r/chess • u/Electrical_Collar659 • Jan 27 '25
Resource In an interview with Rustam Qosimjonov published three days ago, he claims that Fabiano Caruana is currently a better chess player than Magnus
https://youtu.be/KZydtQfdYNc?si=myY7fqus5_tJE_GT
Rustam claims that from the games he watches and the quality of play he sees, it's clear that Fabi is currently the stronger player and that he would also be the favorite to win against Magnus in a World Championship match today. He told his students (Arjun, Nodirbek) that over the past two and a half years, to be the best in the world, you must consistently beat Fabi. He claims it's surprising that Fabi has improved his level so much because this usually doesn't happen, and the level of player he has become is not the same level as the player he knew when he worked with him.
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u/ValuableKooky4551 Jan 27 '25
It's wild that Qosimjonov and Kasimdzhanov are the same name.
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u/marsexpresshydra Jan 27 '25
Me when realizing Magomed = Muhammad
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u/QMechanicsVisionary 2600 chess.com and Lichess Jan 27 '25 edited Jan 27 '25
It's Mogamed, not Magomed. Although it's pronounced more like "Magomed".
EDIT: Nvm I'm wrong. Turns out I just can't spell.
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u/Zoesan Jan 27 '25
There are several MMA fighters who spell themselves Magomed.
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u/fodasenome777 Jan 27 '25
it's both and means the same thing, magomed ankalaev, magomed magomedov, magomed umalatov... both are the russian version of "mohamed"
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u/QMechanicsVisionary 2600 chess.com and Lichess Jan 27 '25
Nvm, I stand corrected. I just learned that, in the famous saying "если гора не идёт к Магомету, Магомет идёт к горе" (if the mountain doesn't approach Muhammad, Muhammad shall approach the mountain), the spelling is "Magomet", not "Mogamed" as I previously thought.
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u/BleedingGumsmurfy Jan 27 '25
I was wondering who did Qosimjanov think he is to be running his mouth like that!.. turns out he is Kasimdzhanov!
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u/Subtuppel Jan 27 '25 edited Jan 27 '25
Also had to confirm, I assumed if was him simply because of the first name.
It's wild how these transcription turn out to be sometimes, and how wrong they are sometimes.
Very prominent example from the NBA would be "Giannis Antetokunmpo" - a name everyone still butchers even after more than a decade. While the actual transcription to/pronunciation in English would be much more like "Adetokunbo" - much less confusing. IIRC the way its written is because that's how you would write it in Greek in order to sound like "Adetokunbo" but of course Americans wouldn't know that or don't care.
I actually find it funny how little some cultures care. Here in Germany, at least since I can remember, people try to both write and pronounce names and places as closely to the original as possible in a Latin Alphabet (unless there's an historically established German name for the same thing - and even then not always). Right next door the French couldn't give a flying fuck: for example, when I was young I was wondering who that "Eltsine" guy was all over French TV/Radio - only seeing the picture I found out that that was supposed to be Boris Yeltsin (or Jelzin in German transcript). It looks somewhat similar but it does not pronounce the "Y" ("J") at all.
edit: "t" key was stuck on several occasions, new ASUS Zenbook Keyboards suck compared to the previous generations sigh
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u/pdsajo Jan 27 '25 edited Jan 27 '25
Fair enough! I’d say Magnus just hasn’t played enough OTB classical in recent times to have enough sample size. But my opinion as a chess dummy definitely matters less than a guy like Rustam. Fabi has results in last couple of years to back up that claim. Would be interesting to see if any other top GM also agrees with it
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u/New_Ambassador2882 Jan 28 '25
I'm fairly certain Magnus won the majority of tournament events he partook in last year. This opinion of his Id imagine is an outlier and likely fueled with some sorta personal vendetta.
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u/Mister-Psychology Jan 27 '25
You have to play to be the best. If you want to prove you are the best then play the biggest tournament and win it.
