Comparing Ratings Then And Now

     As Isaac Newton said: If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. 
     Bobby Fischer said: 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. 
     Magnus Carlsen likely believes he could defeat Fischer or Tal and he probably could. 
     I have always maintained that today’s top players are better than their predecessors, but what about the rest of us...the Class players? Are they stronger now than 50 years ago? I don’t think so. 
     Compared to average players of yesteryear, we play like we always did and make the same mistakes we always made. As for opening theory, it doesn’t mean much because if one player deviates from the book at move 5 or 6 it becomes a free-for-all and both players will play to their rating whatever that is.  Besides, average players usually a) can't remember a lot of opening moves and b) don't know how to take advantage of it when their opponent deviates from theory.  Let's face it, average players have always played shoddy chess...that's the way we played 50 years ago, the way we play today and the way we will play in the future. 

     I ran across a paper titled Intrinsic Chess Ratings by Regan and Haworth in which they analyzed the games of players of various rating ranges from various time periods with an engine.  You can read what they discovered in their 12-page pdf report HERE.