“I don’t want to spoil it.” Shows complete list in the intro 😂

Hikaru was in the top 3 best looking chess players of all time, but then he shaved, and has thus been relegated to top 5.

There's no way Vishy isn't top 10 of all time. 5 time world champion, pioneered an entire country's chess culture, and is STILL in top 10-15 in the world at the age of 51.

Fun facts: Morphy was admitted to the bar at 19. Although he never practiced law, it is said he could recite the entire civil code of Louisiana from memory. The man was a genius

Definitely vishy and morphy should be in the top ten..... Morphy was a natural born genius and his flow of play is still relevant.... While Anand has been the undisputed champion 4 times and fide champion for two years but what is overlooked is his blitz and rapid career....he became world rapid champion ahead of Hikaru, Magnus etc at the age of like 47-48 in 2017 and is ranked 4 in blitz at the age of 52 in the live ratings now!!!!

To not put morphy in ur top ten is criminal

Vishy Anand is a must in the top ten of all time. Been a top level player for 30 years, 5 time champion and dominated rapid/blitz

11:24 that's the moment kramnick swear revenge to hikaru lol

I like how someone on twitch chat put "#0 Nakamura"

Anand won more classical world championship(5 in total compared to 3 for kramnik)titles then kramnik along with rapid (2003& 2017) & blitz championships allso won more super tournaments then kramnik + won three candidates tournaments(95,1998,2014)+ 11 unofficial world rapid titles (frankfurt world rapid championship against players like garry,kramnik,polgar& magnus) + even at age 52 he is still playing top level chess,nothing against kramnik but if kramnik is in top 10 the anand deserves more then him

Morphy is to chess as Newton is to science. Much of what Newton developed is considered "wrong" by today's standards, but.... well you know what I mean.

There are many chess myths, and people underestimate the opposition that Paul Morphy faced. In fact, he was only about 150 (plenty stronger to be sure, but not 400) points stronger than Loewenthal, Harrwitz, and, Anderssen, who were quite conversant with principles of development and central control, and pawn play such as outlined by Philidor was emulated by players such as Staunton. Where Morphy truly excelled was in depth of analysis at the board, especially in open games where piece coordination is paramount, as well as in accuracy, where he would likewise excel today, especially with the benefit of opening databases and computer analysis. And Lasker was Lasker, who was world champion from age 25 until the age of 52, between 1894 and 1921. His versatility, defensive resourcefulness and endgame prowess set him apart, but especially his accuracy.

I’ve never lost to a GM, where am I on the list

Vishy should be top 10 based on longevity alone.

According to hikaru: 1. Kasparov 2. Carlsen 3. fischer 4. capablanca 5. karpov 6. anand 7. kramnik 8. botvinnik 9. laskar 10. morphy

This video caught my attention immy at the Paul Morphy part - I think Hikaru nailed the point. All in all, it's a nice assessment of the facts on whom to include / exclude from top10 - and especially why.

That's a great point about Morphy , being so far ahead of his contemporaries , good context to think how well he really played

11:43 is why Kramnik hates Hikaru till this day

Rubbish article. Morphy and Anand not making it to the top 10 list is criminal.

Tal was the reason that I really loved chess, romantic in chess, at top level, who else? Pure inspiration.... :)

Morphy in my opinion is the greatest natural talent ever, followed by Capablanca.

Selecting top ten is almost impossible, because of bias. The selection will always be personal and individual. In my mind Fisher, Anand and Kasparov along with Magnificent Magnus will remain immortal, for a long time.

I like how he read the line about Kasparov training that GM H.N. like it was a standard bit of news copy.

GMHikaru makes the suggestion. My Mind goes: Makes sense. Makes sense. uh huh, yeah. Makes sense. (responds similar to how Hikaru responds when he sees opponent make a reasonable move)

Every single one of them wrote "one of the best chess books ever".

Sora and Shiro: *No one can beat us in chess.* Chess: *You are not in the Top 10 list. Your Opponent is that guy talking. Be careful, he uses Alpha Zero on his Ceiling.*

I agree with the assessment of Morphy, we can only judge players by how good they were compared to their competition. There was a significant amount of separation between Morphy and Fischer from their contemporaries. So I consider them the two greatest.

Scrolling slowly, don’t want to ruin the suspense, etc …. After the full list was at the top. 🤣

Anand should definitely be on the list and 6th at least. Just thinking about how long his career has been, still going on while competition getting fiercely better overall... It would not be exaggeration to put him on top 5.

Don't you think Vishy is better than Kramnik as he stayed world champion for a longer time than him. Also Vishy defeated him in two consecutive World Championships.

My dude the short hair and side fades looks great on you, that and Hobokaru hair

Levy would place 17th century French Master Maxime Le'Dieux above anyone on this list

Capablanca is at the level of the best in history, whoever you choose. But he was waiting ten years to be able to beat the world champion (Lasker) and even a few more for the rematch that never came with Alekhine. No other player has terrified world champions as much as he has (when he didn't have the crown in his possession).

I love these type of discussions! Gets my juices going for some chess. Not having Anand in top 10 is criminal. Great takes by Hikaru.

are u gonna upload the mouse slip arena?

the love and respect he has for anand is so good to see, respect!!

