Dominant Players
Dominant Players
Dominant players over time [Below this heading there are three panels with charts showing different players career paths - that is their rating a function of the year. Most of the paths are grey, but some are red (there will be a note for these). Some parts of several paths are dashed. Somewhere on each path the players name will be written curving along so it follows the path. Several places an event or some information is noted and points to a given time on the path. If it is not clear where it belongs an arrow will point to the correct place. Each chart has a heading and for the two last charts there is an explanation. There is no scale on the y-axis (rating) but the x-axis (time) has the years given in ten years interval. A thin line indicates these decades. The years are all written at the top, except the first for the first chart, which is written below, and this year is missing in the bottom chart.] [Below the transcript for each chart will follow this order: Heading/sub heading, explanation, time scale, player names with any information for this player, in the order their name appear on the time scale.] [Basketball chart:] Basketball (NBA/ABA) Player Efficiency Rating 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990  2000 2010 [Red] George Mikan [Red] Bob Pettit Neal Johnston [Neil misspelled.] Elgin Baylor [Red]  Wilt Chamberlain Becomes the first and so far only player to score 100 points in a game Jerry West The Guy in the NBA logo [Red] Kareem Abdul Jabbar [Missing hyphen between the two last names.] Airplane Bob Mcadoo Julius Irving [Erving misspelled.] Moses Malone Magic Johnson HIV announcement [A part of the path is dashed after this.] [Red] Michael Jordan Baseball career [A part of the path is dashed after this.] Space Jam Second retirement [A part of the path is dashed after this.] Larry Bird Karl Malone David Robinson [Red] Shaquille O'Neal Kevin Gariett [Red] LeBron James The Decision Dwyane Wade Kevin Durant
[Chess chart.] Chess Elo Rating The modern Elo rating system dates back to about 1970. Computer analysis (like Kenneth Regan's) lets us rate historical players, but this has only been done rigorously for a few tournaments. Dashed lines are rough estimates only. [All paths are dashed up until the late nineteen sixties:] 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990  2000 2010 [The first player has no path, as his time was before 1940. An arrow points toward the left to these earlier times:] José Capablanca Terrifying chess God [Red] Alexander Alekhine [His path ends in a starburst.] [Red] Mikhail Botvinnik Tigran Petrosian David Bronstein Mikhail Tal Mikhail Tal [his name is written twice on the path, the second time above Boris Spassky when their paths intertwine.] [Red] Bobby Fischer Vanished… [Text under a starburst.] Reappeared then vanished again. He had problems. [Text under two starbursts connected with a path. This appears much later than the first starburst.] Boris Spassky Boris Spassky [his name is written twice on the path, the second time below Mikhail Tal when their paths intertwine.] Victor Korchnoi [Red] Anatoly Karpov [Red] Garry Kasparov Loses to Deep Blue Judit Polgar (See below) [The text is written beneath her name.] Vladimir Kramnik Levon Aronian [Red] Magnus Carlsen
[Chess (women) chart:] Chess (women) Elo Rating For a long time, sexism, a lack of role models, and institutional hostility largely kept women from pursuing serious chess careers. With the expansion of women's tournaments and prizes starting in the 1970s, this has begun to change. [All paths are dashed up until the late nineteen sixties.] 1960 1970 1980 1990  2000 2010 [Red] Vera Menchik Died in a missile attack on London [next to a starburst.] Sonja Graf Rating particularly uncertain Olga Rubtsova Elisaveta Bykova Kira Zvorykina Kira Zvorykina (born 1919) continued playing in tournaments into the 21st century [Text above Elisvetas path, no arrows.] Zvorykina [Written on top of the path when her path reappears much later.] Alexandra Nicolau [Red] Nona Gaprindashvili Alla Kushnir [Red] Maia Chiburdanidze Pia Cramling Pia Cramling [her name is written twice on the path, the second time below the path of Xie Jun after  their paths have intertwined.] Xie Jun Xie Jun [her name is written twice on the path, the second time above the path of Pia Cramling after their paths have intertwined.] Susan Polgar Sofia Polgar [Red] Judit Polgar Sisters [The three Polgars are linked by a thin dashed line, snaking between their names.] Wins a game against Kasparov, making her the first woman to beat the world #1 Becomes first woman to rank in the overall top 10 Antoaneta Stefanova Anna Muzychuk Koneru Humpy [In western style the name should be Humpy Koneru, but the comics version is the native form.] Hou Yifan

The comic shows the rise and fall of players' strengths in two games, basketball and chess .  For chess, there is an overall chart, and a women's chart.