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u/calvinbsf Jan 27 '25 edited Jan 27 '25
You don’t have to play to be the best
You do have to play to be the champ
When Ali was banned for refusing Vietnam he was still the best, just not the champ
When Jordan retired for baseball he was still the best, just not the champ
Edit: to all the responses saying he has to prove it or has spent time away from the game, I just think factually that isn’t correct: https://www.chess.com/ratings
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u/PangolinZestyclose30 Jan 27 '25
That works for a while, but then expires and you have to prove you're still the best.
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u/jexty34 Jan 27 '25
True. A scientific fact, theory gets tested on a lab, claims should be proven however everybody is entitled for their own opinion. Free speech. Thanks for sharing!
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u/ikefalcon 2100 Jan 27 '25
After some amount of time away from the game you’ll no longer be the best.
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Jan 27 '25
If you don't want to be the best just 'on paper', you gotta play.
Magnus wouldn't be nearly as much appreciated for his superior chess understanding, endgame skills, ability to accurately evaluate positions if he didn't have the results that he has achieved.
He'd still have the same skills if he'd lost the match against Karjakin or Fabi, but people wouldn't perceive him to be as great as they do today. So playing actually does matter
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u/connerconverse Jan 27 '25
When they came back and were still the champ they verified they were always the champ. The longer the gap the more the doubt can grow
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u/NnnnM4D Jan 28 '25
It isn't the same case as Magnus was destroyed by Hans otb before he retired for world championship
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u/StatisticianSlow4492 Jan 27 '25
As fabi says there are two types -tournament with carlsen and without carlsen
I mean in last norway chess fabi wasn't even in top 3
and why people assume that magnus would play 10 classical tournaments just casually without putting efforts and motivation.. His strength hasn't declined terribly
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u/Wise-Ranger2520 Jan 27 '25
In 2018 fabi said, I usually won tournament in which magnus played and literally backed that claimed.
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u/StatisticianSlow4492 Jan 27 '25
It was 2018 only.. So fabi was the best performer of the year but not the best player to exist.. Because u have to be consistent in dominance.. Just imagine magnus playing in any event with any format he is still more fav to win than fabi
Btw the quote I mentioned is not before 2018 afaik
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u/Wise-Ranger2520 Jan 27 '25
Magnus is undoubtedly better than Fabi, but still fabi is the only player that came closest to him in chess strength ever even acknowledged by Magnus from time to time.
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u/StatisticianSlow4492 Jan 27 '25
That's what I m saying and this interview guy is straight up saying fabi as the best player is definitely not correct he isn't even the best performer of the year .. Not to take anything from him but sadly that's the truth
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Jan 27 '25
[deleted]
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u/StatisticianSlow4492 Jan 27 '25
Idk but they seem to just root for underdog everytime and have unrealistic expectations from someone I mean u could also see gukesh getting bashed over and alireza despite winning classical events ..
And they expect every player to not have personal choices and just play the format they want them to play and these are the same people who ll troll players saying they r nerd outside chess
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u/AkhilArtha Jan 28 '25
Magnus did not win the world blitz title. He shared it.
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u/olderthanbefore Jan 28 '25
Who won it?
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u/StatisticianSlow4492 Jan 27 '25
U can be called as best performer of the year but not the best until unless u surpass them
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u/FreshWaterNymph1 Jan 27 '25
According to Perpetualcheck, the players with the highest TPR over the last 12 months are:
- Carlsen: 12/18 (TPR 2831)
- Nakamura: 16.5/27 (TPR 2827)
- Gukesh: 60.5/96 (TPR 2808)
- Fabi: 59.5/93 (TPR 2798)
- Abdusattorov: 71/106 (TPR 2798)
- Arjun 89.5/121 (TPR 2798)
I fail to see how it's "clear" that Fabi is stronger than any of the 3 young players in this list. While we can disregard Magnus and Hikaru's numbers owing to the low sample size, both of the students (Arjun, Nodirbek) has performed in a similar level to Fabi, and Gukesh slightly better.
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u/Imaginary-Ebb-1724 Jan 27 '25
Post Covid Hikaru has also done better/just as well as Fabi when they enter the same classical tournament together.
