Who's the best World Chess Champion??

I think that Garry Kasparov is the GOAT

Carlsen

If from the “past” era, then Bobby Fischer, and if from the current era, then Magnus Carlsen!

imo it is not possible to compair players from different times. especially not the engine area.

kasparov is probably the greatest. nobody was so much above the others for such a long time and he has found many new ideas and concepts. carlsen himselfe points out this two facts.

fischer had 2 absolutly outstanding years when he crushed everyone but he was already 28 at this time. who knows what would the future had shown. actually we know....

for me more interesting is the question how morphy, steinitz, (fischer said he was the second best player ever lived, of course besides himselfe), sultan khan, nezhmedtinov capablanca, tal but also kasparov would have developed in the engine area.

since im from the pre-engine-time i know how much more work it was to analyse and find good ideas. and then proofing them right. never being sure whether there is a hole. thinking about this gives me shiver of horror.

we had a saying that more games got lost because of bad evaluation in books than won.

why i think about morphy is clear.

im not sure whether everyone knows steinitz. he destroyed the romantic era and developed the basics for modern chess. especially defending strategies did not exist at this time. nevertheless he was a child of this time and he played hyper complicated.

capablanca is supposed to be the laziest player ever existed. how would he have played feeded with engine lines. i studied longlong time ago a few games of him and in every i could read something like "but capablanca does not want to calculate and goes the practical way which is not so elegant and needs more moves". i considered him boring when i was little. everything looks so easy. so obvious, crystal clear. thats it, just briliant ... forgive me, i was young and stupid.

sultan khan has an very interesting story. he played actually chaturanga. too long to tell now.

botvinnik said about nezhmedtinov that nobody sees combinations like him. have a look at his games. crazy stuff which make tals games look conservativ. he learned chess very late and had to create his first set by himselfe coz (i think) nobody played chess in his village. but for sure his parents were too poor to buy one for him. nezhmetdinov most famous quote "he who analyses blitz is stupid"

tal had his whole life serious health issues and he loved party and women. i read a nice annectote that he showed up late to a tournamet and 2 men had to help him to the table. when he sat down his opponent, a young hübner, understood why. hübner was fighting with breath coz tal stank so much after alcohol and parfume....tals ideas, style and philosophy combined with pure analytic of an engine. the idea gives me goose pumps. kasparov said that tal did not calculate. tal saw.