For basketball, it uses the player efficiency rating (PER), the most commonly used player statistic . Note that that player efficiency ratings and similar "aggregate scores" are the subject of much discussion in basketball due to known deficiencies .
For chess, it uses the Elo rating . Elo was adopted by the World Chess Federation, FIDE , in 1970, so the rating is extrapolated backwards in time (among other methods, such as using Kenneth Regan's computer analysis - as written in the Chess panel) and are thus shown as dashed lines prior to 1970.
The charts show the players career paths as a function of time with the rating on the y-axis. There is no scale on the y-axis .
Included are mainly players that could be said to have been among the dominating players at some time in their career. If a player has been the best player over a longer time period (a seriously dominating player) then their career path will be drawn in red, the rest are in gray. There can be more than one red path at a time, but only because the dominating player has played before or after they became dominating. It seems like it has to be at least five years, as there are at least two players that have been no. 1 for four years, without being upgraded to a red curve. The only ones that have managed this with three years or less (on the chart) are those that begin the chart, and thus could have been no. 1 a few years before. This can all be seen in the data tables below.
The title text mentions Vera Menchik who is also the first female chess player listed at the left of the bottom panel. In January 1926 she won the first Girls' Open Championship at the Imperial Club in London, but as can be seen in the last panel she was killed near the end of World War II, 38-year-old, while still holding the title of women's world champion. She, her sister, and mother were killed in a V-1 flying bomb attack which destroyed their home in 1944.
The title text mentions her specifically because of the club named after her: The "Vera Menchik Club" . When in 1929, Menchik entered the Carlsbad , Viennese master, usually a tournament only for male chess players, one of the other chess players, Albert Becker , ridiculed her entry by proposing that any player whom Menchik defeated in tournament play should be granted membership into the Vera Menchik Club. In the same tournament, Becker himself became the first member of the "club", much to his ridicule. It should be noted that she did end in last place vs. his fifth place, but that must just have made the defeat even tougher to take for Albert.
Albert was the first, but far from the last male chess player to enter the Vera Menchik Club. No less than 19 other male chess players are listed on Wikipedia belonging to this club, amongst them Max Euwe who went on to become World Chess Champion (1935–37). So it can for sure be said that the club accumulated a "large and illustrious roster".
One and a half year later a comic, named after Magnus Carlsen , was released ( 1628: Magnus ). This comics also compares chess players (Magnus) to other (sporting) events. Magnus was ranked no. 1 on the chess world rank when both comics were released.
Why is chess divided in an overall (with only one woman included) and basketball not? First of all, there is very little focus on women's basketball (as for most women's sport). This may be the same for chess, but at least here the physical strength advantage for men is no direct advantage. Thus a great woman chess player may play just as interesting chess as a man. Whereas women would typically have no chance if playing on a basketball team with men. But why are women then not represented better on the overall chess ranking? This is explained and may be another reason it is included. In the Chess (women) panel it says: "For a long time, sexism, a lack of role models, and institutional hostility largely kept women from pursuing serious chess careers. With the expansion of women's tournaments and prizes starting in the 1970s, this has begun to change". So now at least one woman has shown that her skills is enough to compete with the best men. With the long careers chess players usually have, then maternity leave can destroy a woman's chance at reaching the ultimate top. This could be the case for the number one woman who now has two children.
The x-axis is divided in decades from 1950 until 2010. In the Basketball section the curves begins to appear right after 1950. For both chess panels there are curves further back than 1950 (with even a reference to a player from before 1940). For all three panels the paths continue up till present day (2014).
In all cases there is no scale on the y-axis with the rating, thus it is difficult to find the absolute scale. It is also difficult to compare between the two chess panels. The scale on the two chess panels are, however, the same, as can be seen by comparing the curve of Judit Polgar on each chart. This curve is exactly the same, with the same elevation between the point where her curve enters the Chess panel up to the top point. This also means that any women player whose curve rises above this entry point (around 1989) should also be visible in the Chess chart. See below for inclusion criteria.
In general not all possible players are included in these charts. For instance it is mentioned that Judit Polgar was the first woman ranked in the over all top 10. But only six players are shown on the over all chart around 2005, where she was ranked 8th. So some male players, better than her at that time, have not been included. This is a general trend for all three charts.
From the Woman's panel below it is also clear that some of the other women would be ranked high enough to be visible on the upper chart as mentioned in the Scales section above. But still only Judit is shown there. 9 out of 12 of the women that are on the chart after 1989 would be visible if included in the overall chart. However, none of them could be called dominant when comparing to the best men in the same time period. And thus they are not included. Maybe the same could be said about Judth, but then she is included for scale, and because she is so good that she can compete with, and sometimes beat, the best.
