English Chess Forum

According to the link below, Reshevsky played 11 world champions, beating 7 of them. Has this 'feat' ever been bettered by anyone? Who is next after him in terms of world champions played? I would imagine Larsen would be up there somewhere.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessco ... id=1011591

Korchnoi -

12 world champions (Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Carlsen)

Beating 9

Keres is in the same ballpark I think.

Matt Mackenzie wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 19, 2021 2:03 pm

Keres is in the same ballpark I think.

"In his long career, he played 10 world champions. He won at least one game against all from Capablanca to Bobby Fischer (his two games with Karpov were drawn), making him one of only three players to beat nine undisputed world champions (the other two are Victor Korchnoi and Alexander Beliavsky)."

Nick Burrows wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 19, 2021 1:58 pm

Korchnoi -

12 world champions (Euwe, Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Carlsen)

Beating 9

He must have played Kazimdzhanov also, surely?

And Ponomariov and Khalifman, if we can count them.

MJMcCready wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 19, 2021 2:20 pm

And Ponomariov and Khalifman, if we can count them.

We can't. They were given a title, but they were not undisputed world champions.

Fair point, and even Khalifman said so himself at the time I seem to remember.

There's 40 years between Reshevsky's victory over (a somewhat off form) Lasker and his draw against Karpov. Are there other generational gaps as large as that appearing elsewhere? I can't seem to locate when and where Korchnoi and Euwe played.

It seems Korchnoi did not in fact play Euwe. Making the record 9 wins from 11 games vs World Champions. I'm not sure how many Beliavsky has actually played?

ok, so 11 seems to be the record. I'm curious to know what the largest generational gaps are. I'd be surprised if anyone has beaten Reshevsky's 40 years between Lasker and Karpov. Richard James once informed me that Maurice Fox played both Capablanca (1919) and Fischer (1956), that comes pretty close.

Korchnoi played Petrosian, Tal and Fischer in the 1962 Candidates, and played Carlsen in 2004.

And not just played Carlsen but beat him, then went on to beat Caruana too seven years later.

Caruana was born in 1992, Levenfish (who Korchnoi beat as a youth) in 1889 - this may also be some sort of record?

Beating players born 97 years apart, that's pretty impressive.

Averbakh must be up there also.