Best Chess Player of All Time - Magnus Carlsen?

My Dear Chess Friends!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Stay healthy and keep improving at chess!🎄

This is FM Viktor Neustroev and this is the last video devoted to the best player of all time. And in this video, I’m going to introduce Magnus Carlsen. Wait! Magnus Carlsen doesn't need to be introduced. Everyone knows him! He is a current World Champion and does really much for chess in general!

That’s why I decided to tell you some interesting facts about Magnus and his contribution to world chess. And, of course, we’ll observe the game between him and Sergey Karjakin. And, finally in this video we’ll make a conclusion of who really is the best player of all time!

Magnus Carlsen is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the current World Chess Champion, World Rapid Chess Champion, and World Blitz Chess Champion. His peak classical rating of 2882 is the highest in history. Carlsen also holds the record for the longest unbeaten run in chess.

Carlsen became World Chess Champion in 2013 by defeating Viswanathan Anand. He defended his classical world title against Sergey Karjakin in 2016, and against Fabiano Caruana in 2018.

However, before we continue with the analysis of his best game, it’s worth to note that I admire Magnus Carlsen not only because he is a top chess player nowadays, but because of his contribution to chess during pandemic! When all OTB tournaments were cancelled, Magnus created several online tournaments, found sponsorship and invited several top players to join. That, of course, helped to increase the popularity of chess in the world.

Of course, online tournaments can’t replace OTB tournaments. But it’s better to play and learn online rather than not playing anywhere.

Magnus Carlsen - Sergey Karjakin, 2016

Many chess lovers would say, there is nothing to talk about: “Garry Kasparov is the best”! Younger players would argue: “Magnus Carlsen is the best! He has the highest Elo rating!” But let’s first take a look at this table and then make a conclusion:

As for Magnus Carlsen, of course, he is in his best condition (or near it), but he is a world champion only for 8 years and he outplays his opponents in only 45% of his games. Bobby Fischer is a leader according to the percentage of games won. He definitely dominated in his era and won more often than other candidates.

But let’s look at Garry Kasparov’s statistics: 52% of games won, only 8% of his games he lost. It’s almost nothing. And he was a World Champion for 16 years! Moreover, his top Elo rating was just a little lower than Carlsen’s – 2851 comparing to 2882 of Magnus Carlsen. That’s why I think at this moment Garry Kasparov is a top candidate who deserves the unofficial title “The Best Player of All Time”. But I think the situation may change if Magnus Carlsen keeps his Champion title for 5-6 years more.

Anyway, any of these candidates deserve the title “The Best Player of All Time” and demonstrated his unique beauty of chess.

In this video you learned about Magnus Carlsen, analyzed his best game and concluded the statistics that proves that each candidate deserved the right to be “The Best Player of All Time” and, of course, is definitely the best player of his era!

Thank you for watching and make sure to like this video, subscribe to my channel and share it with your friends - chess players.

I hope you enjoyed this video and liked the game analysis. If you don’t agree with me about Garry Kasparov and the title “The Best Player of All Time” that I gave to him, please, share your opinion into the comment section below this video.

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Best Regards,

FM Viktor Neustroev