Some NBA players (like Tim Duncan , Charles Barkley , Oscar Robertson , Kobe Bryant , and Chris Paul ) have been left out of the chart in favor of players with lower career and yearly efficiency ratings.
Similarly can be mentioned for instance the no. 1 ranked chess player Veselin Topalov from Bulgaria, who was ranked first both in 20062007 and in 2008-2010 for a total of less than two years. And there are likely several others ( see below ).
An example of the above for Basketball would be the 2008–2009 season which was unique in that it was the only season in which more than one player posted an efficiency ratings of over 30.0 on the Player efficiency rating (see at the bottom of this section on Wikipedia). In that season three players broke this barrier: LeBron James (31.76), Dwyane Wade (30.46), and Chris Paul (30.04). LeBron is shown to top that season, But Dwayne is far below (thus the scale does not fit?) and Chris is not on the list at all (i.e. he was not deemed to be a dominant player).
So is this Randall's subjective list of players that he has deemed to be "Dominant Players" and not a full list of the best ranked players during the time period? Of course it is his choice which players he put into the list, but missing players (when worse has been included earlier) can be explained if the missing players never were among the most dominant player over a length of time. It is not a list of the best players of all time, or of a single season, but a chart of the dominant players over a longer time period.
If a player only has had a very short time where their careers peaked - they should not be included. Also if there most of the time where at least two others that were more dominant than they ever where - they should not be included. To tell if this explains all the excluded players mentioned/referenced above, that would take some investigation. An investigation we can assume Randall has taken upon himself before posting this comic. This of course will still make it his subjective list.
For basketball any given player will at least have been the 2nd best (of those included) at some (longer) period of their career. And to become selected for a red curve, they need to be the best for at least five years - the first players curve is no. 1 less than five year, but he could have been no. 1 also before 1951.
The same is valid for the Chess players (again the first players curve is red, but stops just as it enters the panel). Only exception is Judit Polgar. She is never better than 3rd of those selected. And she was never better than 8th in the world. So her inclusion is a mentioned probably only to compare her with the men.
For the woman chess players there are the same criteria for red, except that Sonja Graf is not red although she is the only chess player on the list for more than a decade. Maybe you need to be better than someone else to become red? There are also included several women who never reaches 2nd place on the chart. Three of these reaches 3rd place and two only 4th. One of these, Anna Muzychuk, is still on the rise, so she might be on the chart, because she could possibly become first or second if she can continue to improve. The other, Sofia Polgar, is included to show that all three Polgar sisters are chess masters.
None of the above can explain why former World Champion Chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand has not been included in the Chess Chart. Anand is one of only thirteen players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list and and still(as of 2020) has the eighth highest FIDE ranking at peak ever. He occupied the number one position in several rating lists between 2007 and 2011. The reason could possible be because Randall may be a huge fan of Magnus Carlsen, and thus biased against Anand - there is some evidence for this in 1287: Puzzle . In the title text of that comic it seems that Randall makes fun of Anand in a match against Magnus. The interpretation of the comic and its comment, however, appear to be a double-edged matter of debate. However, since the release of 1628: Magnus , named after Magnus, there can be no doubt that Randall is a fan of Magnus.
Anand can for instance be found in the Chessmetrics devised by statistician Jeff Sonas . In the graph from 1995-2005 of Sonas famous research from 2005, Anand becomes the best during 2004. It can, however, also be seen that Randall does not agree with Sonas - this is very clear in this graph from 1940-1960 . Here Mikhail Botvinnik clearly plays way better than Alexander Alekhine in 1946, where Alexander dies. This is not shown like this in the comic. Maybe the death of Alexander becomes the more interesting in the comic, if you believed he was the best at the time. Note that all nine (male) names listed in the comics chart between the lines at 1950 and 2000 are included in this graph from 1950-2000 . In this chart it is clear that Bobby Fischer was by far the best in the years before he disappeared. However, he was caught by Anatoly Karpov just before which is not shown in the comic. On the other hand, he seems to have reached a significant higher rating than Kasparov ever did, which is also not the case in the comic.
Chess players Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian , who have faced each other on multiple occasions in the 2010s, are shown as having their career paths entwined. It is a general trend observed every time two players paths cross each other more than once. The one on top the first time, will be below the second time and so forth. It is just more clear with these two than anywhere else. In two cases these crossing path occurs with so long time between the first appearance, that the names is written twice on the path. In the Chess panel it is Mikhail Tal and Boris Spassky and for the Chess (women) panel it is Pia Cramling and Xie Jun . This can make it difficult to get an overview of how few chess players there are compared to basketball players.