Hoodie guy has so many good and powerful appearances, how is he not on the list?

Morphy is like the wilt chamberlains of chess. Dominated at an unreal level but against like plumbers and shit. Despite his competition, no doubt he was still a freak of nature and would be one of the strongest today

1:30 I bought a book about chess in 1970. At the very first page, the very first example was the opera game.

Notice how the article focused more on vishy's defeats than his achievements.

To relegate Paul Morphy to an honorable mention immediately discredits their argument.

I love Hikaru's discussion of Morphy. I understand that the players in the top 10 are insanely good, but Morphy as an honorable mention is simply wrong I believe.

Tal had health problems but his tournament record was outstanding and he was dominant from 1958 to 1960 similar to Ficher's two year run from 1970 to 1972. A top ten without Tal is nonsense. I'm glad he was included.

I recently, a little over a week ago, got into chess (though I do not know if it's just going to be a phase or something I do as a hobby) and I have been finding videos on chess to be more interesting than I have in the past. My brother played chess, almost professionally, but I was never really interested. I don't know why I find it more interesting now, maybe because my other hobby, video games, is not as interesting to me of late and I need something to simulate my mind.

Wow, Anand and Kramnik have the EXACT same current Elo AND the EXACT same peak Elo. Weird.

Yeah, they did Vishy real dirty here

What’s wild about Morphys “Opera Game” was that he wasn’t even paying attention to the board. He was trying to watch the opera.

If one were to list players based on less general terms my top players would be: End Game: Magnus Pure computational genius: Fischer Overall general best player averaged out through all aspects of the game: Kasparov Best Chess Player who also HAD the best Facial Hair: Hikaru

For me Carlsen is the best of all time, he is the complete chess players, dominates in all aspects

I would rank Magnus above Kasparov, because the level of competition is much greater these days. So many great GMs around.

Good Books to read:- 9:17 - The life and games of Mikhail Tal 15:54 - Karpov's Strategic Wins, 2 Volumes by Tibov Karolyi 17:06 - Capablanca's Best Chess Endings by Irving Chernev 19:04 - My 60 Memorable Games by Bobby Fischer 22:50 - My Great Predecessors, 5 Volumes by Garry Kasparov

Thank you, It was an excellent foray into the history of chess as always! Only great players can understand other great players. Fischer was playing to win (that is, without draws if possible). In the last three years, he had a statistic of +100=36-8 (of which 1-2 losses with Spaksy should not be). What would the statistics have been if they had accepted more draws? What would have been his results if he had not been angry with the "system" of Soviet domination in chess (a fact that kept him away from official games on several occasions)? What would have been the results if there had been from the beginning a system that did not favor the Soviets. What do I want to say? In terms of potential and playing strength, we can consider him a much stronger rival for Carlsen and Kasparov than if we consider only the results of his entire career. And there is something else. As a difference to Kasparov, Karpov, and others, Fischer was self-educated in chess, he was not the product of some brilliant schools. That was amazing (considering the level) for a child and then for a teenager.

if Botvinnik was the father of modern chess, certainly Fischer was the most dominant given the circumstances, but Kasparov brought new life to chess, Anand had some of the most legendary games, and Magnus is just solid all around

I can't tell if chat is clapped and genuinely think that the late Petrosian is the one that engaged in recent cheating against Wesley so, or if they're just trolling with the pipi quote. The Armenian Petrosian was named after the world champion.

Lol at the mispronunciation of Alekhine. Makes me chuckle every time.

I think it is impossible to compare players before computer era therefore it is necessary to assume some logic of applying the criteria and I personally only believe in one logic: the more advanced chess is now with the use of really strange and bizarre engines like the alienish Alpha Zero, hence modern players always should be atop, if everything else is comparable.

Honestly surprised xQc isn't on the list. For me he was clear #1

Naka la pirinaka

So fun fact about Petrosian. He become qualified for the Candidates by 23 and he qualified for the candidates every cycle until he was 50. He also was in the top 10 until age 50. Also another impressive thing about Petrosian, Karpov wasn't able to beat Petrosian until Petrosian was in his 50's and in serious decline.

“All the suspense” between Magnus and Gary :)

Tal was a unbreakable force of nature and kind of underrated as many considered him too risky or brute force to even be considered a elite player with his style of play but over time he impressed the competition and definitely earned his spot in being one of the top 10 players alongside fischer

Kasparov has had the best career, but Carlsen has almost certainly passed him in raw ability.

Excellent information!

I really enjoyed this video!

he shaved his bear I thought this was a older video because of that

Kasparov Magnus Fischer Top 3,Karpov no. 4 , Anand Lasker Alekhine Capablanca Morphy in some order, and then Botvinnik as No. 10 next one in the list would be Kramnik

i would put capablanca third. as many masters had to study his end games to become who they are.

According to the captions, Karpov defended his feeding world champion title also! Truly an immense gustatory champion. Only a shame he never got to out-eat the notorious fuss-pot bob finnick.

I’m curious if morphy vs carlsen, or morphy vs casparov or vs fisher in their primes given the same resources would actually go in favor of morphy or not, its hard to know, but oh boy would i pay a lot of groncs to find out.

