Samuel Reshevsky
Robert Fischer placed Samuel Reshevsky on his list of the best ten (greatest) players of all time. Fischer’s views are below:
For a period of ten years – between 1946 and 1956 – Reshevsky was probably the best chess player in the world. I feel sure that had he played a match with Botvinnik during that time, he would have won and been world champion.
His chess knowledge is probably less than that of any other leading player; many B players have greater opening knowledge than he. Had he really studied instead of settling for knowledge of a few main columns in “Modern Chess Openings,” he would have a lot easier time of it today.
He is like a machine calculating every variation, and has to find every move over the board by a process of elimination. He can see more variations in a shorter period of time than most players who ever lived. Occasionally, in fact, he comes up with new moves – spontaneous ideas he has fabricated from no knowledge.
Still, he gets into fantastic time pressure, and sometimes he to make twenty moves in a a minute; but he has emerged from such lapses dozens of times to win.
Reshevsky seems to know the openings better today than at any previous time in his career, but his powers of concentration have fallen off a bit. At 52 he is the oldest of the leading American players (he was once the youngest), and by reason of his tenacity and ability to fight overwhelming odds deserves a place on this list.
