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Who's "The Greatest Chess Player Ever"? Would Alekhine, Morphy, Capablanca et al give today's best a run for their money if they were alive? Who cares?! I'm fed up with these endless and pointless arguments (and if you've spent much time on the chess newsgroups, you probably are too)
So, in summer 2002, the PawnPusher team decided to settle this argument once and for all, using the tried and tested method of pure chance. We assembled a 32-strong list, consisting of the players most hailed as the best ever, plus a pack of the strongest chasers, and a few celebrity guests to spice it up a bit. Then, using World Cup 2002*, we pitted GM against GM, weeding out the weak, until we were finally left with the "One True Champion". Each player on our list was assigned a team in the World Cup. If their team got eliminated, they were out. Simple as that. Ok, it wasn't perfect, but it's better than the way FIDE is getting its world champions these days at least. To add some kind of realism there was a seeding arrangement. The top 8 players ever (according to this list - don't argue! It's just a bit of fun, ok?) were matched up with the 8 seeded teams in WC2002. The next 8 players were matched with the 8 second seeded teams, and so on. Click on the group lists below to see the controversial first stage draw (done by my mate big Dave on a boring day at work.) Group A | Group B | Group C | Group D
* if you don't know what this is then you are probably American, and you can call it 'soccer' (even though it's actually called 'football' - no, it came before that other thing you call football, the one where the players are all called Brad and run around dressed like gay spacemen) |
