AThe Boston Globe Boston, Massachusetts Sunday, May 16, 1971 - Page 172
Chess: Fischer Tops New Rating System by Harold Dondis
Under the Arpad Elo international rating system, here are the top 22 players of the world.
Top Americans include Reshevsky, 2560; Benko and Evans 2550; R. Byrne and W. Lombardy, 2520; W. Browne, 2510.
Elo's calculation of 30 top players (not including Morphy) in other eras shows only Botvinnik, Capablanca and Lasker going over 2700, Botvinnik having reached, at his peak, in 1945, the highest rating, about 2730-35. Fischer, with 2740, is the highest ever rated, but comparisons of this sort are very dangerous.
It is a very legitimate question whether the new rating system will force a change in the system of selecting the World's Champion.
The rating system will make it obvious that too many weak players are seeded into the Interzonals. With match play, instead of round robins, Russia could be treated must more fairly and still not gang up on non-Russian candidates.