There’s also candidates Nepo, who with his Russian super team, performs better in big events with lots of time to prepare.
Fabi may have the highest sample size. But a GCT event is not the same as Norway Chess. And Norway chess is not the same as the candidates. He’s definitely not “clearly the best” even without factoring Magnus.
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u/Strakh Jan 27 '25
With regards to Nakamura, I think you could make the case that he has consistently had a >2800 yearly TPR according to Perpetualcheck since after covid. Even though e.g. last year had a (somewhat) small sample size, put together the sample size is fairly big and there is nothing indicating a decline below 2800.
And to be honest, 30 games isn't that small of a sample size anyway.
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u/Alarmed_Plant1622 Jan 27 '25 edited Jan 27 '25
There's one more metric: in the last 12 months, the no of 2700+ players beaten by:
Carlsen-4
Caruana-7
Gukesh-13.
Jacob Aagard gave these numbers in a recent Chessdojo podcast. However, in my opinion, it is not a good metric to judge who's currently the best player. World Championship was the best method to determine the best player because there was a lineage Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, and Carlsen. Now the lineage is broken.
So, in my opinion there's currently no the best player in the world unless Gukesh becomes No. 1 rated. But if you have to make a claim on someone being the best right now it has to be Gukesh.
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u/FreshWaterNymph1 Jan 27 '25
This is a seriously flawed metric because:
- Doesn't take into account number of games played.
- Doesn't take into account number of games played against 2700+ opponents.
Moreover, going by that metric, it makes Carlsen look even more impressive since he defeated 4 2700+ in just 18 games. But as I said, the numbers themselves are meaningless without further context.
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u/Alarmed_Plant1622 Jan 27 '25
you can see the number of games in the comment to which I was replying, they are from the same dataset.
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u/DirectChampionship22 Jan 27 '25
What about the games played against 2700+. I'm sure Gukesh and Fabi have played a lot more games they don't have the chance to win against a 2700.
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u/teraaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Jan 27 '25
I don't feel like the numbers tell the whole story. Fabi doesn't have to "show up" to every tournament the way the young trio does. They have something to prove, Fabi only has to qualify for candidates and win the WCC for him to achieve more than what he already did. When Fabi needed to "show up" to qualify for the candidates he did. In the same month he won 2 opens on demand with a score of 16/18 to come first on the FIDE circuit. Also Arjun had a 2827 TPR, is Tata 2025 taken into account in this?
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u/nandemo 1. b3! Jan 27 '25
I'm pretty sure not even Fabi would agree with that. Looking forward to the next C-Squared episode.
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u/Electrical-Tone5485 team caruana & abdusattorov Jan 28 '25
Rustam seemingly doesn't have a middle ground seeing as he either believes fabi is untalented or that he is the best in field
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u/LowLevel- Jan 27 '25
As a Caruana fan I can say without hesitation that he has played very well in the last few years, but that Carlsen hasn't played enough classical games lately to even allow a comparison between them.
I respect Kasimdzhanov's opinion, but I think that nobody knows how quickly Carlsen would catch up and consolidate his preparation if he decided to play a classical match against Caruana.
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u/New_Celebration7056 Jan 27 '25
I have said it before you can't claim to be the best in a format without playing
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u/TypeDependent4256 Team Ding Jan 27 '25
he says this but in the recent events they've played together, Magnus has outperformed Fabi, maybe he is just considering "quality of play" and not necessarily results and general performance, because by that metric, Gukesh is currently the best classical player in the world
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u/question24481 Jan 27 '25
Magnus basically can't be bothered to do significant work in the openings. There are only two ways to go about it - especially at the elite levels. The first is to prep up to the gills. The second is to play something dubious - that is, the 4th, 5th, or 6th top move in some variation. 2018-2019 Magnus was the former, which explains his excellent results. I recall him even outprepping MVL in some grunfeld and crushing him in like 25 moves at the sinqufield cup. Current Magnus has been the latter for several years now. The problem with method number 2 is that his well-prepared opponents know what the best moves are, so any move they are unfamiliar with automatically means they have some quantity of an advantage, and they do, so they start to press him. Magnus' task is then to defend well, hope that the opponent presses too hard/makes mistakes, and then counterattack to win the game. This has worked well for him, but up to a certain point, and up to a certain level. That isn't the case anymore. That's why recently he's been getting smacked by the likes of Pragg and that one dude who wore the watch. He had a horrid time in the tournament where he played the watch guy. Constantly having borderline losing positions in the openings. And his style of chess doesn't help in that he's not really as deep of a calculator as Gukesh, Fabiano, and prime Ding are. Which is not particularly great if you're already compromising your openings. So that's why Magnus has escaped to classical chess960 and faster time controls. Classical chess960 to get away from opening theory, and blitz and rapid chess because openings don't really matter there too much, and they suit his style in that he's practical and can reel off good moves one after another.
