Which Chess Match That Never Took Place Would You Most Like To Have Seen?

Our recent poll poses an interesting question, one of which makes you go back in time and really think about the matchups that never took place.  This is one of the most compelling polls that we’ve come up with and one of the most difficult to limit the choices offered.

Please vote for one of the nine choices or pick “other” and comment here.  This should hopefully stir up some enjoyable conversation.

What Is The Greatest Rivalry In The History Of Chess?

The most recent poll has closed and the chess rivalry between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov was convincingly voted the best.  There were 55 votes in all and the winner received 44% of the votes.  Our choices must have been very thorough, as there were no other rivalries mentioned outside of what we had listed.  The final voting was as follows:

Kasparov-Karpov – 24 votes,     Fischer-Spassky – 12 votes

Steinitz-Zukertort – 6 votes,     Karpov-Korchnoi – 6 votes

Botvinnik-Smyslov – 4 votes,     Bourdonnais-McDonnell – 2 votes

Lasker-Steinitz – 1 vote,     Spassky-Petrosian – 0 votes

Kramnik-Topalov – 0 votes,     Other – 0 votes

There will be a new poll posted over the weekend.  Feel free to contribute further conversation on this topic right here.  As a bonus, we give you the 24th and final game from their 1987 match in Seville, Spain.  Kasparov needed an outright win to force a match tie and retain his world championship title.  We hope you enjoy it.

Who Is The Greatest Player To Never Win The World Chess Championship?

The poll is officially closed and Paul Keres was convincingly voted the best player to never win the world chess championship.  Readers commented on a few others that were not listed in the poll such as Joseph Henry Blackburne, Aron Nimzowitsch, and Geza Maroczy.  Inquiries about American players Frank Marshall and Harry Nelson Pillsbury were also made.

I commented about my reasons for leaving Blackburne, Marshall, and Pillsbury off of the list in the thread for this posting.  Maroczy and Nimzowitsch were never in serious consideration for title shots as far as I can recall, but please correct me if I am mistaken.  The final poll results out of a total of 100 votes were as follows:

Paul Keres – 31 votes,   Victor Korchnoi - 18 votes

Akiba Rubinstein – 10 votes,   Samuel Reshevsky – 9 votes

David Bronstein – 7 votes,   Carl Schlechter – 7 votes

Other – 6 votes,   Siegbert Tarrasch – 4 votes

Mikhail Chigorin – 3 votes,   Bent Larsen – 3 votes

There will be a new poll posted on Friday of this week. Feel free to continue the conversation, as there should be much more debate on this particular subject.

Samuel Reshevsky was the top vote getter in the most recent Rook House chess poll.  The question being: “After Fischer and Morphy, Who Is The Next Best American Chess Player of All Time?“.

The results (out of exactly 100 voters) were as follows:  Reshevsky 37%, Pillsbury 20%, Marshall 18%, Fine 11%, Kamsky 9%, Showalter 2%, Mackenzie 1%, Browne 1%, Other 1%.

I received some e-mails stating that Wilhelm Steinitz should have been on this list.  I have always viewed him as more of an Austrian citizen, despite his later American citizenship.  But, the argument was made that if I had Kamsky (who also defected as an adult) on the list, Steinitz should have been there as well.  In hind sight, I guess I have to agree with that particular point.  However, the poll would not have been as much fun, for Steinitz would have definitely ran away with the votes.

After looking at the results, I would say that they turned out very similar to what I predicted.  The only minor exception would be that I considered Marshall to be number two on this list over Pillsbury, due to the greater longevity of his chess career.

I also started to think about whether or not I had ever seen a game between Reshevsky and Marshall.  After some very limited searching, I only found one game between the two of them that took place in 1934 New York (shown below).  If anyone has any other games played between Reshevsky and Marshall, please e-mail them to me at the address at the bottom of the page.

Thank you for all of the votes. I will be posting a new poll sometime next week.

This is a test of a newer PGN functionality that we are considering as an alternative to Chess Publisher.

Comments, thoughts, suggestions ??

We have updated our website page on the 1882 Vienna Tournament with the addition of some minor facts and stories from that great event.

Click HERE to view the page. 

Due to the unexpected death of Bobby Fischer, we have been erractic with our postings as of late and are ready to get back to a regular schedule as follows:

1. Mondays we will post some type of preview for the upcoming World Championship match between Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand.
2. Wednesdays will be the weekly puzzle / historical game.
3. Fridays will continue the past coverage and games of the 1992 Fischer-Spassky rematch.

The 2008 Corus poll still shows Kramnik as the favorite to win, but I have a feeling that opinion could be quickly changing. 

PLEASE respond to this posting or contact us at admin@rookhouse.com and give us some feedback on the website and any recommendations as to what you would like to see on our blog. 

Thank You,
RookHouse Admin

1. Due to the extensive length of the 1992 Fischer-Spassky rematch (30 games), we are only going to post games that were outright victories from here on out.  Please contact us at admin@rookhouse.com if you desire any information (articles, PGN, etc.) on any of the other games.

2. We are going to begin a weekly preview of the 2008 World Chess Championship match between Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand that is to take place in Bonn, Germany in October.  The articles will be posted every Monday starting on January 7th, 2008.  They will include some history between the two contestants and some prior match statistics, openings, games, etc.

3. Have a safe and happy holiday ………… MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!