ok to start with we can easily see that these 3 wizards were in a league of their own, even the strongest other wizards couldn't even compare, Voldemort took on McGonagall, Kinglsley and Slughorn (3 of the strongest wizards in the HPverse) and won even after harry sacrificed himself to Voldy and cast the lily protection on everyone in teh battle, these 3 are fa above anyone else, the myriad of death eaters literally scrambled from teh ministry when Dumbledore arrived and owned all of them 0 efford required
that being said, Dumbledore was definitely the most powerful and greatest wizard of teh age (and probably more than just that one age), he defeated elder wand wielding Grindelwald and was clearly superior to Voldemort even in his old age even though Voldemort had horcruxes and DD had to restrain Bellatrix and protect Harry at the same time and he did it like it was a walk in the park, DD was number one that isn't up for debate
as for number 2 ... well the books do leave you with the sense that Voldy is stronger (but it is never actually stated) but we have to take into account that it does take place in the UK where Grindelwald never terrorized and where Voldy did his best (and by that I mean worst) work so clearly from a UK pow Voldy was the worst dark wizard
Dumledore ''defeated'' both and both feared him, but Voldy did flee rather fast while Grindelwald gave him teh greatest duel in history, the Elder wand does confuse things though
I think Dumbledore pushed the dark art further with the horcruxes and stuff while I believe grindelwald (like DD) knew more about other kinds of magic (and those kinds are stronger, charms, transfiguration and obscure magics like ''love'' are very powerful and make the unforgivable curses kinda easy)
but it comes down to the fact that we simply do not know who was superior, we can speculate ofc, Grindelwald was ''a shade less skillful than Dumbledore'', but so was Voldy, it's impossible to tell
what is my opinion? well, before Grindelwald made an appearance in fantastic beats I would have put them about equal, maybe voldy just (but only just) a bit stronger but now that Grind will be expanded upon I do bealieve he will be made the greater wizard throught eh course of the new stories, so now I would put Grind slightly above Voldy
Voldemort perhaps had more ''extensive'' magical knowledge because he dabbled far further into the dark arts, but Dumbledore definitely knew more about every other kind of magic and only knew (thought he more fitting word is USED) less dark magic because he knew better, and as we can see thare is magic far more complex and powerful than dark magic
as for the wand, yes it was powerful but at the end from what we can get from the story it was not that big a deal, powerful yes but nowhere near ''unbeatable'', if it was really that strong Dumbledore couldn't defeat someone who was only ''a shade less skilfull'', it might be good against mere mortlas but at the level these wizards are at it doesn't even close the gap of only a ''shade less skilfull'' so it's not really a big deal, think of it like this; say McGonagall's power is 100 and Snapes is 95 and teh power of teh wand is 10, its a very big deal here, but now lets introduce dumbledore who has a hypothetical power of 1000 while grindelwald has 950 ... suddently the 10 from teh wand is kinda irrelevant ... the numbers of Dumby and Grindy might look really large but take into account that Dumbledore and Voldy both absolutely fodderized Snape with absolutely no effort, Dumby did it with 1 spell, and Dumby fodderized Aurors, Fudge and the Toad b??ch with 1 spell and 0 effort
Dumbledore defeated Grindewald when the later was master of the Elder Wand. Additionally even Dumbledore himself said that even without the Elder Wand he was “a shade more skillful” than Grindewald. Therefore: Dumbledore > Grindewald.
However Dumbledore couldn’t contain Voldemort when Dumbledore himself was master of the Elder Ward. Additionally Dumbledore admitted to Harry that even his most powerful defensive spells wouldn’t last if Voldemort returned to full power. Therefore: Voldemort > Dumbledore.
AND the book states that Grindewald was the greatest dark wizard until Voldemort. Therefore: Voldemort > Grindewald.
EDIT: Plagiarism involved motivated by repetition
what does Dumbledore containing VOldy mean exactly? nothing much, probably only that he would not be the one to kill him, Dumby always knew the prophecy and knew Harry will be the ne to down Voldemort, but that in no way means Voldy is stronger, and in their duel Dumbledore was casual and clearly superior, but since he knew about the prophecy and knew about the horcruxes he obviusly was never gonna finish voldy, and he was restraining belatrix and protecting harry while he did all of that, not to mention he was very old
yes the book says Voldy was the darkest wizard, but the greatest dark wizard isnt necessarily the strongest, he could just be the most terrifying, most ruthless and most proficient in DARK magic
as for Dumbledores defensive magic not being able to contain voldemort forever, that means absolutely nothing, if you read the books you know that defensive spells one leaves behind are weaker than the wizard who put them there, there is no one wizard that could cast a defensive spell and leave and than that spell would stop the likes of Voldy or Dumby forever, we see that when Dumbledore does in fact reach the Voldemorts horcrux which is a direct proof that dumbledore saying that in NO WAY means that voldemort is superior, neither could keep the other out indefinitely, spells don't work like that, if anything this arument works against Voldemort because Dumbledore reached the horcrux relatively fast while Dumbledores defensive spells protected hogwarts, granted the ministry helped but it can easily be argued DUmbledore did a lot (he lifted the defenses so harry and he could enter on brooms after they returned form the cave in HBP) so if anything Dubledore had the more powerful defensive magic
PS: sorry, phone