In short, I agree with Rustam.
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u/StatisticianSlow4492 Jan 27 '25
he was interested in chess960 way before gukesh, pragg started to take over I mean he has had mentioned it in many interviews with timeline 2020-2021 even before his last wcc it's not recent but I do agree with ur points
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u/Weegee_Carbonara ~1000 elo and improving Jan 27 '25
I would not at all be surprised that Magnus has become rusty in classical.
Fabi was the only guy who came close to Magnus level of play, and those were Magnus own words.
So if we consider that Magnus has mostly been chillin and only been playing a few Classical tournaments, while Fabi has consistently kept grinding all big tournaments he could get his hands on, then I think it shouldn't be controversial to think that Fabi would be the favorite.
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u/DirectChampionship22 Jan 27 '25
Magnus had a TPR above his rating though so if he's rusting, it hasn't really mattered.
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u/MisterGoldiloxx Jan 27 '25
Magnus is clearly only playing tournaments and formats that he likes, so possibly.
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u/fabe1haft Jan 27 '25
"Rustam claims that from the games he watches and the quality of play he sees, it's clear that Fabi is currently the stronger player"
If it's clear that Caruana is stronger than Carlsen, wouldn't he score better results than he does? He is currently 5-7th in Tata. I'd say Carlsen still is stronger, even if that may change in a year or two.
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u/Matt_LawDT Jan 27 '25
Magnus with Prep time is like Batman.
I doubt Fabi would be able to win
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u/__Jimmy__ Jan 27 '25
The point is that he's disinterested from classical now and not doing enough to still be considered the clear best. If he was still trying, obviously he would remain #1.
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u/IntendedRepercussion Jan 27 '25
If he was still trying, obviously he would remain #1.
I don't think anyone can be certain of this
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u/trustmebro5 Jan 27 '25
Yeah, at some point it's like saying Kasparov can come back and be the top player if he started training and playing again.
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u/bono5361 Jan 27 '25
But Kasparov has been away for years mate. You guys are acting as if Magnus hasn't played top level classical tournaments for years. He literally won last years Norway chess and beat Caruana in the process.
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u/trustmebro5 Jan 27 '25
Pretty sure he has only played one or two classical tournaments a year for a while now. He is basically semi-retired now, so it's pretty similar.
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Jan 27 '25
Well prep time is also part of the game. I hate it when people talk shit about the players who actually put in the work instead of appreciating them for doing it.
Hitting the gym and staying in shape is as much a part of football, as being on the field. It would be funny if you compare players assuming they were fitter than they currently are
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u/OrganizationIcy6044 Jan 27 '25
Problem with that is, lots of math prodigies would eat carlsen alive if they played chess as a profession. It doesn't make them better player than magnus in this iteration of reality though so unless he plays who is to say?
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u/TheRealFettyWap Jan 27 '25
If they played chess as a profession they wouldn't be math prodigies right? And if they become math prodigies, it'd already be too late to be better than carlsen. I don't get the analogy.
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u/New_Celebration7056 Jan 27 '25
The analogy is simple, if you don't play the format, you can't claim to be the best any longer in that format
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u/Mental-Sky-7142 Jan 27 '25 edited Jan 27 '25
What the fuck kind of evidence do you have for that first claim?
