Steinitz:

"He is the so-called father of the modern school of chess; before him, the King was considered a weak piece and players set out to attack the King directly. Steinitz claimed that the King was well able to take care of itself, and ought not to be attacked until one had some other positional advantage. He understood more about the use of squares than Morphy and contributed a great deal more to chess theory."

Capablanca:

"Capablanca was possibly the greatest player in the entire history of chess."

Staunton:

"Staunton was the most profound opening analyst of all time. He was more theorist than player, but nonetheless he was the strongest player of his day. Playing over his games, I discover that they are completely modern; where Morphy and Steinitz rejected the fianchetto, Staunton embraced it. In addition, he understood all of the positional concepts which modern players hold so dear, and thus - with Steinitz - must be considered the first modern player."

Alekhine:

"Alekhine is a player I've never really understood; yet, strangely, if you've seen one Alekhine game you've seen them all. He always wanted a superior center; he maneuvered his pieces towards the King's-side, and around the twenty-fifth move began to mate his opponent"
"Never a hero of mine. His style worked for him, but it could scarcely work for anybody else. His conceptions were gigantic, full of outrageous and unprecedented ideas. It's hard to find mistakes in his games, but in a sense his whole method was a mistake."

Fischer: The 10 Greatest Players of all Time

What else Fischer had to say about

Fischer:
The 10 Greatest Players of all Time