Markovich wrote on 08/01/06 at 15:36:05:

I hadn't visited this thread for a while, and am now astounded to see that Fischer now has more votes than Kasparov!!

C'mon Markovich, I know you want to change your vote to Fischer now...  

No doubt nationalism is playing some role, but I doubt this accounts for everything.  When we can't even agree here on what "greatest player" should mean, how can you explain why the voting is going the way it is?

Alternative theory:
People who have no strong opinion on the matter are voting for Fischer in droves simply for the amusement of seing Markovich's reaction!

Markovich - GM Spraggett is Canadian and as far as I am aware would not be biased towards an American in his views. Did you ever consider the posibillity, now bear with me, that in fact it might be yourself who is close minded on this topic?

Here is an interesting snippet from an interview with GM Kevin Spragett, a player I think highly of - I would agree with a lot of what he says here....

WCN: Who do you think is the greatest chess player of all time?
Kevin Spraggett: Difficult to say. I made a list once of the ten best players, and it quickly grew into twenty. The player I think who made the biggest contribution to chess but hasn't received the recognition is Rubinstein. He may be the greatest player of all time. If you look at his endgame skill and what he left, in terms of his results, they are on par with anyone...Kasparov, Karpov etc. If you look at his contribution to openings, he has made the single greatest contribution. Almost every opening has a Rubinstein variation or principle line that was initially introduced by Rubinstein...the Spanish, the Nimzo-Indian, the Chigorin, the French...you name it, he's got something. He was also an artist...for the long time he was my favourite player. Lasker, who perhaps is my second favourite player, made it difficult for Rubinstein to get a match with him. In modern times, Fischer was exceptional. Karpov and Kramnik are all great players...very professional. But Fischer was able to produce electricity away from the board and on the board. He used to go in and come out with a refutation to a line that had been worked out by a bunch of Soviets...so he could possibly be the greatest of all time. For sure, he is the most unique chess player in the last 50 years. 

Wouldn't it be nice if Robert Wadlow played chess. That would settle this argument once and for all 

Kasparov — for his clock simul victories over various national teams of grandmasters.
Has anyone else ever even attempted this?

Greetings,

Thank you, Nietzsche - for the information and for reassuring me!

I knew I couldn't be that badly wrong.

Now that you've reminded me of the circumstances, I believe that I got this idea from seeing a TV interview with Garry years ago, where he explained how he'd changed "Kasparian" to "Kasparov" for the afore-mentioned reason.

I didn't recall his mentioning the name "Weinstein".

I take your point though - perhaps I should have left it as the name by which he's generally known.

Smyslov_Fan, if he did "adopt" his mother's name when he was legally entitled to at 12 years of age, doesn't that make him - legally - "Kasparian"!? Or did he not go through the proper legal channels and merely started calling himself "Kasparian/ov"?

What was the legal status of his name, Nietzsche?

Kindest regards,

James

Umm...its not so clear-cut:

There is, of course, Genrikh Moiseyevich Kasparian who was born on the 27th of February 1910 in Tbilisi, Georgia.  The famous chess composer.
And there is Garry Kimovich Kasparov, born as Garry Vajnshtejn (the surname analogous to German "Weinstein" ) in Baku, Azerbaijan April 13, 1963.

However, after Kasparov's father died (Garry was 7 at the time) but as soon as was legally possible (at the age of 12), Garry adopted his mother's surname, Kasparian. Which he, however, modified the name to a Russified version - Kasparov.
So, he was born Vajnshtejn (or Weinstein) then changed to a modified version of Kasparian, which is the famous Kasparov.

So,  although I've never actually seen someone reference him as Garry Kasparian..its not completely unfounded; though its also not completely accurate either since Kasparov himself chose to modify the name and he presumably never went by Kasparian. 
Personally, I'd stick to "Kasparov" since that's the guys legal name and also what his friends call him.   
{Not to mention it could become a bit confusing with two famous Kasparians.  Sort of like Ed. Lasker and Em. Lasker.} 

But technically, I suppose both Smyslov_Fan and Dragan Glas are correct.  Just thought I'd share.

Cheers,
Nietzsche

PS - A rose by any other name would still dominate chess for over 20 years, achieve the highest career rating of all time, and defend his title like a real champion...

Errr, James....

There's a player named Kasparian.  He was mostly famous for his endgame studies.  There was also a player named Weinstein who changed his name to Kasparov.