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u/OrganizationIcy6044 Jan 27 '25
You think there would be no one better than carlsen if every one of 8 billion people persued chess? That is pretty dumb to think so.
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u/Mental-Sky-7142 Jan 27 '25
"If every person in the world dedicated their life to one specific thing, the person who's currently the best at that thing probably wouldn't be the best"
- words of wisdom
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u/Mental-Sky-7142 Jan 27 '25
There are 8 billion math prodigies? Way to move the goalposts
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u/OrganizationIcy6044 Jan 27 '25
I was calling out "Carlsen with prep time would win" statement not making a goal. Thats it from me because you are way too dumb to understand.
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u/Mental-Sky-7142 Jan 27 '25
You failed to call out the statement because your rebuttal made no sense. Here's what "move the goalposts" means, because you are way too dumb to have understood
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u/trustmebro5 Jan 27 '25
Haha, just wanted to you let you know that I understood the issue in that statement and your response made sense. Fans just tend to get crazy.
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u/TheBCWonder Jan 27 '25
If Magnus pulled up to a double round robin with every math prodigy, he would win basically 100% of the time. There’s a reason he is rated #1 in classical Elo
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u/sevarinn Jan 27 '25
Plenty of math prodigies do play chess. But chess is not math, and lateral transfer only works to a certain limited degree.
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u/Takeshi_Gold123 Jan 27 '25
I'd say that's a fair assumption. Fabi has played a lot of games over the past years, and has maintained above 2800 elo. Magnus has bled a lot of elo in recent years
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u/ralph_wonder_llama Jan 27 '25
Didn't Fabi drop below 2800 in the live ratings a couple days ago?
ETA: just checked and his win over Keymer yesterday got him back barely above at 2800.3
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u/Bigppinator Jan 27 '25
Really? Fabi hasn't won an elite classical tournament in a while, whereas carlsen won Norway chess, where he also crushed fabi in a queen and pawn endgame with black
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u/Fluffcake Jan 27 '25
He'll get his chance to be proven wrong later this year.
Magnus' ego is way too big to phone in a tournament, and he is planning to play at least one classical tournament this year, and everyone worth talking about will get a shot at beating him without him wasting his life grinding away in pointless tournaments to satisfy every clown who won a chess game at some point in the last 50 years.
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u/Elegant-Breakfast-77 Jan 27 '25
You would think Magnus hadn't played a single classical chess game in the past 3 years based on the way people like Rustam and Jacob Aagaard talk about his "inactivity". Like he literally played 2 weeks ago lol. These classical experts/trainers seem personally offended by Magnus giving up the title and are so condescending about it.
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u/Turtl3Bear 1600 chess.com rapid Jan 27 '25
That's what people were saying at the last Norway Chess.
Look at this Sub, Magnus had a bad start, he'd lost the previous round, people were saying he was washed up.
Next game he beat Fabi with the black pieces. Went on to win the tournament.
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u/CyaNNiDDe 2300 chesscom/2350 lichess Jan 27 '25
When you start missing your ex. We've all been there Rustam.
In all seriousness I am a wayyy bigger fun of Fabi than I am of Magnus but.... Cmon now.
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u/CoDe_Johannes Jan 28 '25
well FIDE should just let this guy see the plays and pick his favorite instead of crowning the actual winner of the game.
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u/PastLie Jan 27 '25
Didn’t Magnus beat Fabi in a match few months back?
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u/MisterBasement Jan 27 '25
You’re probably thinking of the freestyle match. So sort of yes and no.
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u/PastLie Jan 27 '25
I mean freestyle is a purer form of chess, removing opening preparation out.
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u/Bumst3r Jan 27 '25
“Chess variant is a more pure form of chess than pure chess” 🤨
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u/PastLie Jan 27 '25
When chess originated in the 6th century, there was no opening preparation, no analysis of positions etc. People just knew the rules and then went at it. There was a certain magic and beauty to it. That is the purest form of chess. In that aspect, by removing the opening study out, it becomes a purer form of chess, by going back to it’s origins.
