| Taylor Kingston 2005-02-01, 11:55 am |
|
Gunsberg wrote:
quote:
> Had the rating system been used by FIDE during Petrosian's tenure
> as Champion, it is likely that Spassky, Fischer, and maybe Larsen
would
quote:
> have had ratings that were higher than Petrosian's. Botvinnik, Geller
> and Kortchnoi had big results back then. But to defeat Petrosian in a
> match was a different story.
Petrosian at his peak might be higher than you think. He had some
excellent results in Soviet Championships, generally the strongest
tournaments going back then. Elo's "The Rating of Chessplayers Past &
Present" (1978) gives the following "best 5-year average" ratings for
these players:
Botvinnik: 2720
Petrosian: 2680
Spassky: 2680
Geller: 2655
For Fischer, Korchnoi and Larsen, he does not give a 5-year peak, just
their ratings as of 1-1-1978: Fischer 2780, Korchnoi 2665, Larsen 2620.
Elo does not give the dates for each player's peak period, making it
hard to compare, especially since of these he omits Spassky, Geller,
Korchnoi and Larsen from his time-line graph on pages 88-89, which
shows Petrosian #1 as of 1961 but being surpassed by Fischer as early
as 1963. One can be guided somewhat by their years of birth: Botvinnik
1911, Geller 1925, Petrosian 1929, Korchnoi 1931, Larsen 1935, Spassky
1937, Fischer 1943.
|