Top 10 Players of All Time

1. Fischer

2. Kasparov

 I wont argue with Morphy but Bobby Fischer was a coward, he was afraid of losing to the chess machine known as Karpov and that is why he retired not because he "had no competition".

This is correct.  Morphy rules and Fischer was too scared to defend his title, much like Alekhine ducking Capablanca til Capa's death. 

That being said, I like chess960 and Fischer's idea of not counting draws.

NAME                         WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Gary Kasparov              1985-2000

Anatoly Karpov              1975-1999

Bobby Fischer               1972-1975

Mikhail Botvinnik           1948-1957 , 1958-1960, 1961-1963

Alexander Alekhine         1927-1935

Jose Raul Capablanca      1921-1927

Emauel Lasker                 1894-1921

Adolf Anderson                1851-1858, 1862-1866

Wilhelm Steinitz             1886-1894, 1866-1878

Paul Morphy                    1858-1862

to me it looked like Fischer didnt have any intention of ever defending his title, no matter who he played. there was no fear on his part. Karpov was great at the time, but he was far from unstoppable. the best of 24 match vs. Korchnoi for the right to play Fischer was won by a single game.

Euwe gets no respect, even though he had a near-even record with Alekhine before the rematch.  Also, he didn't duck Alekhine the way Alekhine ducked Capablanca (rematch) and Fischer ducked Karpov and Kramnik ducked Kasparov (rematch). 

Smyslov, too.  He was what-- 63 years old??-- and was in the Candidates, losing by the spin of a wheel, right?

Who dethroned Steinitz in 1878?