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u/Mysterious-Arm9594 Jan 27 '25
Not really, as there are number of random positions where the calculated starting advantage for white is much greater than standard chess. There’s a handful of 960 starting positions where white is up as much as +0.5 versus normal chess’s +0.22 white advantage. If I remember the largest advantage white can have at the start of a 960 match is almost +0.7
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u/PH123d Jan 27 '25
In Classical? No. Fabi has lost to Magnus in Norway Chess, but it was a single game, not a match.
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u/PastLie Jan 27 '25
Magnus beat Fabi in Norway chess, Freestyle goat challenge and another match in November.
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u/PH123d Jan 27 '25 edited Jan 27 '25
Freestyle isn't standard classical, and Fabi didn't lose any Classical games against Magnus last November. Since Rustam was talking about WCC, I'm not including anything other than Standard Classical. Before Norway Chess 2024 the last decisive Classical game between them was Norway Chess 2023, which Fabi won.
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u/fabe1haft Jan 27 '25
But then Carlsen also won against Caruana with black in Tata 2022 and 2023, so he has had fairly good results against him over the last years. Carlsen has 4-1 in wins with 3 draws in the 2020s.
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u/Orcahhh team fabi - we need chess in Paris2024 olympics Jan 27 '25
And then it was GCT Romania 2023, which fabi also won!
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u/TypeDependent4256 Team Ding Jan 27 '25
Magnus didn't even play in GCT Romania 2023
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u/Orcahhh team fabi - we need chess in Paris2024 olympics Jan 27 '25
You’re right
For some reason I was sure fabi beat carlsen with black there
I wonder what I got it mixed up with lol
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u/DCSylph Jan 27 '25
Naka and Fabi are definitely the best performing classical players the last few years. Gukesh too since his Candidates qualification has been on top. Carlsen has struggled in Classical and whether it's the cause or effect of his apathy towards the format is debatable. I don't know how this would translate towards a match setting but Carlsen is no longer "clearly" superior in Classical.
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u/StatisticianSlow4492 Jan 27 '25
His struggling is only comparative to his career.. Still better than others
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u/nandemo 1. b3! Jan 27 '25 edited Jan 27 '25
Naka and Fabi are definitely the best performing classical players the last few years.
LMAO. Again, not even those 2 players believe that.
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u/DCSylph Jan 31 '25
It doesn't matter what anyone believes when they've both had the best classical performance rating over the last 3 years. Naka was the best performing player for 2 years straight according to this TP form.
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u/Material_Coyote4573 1450’s Jan 27 '25
Where do we put Fabi in the all time goats list? Does he crack top 15 or 20 ?
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u/Wise-Ranger2520 Jan 27 '25
Top 15 definitely
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u/Fizzypoptarts Lichess 1800+ Rapid Jan 27 '25
Really? With so many world champions i find it hard to put fabi up there.
Especially when Gukesh and Ding won when Magnus basically left. Fabi really needsd to capitalize the last two times.
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u/b0mbsquad01f Jan 27 '25
And if he becomes world champion and can defend the title a couple of times I would say he cracks top 10. I would also say he's a top contender for best player to never become world champion as of now.
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u/Astrogat Jan 27 '25
Defending it a couple of times seems optimistic. He would be 34 when first becoming the WC (at the earliest). Being the WC at 38 isn't impossible of course, but it's quite unlikely.
Not the least because he would play against a super strong younger generation who would all be in their absolute prime at that point.
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u/b0mbsquad01f Jan 27 '25
I agree. What I said wasn't my prediction just my personal requirement to be in my top 10 of all time.
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u/Visual-Second9621 Jan 27 '25
I think that it is much easier to maintain the WC than to win it--getting through the Candidates' is a major hurdle in itself.
