"In chess so much depends on opening theory, so the champions before the last century did not know as much as I do and other players do about opening theory. So if you just brought them back from the dead they wouldn’t do well. They’d get bad openings. You cannot compare the playing strength, you can only talk about natural ability. Memorization is enormously powerful. Some kid of fourteen today, or even younger, could get an opening advantage against Capablanca, and especially against the players of the previous century, like Morphy and Steinitz. Maybe they would still be able to outplay the young kid of today. Or maybe not, because nowadays when you get the opening advantage not only do you get the opening advantage, you know how to play, they have so many examples of what to do from this position. It is really deadly, and that is why I don’t like chess any more."
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Radio Interview, October 16 2006
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer
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Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer (March 9 1943 – January 17 2008) was a US-born chess Grandmaster who later renounced his US citizenship and became an Icelandic citizen in March 2005. He was World Chess Champion from 1972 to 1975.
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