Shame Ivanchuk did not win it.

The "Fischer boom" was a remarkable phenomenon, and it didn't just manifest in the US, but in other countries as well, like Western Europe. Higher prize money and better playing conditions for players were also a result of Fischer's efforts, thanks to his demands and insistence of better treatment of chess professionals.

I agree they aren’t a part of the succession of undisputed world champions (and neither is Topalov, for that matter, but he is frequently left off this list).

But all they did to be so derogatorily labeled is WIN the event they were in! They bear the brunt of the chess world’s ire when really it is Kasparov and FIDE who should be blamed.

Compared to Botvinnik? What a load of crap!>

I find it difficult to look past Korchnoi and Keres.>

While I'm a big Keres fan, I would go with Korchnoi because he spilled over into today's generation.

(should Caruana win the current match
it would be another World Champion he's beaten)

Things rarely discussed:

1) Who was active at the time.

It's relatively easy to understand
Keres/Korchnoi when you look at
the legends of chess, who were active, and in their prime.

2) The process.

Look at Magnus, he "tied" a Candidates
tournament, and was sitting across the
board from Anand.

That's a lot different vs Interzonals,
individual matches, then sitting across from the World Champion.

Frederick Rhine
Park Ridge, Illinois
Prolific and Optimistic

Ever wonder who writes those erudite chess articles on Wikipedia? You've probably read one of Frederick's without knowing it. He's contributed to hundreds. Two that were almost exclusively written by him have earned the highest honor, bestowed on only one in 1,400 articles on the English-language Wikipedia. His pieces "First-move advantage in chess," and "George H. D. Gossip" (about the American-English chess master and writer) were both spotlighted as the site's "Today’s Featured Article."

Frederick learned chess at age 6, gathering a few chess books while in grade school. (He now shelves about 3,000.) After Fischer-Spassky exploded on the world, Rhine was hooked. His team at Lane Tech in Chicago won the State High School Team Championship in both his junior and senior years. Entering college an expert, he reached master shortly after graduation.

Two of his games, with his notes, were published in Chess Informant and cited in ECO. His 18th move in Rhine-Sprenkle, 1981, a Nimzowitsch Sicilian, was voted one of the most important theoretical novelties in Informant 32. GM Pal Benko published two of his studies in Chess Life.

Admitted to Columbia Law School, he had little time for the game. He then practiced law in Chicago’s appeals division and later joined a Chicago law firm, doing complex civil litigation. "In 2015, I received a CPA Certificate. In the 1990s, I took up correspondence chess. US Chess awarded me the title of Senior Master of Correspondence Chess in 1997." Rhine is currently the third-rated US Chess correspondence player. "Now I have a lot more free time on my hands and have been studying chess nonstop."

For every two wins Fred posts, he's obligated to post one of his losses.

Well, if FSR has a sense of humor, that's funny, and if he doesn't, well, it's still funny.

Humiliation wasn't necessarily the idea behind the <Rhine rule>, but, in the interest of fairness, it will do on occasion.

Given the love for miniatures, I suppose we could also carve out another exception - for every win by <FSR> a new <Cudo> minature could also be submited!