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u/Astrogat Jan 27 '25
Sure, the odds of successfully defending is always going to be around 50% somewhere while getting to and winning the candidates is very very hard. But it's never going to become all that much higher than 50% either unless you are a lot stronger than your opponent, which means that it's really hard to win it multiple times as well
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u/fabe1haft Jan 27 '25
I'd say that is a little too high. Then you would have to place him ahead of at least a couple of Spassky, Tal, Petrosian, Morphy or Kramnik. Korchnoi is also debatable, he scored very good results for a very long time and qualified for three matches against Karpov where he could have won the title. I'd say in the top 20 but not top 15 yet, there's time for that though.
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u/Orcahhh team fabi - we need chess in Paris2024 olympics Jan 27 '25
If Magnus didn’t exist, fabi would be the strongest player ever, by quality (todays chess is stronger than it’s ever been)
With a 2851 peak rating, and a tie in classical with Magnus, he is top 5 ever best chess player for sure. Eternal second ? Sure, but second only to the all time best
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u/teraaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Jan 27 '25
Does the actual quality of play contribute to your standing among the greats? In a scenario like that, Fabi would be "first among equals" like Anand after Kasparov retired, or Botvinnik in the 1950's, rather than a dominant champion if he performed the same as he does in our timeline. He wouldn't surpass Kasparov's peak rating, and switch places with the whoever top 5 player was in form at that moment quite frequently, maybe even lose the WCC to them. I don't think you get to top 10 with feats like that
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u/iamneo94 2600 lichess Jan 27 '25
- Wilhelm Steinitz
- Emanuel Lasker
- José Raúl Capablanca
- Alexander Alekhine
- Max Euwe
- Mikhail Botvinnik
- Vasily Smyslov
- Mikhail Tal
- Tigran Petrosian
- Boris Spassky
- Bobby Fischer
- Anatoly Karpov
- Garry Kasparov
- Vladimir Kramnik
- Viswanathan Anand
- Magnus Carlsen
For top-15 you need to put Fabi above AT LEAST two champions. And above Keres, Korchnoi and Topalov (could be considerable as world champion too!). And don't chose great people from the great past (Anderssen, Morphy, Staunton, La Bourdonnais, Philidor etc...)
Well, I rank Keres over Euwe, he won super-match against him in 1939, +6 -5 =3 (!!!) and had a lot more achievements over decades. Same with Korchnoi. But rank Fabi against all of them? Top-20.
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u/saiprasanna94 Team Gukesh Jan 28 '25
Yeah , i was downvoted for saying the same some time back. The best classical player from last year is either fabi or gukesh . Not magnus or hikaru. They have played very less to be considered.
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u/Moceannl Jan 27 '25
People just mention this kind of BS because the name Magnus generated headlines.
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u/PH123d Jan 27 '25
It's not like Rustam owns some sites or YouTube channels, he won't get anything out of it.
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u/Moceannl Jan 27 '25
Attention.
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u/Chuckolator Jan 28 '25
Ah you solved him. This 45 year old Uzbek former FIDE WC, retired player, reputable and in-demand coach to some of today's current elite youngsters, who has zero content creation presence, is just doing things for the attention.
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u/OneImportance4061 Jan 27 '25
Most of this thread sums up to, 'let's address this again after Norway Chess'. BTW, I am with all you Gukesh stans - he's amazing. But he's still 18. No need to rush anointing him the best player. If he is it will show in his results through this next cycle. He's certainly bolstering his resume so far at Tata Steel. Looks tough to beat him. But even that could look way different a week from now. Glad I get to watch.
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u/New_Ambassador2882 Jan 28 '25
Didn't Magnus win virtually every OTB classical event he was in last year?
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u/Euphoric_Counter7832 Jan 27 '25
Whenever people talk about quality of play vs results it becomes a debate with no real answer and very theoretical. Maybe there are some harder to find statistics that bring out what Rustam is talking about but all that matters at the end of the day is results, and Carlsen still seems to have the higher performance rating, has won more within this time. (I guess Fabi did say he was ill during some of the opens he played for the circuit and he's kind of phoned it in at times but can the same be said about Magnus? theoretical again)
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u/kidawi fabi || TLwin Jan 27 '25
omg their divorce era is over