Albert Silver News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

There is love at first sight, as everyone knows, and there are, somewhat surprisingly, "statistics at first sight". What is that? In the infamous matter labelled by now as "the Hans Niemann cheating case" (a title that S.S. Van Dine would have greatly appreciated, as well as the mystery surrounding the case) such "statistics at first sight" have attracted the undisputed attention of every party involved – and above all the attention of the ones not involved. | Picture: The rating development of Hans Niemann

The claim to be the best ever in chess, in any category, is usually backed up by either hard numbers (Karpov's number of grandmaster tournament wins is not open to debate), or strong opinions such as the best absolute player. But the debate on the greatest prodigy seems to lie somewhere in between, depending on your criteria. Read this article and see if you agree. (photo: Capablanca at age four)