There is a lot to consider here. How strong the player was and how strong he was compared to the field. As time progress it is reasonable to think that it is harder to dominate by the same margin (No human would probably be able to dominate by 300 points today, no matter how talented he is). How much time did the player dominate and much time did he remained world class. You have to take into account contribution he made, there is a lot of intangible.

Hikaru always says Jose Raul Capablanca like an announcer introducing a fighter into the ring. lol

Someone should calculate records of Top 10 players against other Top 10 players

I got a question , hows Karpov behind Capablanca, when Karpov has been better in almost everything, and a longer career

Yes, "Hikaru's Hot" takes on the the ten best chess players of all time

Steinitz was the first American world champion. He became a naturalized citizen during his title reign.

3:00 While he were ahead of his peers there simply were much fewer players.

I agree on Kramnik's point. You don't put Kramnik into top 10 and leave Anand out. Personally for me it's a big question if Kramnik belongs in top 10, while Anand definitely does.

Morphy definitely belongs in the top 10. He was lightyears ahead of his competition.

thanks for the informative video, now I know who's books I need to read

Botvinnik is in my personal top 3 because he gave us the glorious 1.e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 Caro advance. Which by itself is responsible for over 1200 points of my elo rating.

Hikaru, your first metric is the best. Domination over peers in their time period. Duration has nothing to do with it. #1 Morphy #2 Fischer

To me the top players have the most innate ability. If it's knowledge-based then all of the top 10 would certainly have to be current players. You can't underestimate what chess engines have contributed to the game.

Alekhine is in my top5 his resuslts were way above the peers for some time

Anand not in Top 10 and Kramnik in Top 7 is just wrong.

Gotta have Tal in the top 10, even if only #10. Were there plenty of dubious games? Sure, but they were AWESOMELY dubious! lol, that's what made Tal so great, his games were exciting. And he was a great attacker, which of course everyone loves as well. Vishwanathan not being in the top 10 was wrong, from what I've read and seen he's a top 10 player of all time without a doubt. Morphy as well, he was god-tier in his time. I do have a hard time with the top 3, tough call to make. Kasparov has the track record and skill, but Fischer imo was the best pure chess player (before going off the rails and over a cliff), dude was a latter day Morphy times 1000. But now we have Carlsen, who appears to have outdone even Fischer for pure chess skill and has the track record to boot.

"Ally yaken?" Alekhine = Alek-hine

These lists are very fun, but I agree with Kasparov that you can't really rank players from different eras against each other.

A friend of mine gave me the complete games of Alekhine that he had made a hobby of compiling into a database. I was shocked at how many of the games were really badly flawed with Alekhine missing things in complicated positions (i.e. blundering).

Vishy definitely deserves to be in the Top 10 imo.

Carlsen, Kasparov, Tal, Vishy, Caruana, Kramnik, Karpov, Morphy, Fisher, Capablanca (no certain order)

Nice, the intro is back!

Absolutely loving the Morphy love here. Say whatever you want about him, Morphy played some beautiful chess.

To have Kraminik on 7 and not have Anand in top 10 is a crime.

Capablanca, fischer, and carlsen all earned their rankings and definitely were the best players of their era, capa definitely feeling underrated in my opinion but bobby is the #1 player for me while Raul should be in the top 5

Tal, Morphy, Fischer is my top 3

even 1998 loss was a sham to karpov . vishy had to win a 128 player knock out tournament or something and travel to the place where karpov had to play a really tired anand

I need a cigarette.

Agreed Hikaru! My brother and I loved playing over the games of Alekhine when we were kids but though he is a chess giant, not a top ten guy. Loved Tal's personality and hilariously sense of humor but he too does not belong in the top ten. Love Lasker!!! I have a cat I named Lasker. Haha! Hey, I couldn't call him Capablanca could I? Haha again! Thank you for the video.

Is this a list of best chess players or most acomplished players? For me, most acomplished will probably be Magnus but for now it is Kasparov. When it comes to the best, most romantic, most enjoyable.. it is just 2 people, Tal and Bobby and in that order. Soccer reference - Real Madrid has won the most international trophies but I preffer the Barcelona game and at this one point that game and that quality is the best I have ever seen. So Tal, his life story and his lifestyle and the way he played (plenty of times intoxicated) is just mind blowing. Fisher is an absolute madman in the most positive way for me and although I see some of that spark in Kasparov i find the one in Bobby more mesmerizing. Just depends if you think of chess quality in terms of a marathon or a wonderfull sprint where it comes down to 1 period of time or 1 year or perhaps even 1 perfect game against another legend. Capablanca comes in mind for me rather than Karpov or Anand or Magnus when it comes to these sort of things. When i want to break down an old game and a friend of mine (he is a pro chess player) sits with me we kinda have most fun with Tal games, then Fisher and then maybe Kasparov's or Capablanca's games. I just dont see how someone (if not shallow) can not see the pure beauty and joy of the Magician?

I would like to see the top 20 players of today and have them all travel back in time to play against Paul Morphy. How would they do against him? Somebody should make a movie about this.