James Eade

The Queen’s Gambit is more than the name of the latest Netflix mega-hit. It’s one of the oldest and best openings in the game of chess and the one Beth, the main character in The Queen's Gambit, uses (spoiler alert!) to defeat Russian grandmaster Vasily Borgov to become the world’s top chess player. Going for the Queen's Gambit.

Paul Morphy's career was meteoric. He burned brightly for a short period of time, in the mid-19th century, and then never played again. Moving him up or down this list depending upon how much or how little you value longevity is quite sensible.Morphy defeated all the best players of his day with the exception of Howard Staunton — who managed to avoid playing Morphy.

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, Garry Kasparov won the world championship in 1985 in one of five titanic struggles with Anatoly Karpov. He was finally defeated by Vladimir Kramnik in a 2000 match. Kasparov's tournament results during his peak, from the mid-1980s into the 21st century, were equally impressive.What moves him to the head of this list is the fact that he was so much more active than the majority of his predecessors.

The number of kids playing chess seems to increase every year. Chess camps and chess-in-the-schools programs have sprung up all across the country. This is in large part because adults know that the kids are learning, while the kids think they are playing. Lots of kids learn chess in school Chess programs have spread all across the country.

Although Garry Kasparov eventually eclipsed Anatoly Karpov, no one would dream of leaving Karpov off this list. Karpov won the championship by default when Bobby Fischer refused to defend his title.Many people considered this a black mark on Karpov's record because Karpov never actually won the title by playing a championship match, but that's silly.

José Raúl Capablanca was world champion from 1921 to 1927. Many people considered him the strongest player in the world prior to 1921, but he was unable to arrange a match with the then-champion, Emanuel Lasker.When public sentiment became overwhelming in demand of a match, Lasker simply tried to resign his title to Capablanca.

In 1971, Robert James Fischer (nicknamed Bobby) shocked the chess world by winning 19 consecutive games against an extremely high level of competition. This feat has been compared to throwing back-to-back no-hitters in major league baseball.During his peak playing period, from the mid 1960s into the early '70s, players spoke of "Fischer Fever," where they felt ill just having to play against him.

Emanuel Lasker is an interesting case. Some people put him first on the list, and others put him toward the bottom. The major criticism is that he played infrequently. The major argument in his favor is that he was world champion from 1894 until 1921 — longer than any other player in history.Many people believe that Lasker ducked the toughest opposition, but his tournament and match results clearly show that he was the world's best player for a considerable period of time.

Over the past several decades, tremendous progress has been made in the use of computers as chess-teaching tools. Some programs are specifically designed to teach chess to kids, such as Chesster. You can find it at Chess News. (Click the Shop link, then "Search" at the top of the page and enter "Chesster" in the Search bar.