2. The strongest chess players in chess history?
First, it’s possible to compare chess players from different eras by “using” players with long careers whose active playing spanned across at least three or four decades.
Some historical examples involving World Champions and almost World Champions are Lasker, Alekhine, Keres, Botvinnik, and Korchnoi. Specifically, Lasker as an old man in the 1920s was beating the hypermoderns.
An “old” Alekhine meted out crushing defeats to young Flohr (who played excellent chess even after WW2) and Keres (who I deem to be in his prime during 1936 to 1962) in the 1930s and 40s, and was clearly better than them.
Alekhine had also played strong masters with fine post WW2 results such as Euwe, who had excellent results in several post WW2 tournaments although he was clearly over his peak, five time Candidate Reshevsky, Levenfish (two-time Soviet Champion, tied Botvinnik in a match, and slayed whole packs of Soviet players in the regional USSR championships post WW2), two time Candidate and 11 time Swedish Champion Stahlberg, seven time Czechoslovakian champion Pachman, Lilienthal (one time Soviet Champion), Barcza; and had winning records against all of them. All these played strong chess after WW2.
In particular, Keres played terrific chess until the 1970s, was thrice Soviet Champion, finished second four times in five Candidates tournaments from 1950 to 1962, beating a whole slew of younger players. This included Korchnoi, another smoking gun proof of the mettle of older players. Korchnoi himself until the 2000s gave good beatings to teen and twenties Grandmasters of the turn of the century.
Thus, Keres is another smoking gun, bomb proof evidence of the fallacy of Watson’s speculation that “the best players of old were weaker and more dogmatic than the best players today”, and Larsen’s assertion that he would crush everyone in the 1920s.
The glaring fact is that Keres is a pre-WW2 master who began his career in the late 1920s, and played competitively up to the 1970s, and he did learn (and contributed) to the newer opening variations (the most famous of which is the Keres attack which he invented in 1943).
The ideal way for Watson and Larsen to prove their statements is to beat a top pre-WW2 master such as Keres. They failed miserably.
Tellingly enough, an aging Keres beat both a rising Watson one time with no draws, and a peak Larsen two times with four draws, when they happened play each other. Moreover, Larsen had a losing record against one-time Soviet Champion Andre Lilienthal (Andre Lilienthal beat Bent Larsen 1 to 0.), two-time Candidate Gideon Stahlberg (Gideon Stahlberg beat Bent Larsen 3 to 2.), and World Champion Mikhael Botvinnik. (Mikhael Botvinnik beat Bent Larsen 3 to 2, with 3 draws.)
All these were pre-WW2 masters that started their career in the 1920s like Keres, and were still playing strongly post WW2, and that he met over the board. Larsen’s claim that he would crush any 1920s chess master is patently untrue. (To be continued)/PN