Dominant players over time [Below this heading there are three panels with charts showing different players career paths - that is their rating a function of the year. Most of the paths are grey, but some are red (there will be a note for these). Some parts of several paths are dashed. Somewhere on each path the players name will be written curving along so it follows the path. Several places an event or some information is noted and points to a given time on the path. If it is not clear where it belongs an arrow will point to the correct place. Each chart has a heading and for the two last charts there is an explanation. There is no scale on the y-axis (rating) but the x-axis (time) has the years given in ten years interval. A thin line indicates these decades. The years are all written at the top, except the first for the first chart, which is written below, and this year is missing in the bottom chart.] [Below the transcript for each chart will follow this order: Heading/sub heading, explanation, time scale, player names with any information for this player, in the order their name appear on the time scale.] [Basketball chart:] Basketball (NBA/ABA) Player Efficiency Rating 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990  2000 2010 [Red] George Mikan [Red] Bob Pettit Neal Johnston [Neil misspelled.] Elgin Baylor [Red]  Wilt Chamberlain Becomes the first and so far only player to score 100 points in a game Jerry West The Guy in the NBA logo [Red] Kareem Abdul Jabbar [Missing hyphen between the two last names.] Airplane Bob Mcadoo Julius Irving [Erving misspelled.] Moses Malone Magic Johnson HIV announcement [A part of the path is dashed after this.] [Red] Michael Jordan Baseball career [A part of the path is dashed after this.] Space Jam Second retirement [A part of the path is dashed after this.] Larry Bird Karl Malone David Robinson [Red] Shaquille O'Neal Kevin Gariett [Red] LeBron James The Decision Dwyane Wade Kevin Durant
[Chess chart.] Chess Elo Rating The modern Elo rating system dates back to about 1970. Computer analysis (like Kenneth Regan's) lets us rate historical players, but this has only been done rigorously for a few tournaments. Dashed lines are rough estimates only. [All paths are dashed up until the late nineteen sixties:] 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990  2000 2010 [The first player has no path, as his time was before 1940. An arrow points toward the left to these earlier times:] José Capablanca Terrifying chess God [Red] Alexander Alekhine [His path ends in a starburst.] [Red] Mikhail Botvinnik Tigran Petrosian David Bronstein Mikhail Tal Mikhail Tal [his name is written twice on the path, the second time above Boris Spassky when their paths intertwine.] [Red] Bobby Fischer Vanished… [Text under a starburst.] Reappeared then vanished again. He had problems. [Text under two starbursts connected with a path. This appears much later than the first starburst.] Boris Spassky Boris Spassky [his name is written twice on the path, the second time below Mikhail Tal when their paths intertwine.] Victor Korchnoi [Red] Anatoly Karpov [Red] Garry Kasparov Loses to Deep Blue Judit Polgar (See below) [The text is written beneath her name.] Vladimir Kramnik Levon Aronian [Red] Magnus Carlsen
[Chess (women) chart:] Chess (women) Elo Rating For a long time, sexism, a lack of role models, and institutional hostility largely kept women from pursuing serious chess careers. With the expansion of women's tournaments and prizes starting in the 1970s, this has begun to change. [All paths are dashed up until the late nineteen sixties.] 1960 1970 1980 1990  2000 2010 [Red] Vera Menchik Died in a missile attack on London [next to a starburst.] Sonja Graf Rating particularly uncertain Olga Rubtsova Elisaveta Bykova Kira Zvorykina Kira Zvorykina (born 1919) continued playing in tournaments into the 21st century [Text above Elisvetas path, no arrows.] Zvorykina [Written on top of the path when her path reappears much later.] Alexandra Nicolau [Red] Nona Gaprindashvili Alla Kushnir [Red] Maia Chiburdanidze Pia Cramling Pia Cramling [her name is written twice on the path, the second time below the path of Xie Jun after  their paths have intertwined.] Xie Jun Xie Jun [her name is written twice on the path, the second time above the path of Pia Cramling after their paths have intertwined.] Susan Polgar Sofia Polgar [Red] Judit Polgar Sisters [The three Polgars are linked by a thin dashed line, snaking between their names.] Wins a game against Kasparov, making her the first woman to beat the world #1 Becomes first woman to rank in the overall top 10 Antoaneta Stefanova Anna Muzychuk Koneru Humpy [In western style the name should be Humpy Koneru, but the comics version is the native form.] Hou Yifan
