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[Note that Jon Speelman also looks at the content of the article in video format, here embedded at the end of the article.]
A fortnight ago, I activated my “mirror”, a potent if imaginary artefact intended to reflect the best chess players ever. It has more work to do today, and first I must thank readers for a very lively and interesting discussion in the comments afterwards.
As I mentioned in those comments, I didn’t have a very strong opinion myself as to who was/is the best of the best, which is partly why I asked. People seem to divide into roughly four different camps: Fischer adherents; those who advance the claims of other recent top players; a few shouts for Lasker, Capablanca and Alekhine; and some mentions of the great players of the past who can’t be directly compared to the modern crop but were way ahead of their time — Morphy, Philidor and even El Greco.