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Strongest Player Never to Become World Champion
February 17, 2016
Yesterday I got an announcement of a new book called “Rubinstein move by move” by Zenon Franco.
The first sentence in the blurb is this:
Polish grandmaster Akiba Rubinstein (1882–1961) was perhaps the strongest player who never managed to become world champion.
The same has been said about David Bronstein and Paul Keres – the strongest players to never become World Champion.
But what other candidates are there for this unofficial title?
Edward Cimia gives his list of the top ten at:
http://chess.about.com/od/famousches...ampionship.htm
The intro:
Who were the best players who, due to circumstance or an opponent they simply couldn’t overcome, never made it to the ultimate summit in chess?
The following is one possible list, though it is hardly definitive. For this list, I restricted the eligible players to those who had played during the era of the Classical World Championship (from 1886 to the present day), and did not include players who are still in the prime of their careers, or at least young enough that they could reasonably be expected to add to their legacy. Thus players like Vassily Ivanchuk and Veselin Topalov (FIDE World Championships did not count as championships for the purposes of this list) were not eligible for the list, nor were players who played before a formal World Championship system was put into place, such as Paul Morphy or Andre-Francois Philidor.
1. Viktor Korchnoi
2. Paul Keres
3. David Bronstein
4. Siegbert Tarrasch
5. Samuel Reshevsky
6. Mikhail Chigorin
7. Harry Nelson Pillsbury
8. Geza Maroczy
9. Akiba Rubinstein
10. Miguel Najdorf
chess.com had a similar list but without any historical restrictions, prompting one reader to say
This poll confuses several categories: 1. People who never got called WC because the title had not been invented, but who were clearly the strongest of their era (Philidor, Morphy); 2. People who had a shot at the title but drew a match against the WC (Bronstein, Schlechter and in the future, Leko); 3. People who also had a shot but lost (Tarrasch, Chigorin, Korchnoi ); 4. People who never had a shot but who left a strong creative legacy (Pillsbury, Rubinstein, Keres, and in the future, Shirov and Ivanchuk).
Two additional comments: a) Keres dominated Korchnoi in head to head, and Korchnoi was too much in awe of Keres to receive the aid he offered against Karpov: b) Chigorin, Bronstein and Ivanchuk (in the future) left great creative legacies........and Rubinstein's influence on our understanding of chess is second to none!
Another reader:
As a few others have noted, no one should be on this list who was the best player of an era predating the championship--effectively, they were the champion! This includes at least Morphy and Philidor. I think the vote would be more interesting if they were considered "included" as champions and not on the list.
Other than that, it's pretty easy to make a case for Keres, Bronstein, Korchnoi, and Rubinstein as actually the best at some point or other in their life, but things just didn't line up for them.
https://www.chess.com/survey/whos-th...d-championship
_______
I am not convinced that Maroczy and Najdorf should be on the original list but cannot think whom I would replace them with. Any suggestions?
February 17, 2016
Yesterday I got an announcement of a new book called “Rubinstein move by move” by Zenon Franco.
The first sentence in the blurb is this:
Polish grandmaster Akiba Rubinstein (1882–1961) was perhaps the strongest player who never managed to become world champion.
The same has been said about David Bronstein and Paul Keres – the strongest players to never become World Champion.
But what other candidates are there for this unofficial title?
Edward Cimia gives his list of the top ten at:
http://chess.about.com/od/famousches...ampionship.htm
The intro:
Who were the best players who, due to circumstance or an opponent they simply couldn’t overcome, never made it to the ultimate summit in chess?
The following is one possible list, though it is hardly definitive. For this list, I restricted the eligible players to those who had played during the era of the Classical World Championship (from 1886 to the present day), and did not include players who are still in the prime of their careers, or at least young enough that they could reasonably be expected to add to their legacy. Thus players like Vassily Ivanchuk and Veselin Topalov (FIDE World Championships did not count as championships for the purposes of this list) were not eligible for the list, nor were players who played before a formal World Championship system was put into place, such as Paul Morphy or Andre-Francois Philidor.
1. Viktor Korchnoi
2. Paul Keres
3. David Bronstein
4. Siegbert Tarrasch
5. Samuel Reshevsky
6. Mikhail Chigorin
7. Harry Nelson Pillsbury
8. Geza Maroczy
9. Akiba Rubinstein
10. Miguel Najdorf
chess.com had a similar list but without any historical restrictions, prompting one reader to say
This poll confuses several categories: 1. People who never got called WC because the title had not been invented, but who were clearly the strongest of their era (Philidor, Morphy); 2. People who had a shot at the title but drew a match against the WC (Bronstein, Schlechter and in the future, Leko); 3. People who also had a shot but lost (Tarrasch, Chigorin, Korchnoi ); 4. People who never had a shot but who left a strong creative legacy (Pillsbury, Rubinstein, Keres, and in the future, Shirov and Ivanchuk).
Two additional comments: a) Keres dominated Korchnoi in head to head, and Korchnoi was too much in awe of Keres to receive the aid he offered against Karpov: b) Chigorin, Bronstein and Ivanchuk (in the future) left great creative legacies........and Rubinstein's influence on our understanding of chess is second to none!
Another reader:
As a few others have noted, no one should be on this list who was the best player of an era predating the championship--effectively, they were the champion! This includes at least Morphy and Philidor. I think the vote would be more interesting if they were considered "included" as champions and not on the list.
Other than that, it's pretty easy to make a case for Keres, Bronstein, Korchnoi, and Rubinstein as actually the best at some point or other in their life, but things just didn't line up for them.
https://www.chess.com/survey/whos-th...d-championship
_______
I am not convinced that Maroczy and Najdorf should be on the original list but cannot think whom I would replace them with. Any suggestions?
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