It came to my attention that while I was addressing anomalies and abnormalities of countries chess rating [WEEKLY], ChessBase website tackled another very arguable chess topic: who was (is) the best chess player of all time? The two articles by Jeff Sonas are worth reading, and they crest in seven praiseworthy graphical presentations. Here is an excerpt from Sona’s introduction to the first article:

With Garry Kasparov announcing his retirement last month, it seems like an appropriate time to look back on his career and compare it with the careers of other all-time greats, to try to place him in some kind of historical context. The obvious question at this point is: was Garry Kasparov the most dominant chess player of all time? And if not, who was?

Of course, there is no clear answer; it is a question that can be interpreted many different ways, and most of the answers are extremely subjective. First of all, I am not trying to produce any sort of definitive statement about whose actual chess skill was greatest, or strongest, or most artistic. I'm not looking at the moves they made; I am only looking at overall game outcomes (win, lose, or draw), and drawing conclusions from analysis of those outcomes. I have developed several different "metrics" for exploring this issue objectively, and I would like to share some of them with you. It’s an entertaining topic, and even if you think the question is ultimately meaningless, I hope that you will nevertheless enjoy the ride.

Jeff Sonas: The Greatest Chess Player of All Time

Part I : http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2345

Part II : http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2354

I rarely see graphs better than mine,

in particular on the web.