I was wondering who everyone's favorite player was, both for play and for personality?!

  I would have to say my favorite player is Josh Waitzkin.  He is so cool.  His play is amazing and so is his personality.  Not only does he study chess, but he is an amazing person.  It would take me forever to post all of his achievements inside and outside the world of chess.  Just go to his website to find out more.

 

Who is your favorite player?

 

btw, they can be retired or active, dead or alive.  (since Josh Waitzkin is retired from chess, and other players like Gary Kasparov.)

Josh Waitzkin is definately one of my favorite players, as well. Joel Benjamin is pretty cool, too, if you've read his book American Grandmaster and listened to his commentary on the ICC.

Perhaps the most inspiring player to me is Magnus Carlson, since he's my age and already a "super" GM. 

I already liked Kasparov, then I saw him on Real Time with Bill Maher, and liked him even more. That was absolutely hilarious.

the Polgar sisters, Mir Sultan Khan, M. Botvinnik, Bobby Fischer, Vera Menchik, M. Tal, R. Reti, A. Nimzovitch, Eugene Znosko-Borovsky,

el greco (more than 400 years ago), firdausi ( more than 700 years ago - his games haven't survived and rules were somewhat different but his K+R v K+R studies [see Kasparyan's book on domination in endgame studies - it is out of print i think - mir publishers USSR - in english] covered all nontrivial themes possible), and:

YELENA GAMBO! [not a GM yet, but *will* be soon, you'll see!] ;)

I have to throw my love in for Josh Waitzkin. The affect on my life of his chess career is encompassing - I saw his movie while quite young, and came to respect the game as intellectual, while I went through something similar with violin. When I returned to chess, and watched the masterful work Josh has done with the Chessmaster series, I was seriousy blown away. His explanations are worth the purchase of the program were it only that. Most grandmasters charge wild fees per hour, buy chessmaster once and you get 4x your money's worth.

I like the young gun Magnus Carlsen. He plays with a lot of energy and he consistantly improves. As far as old school, I'm fond of Mikhail Tal and Jose Raul Capablanca. Sound play or not, Tal is just magical. Capa had so much smooth style he just made our game look easy, nasty trick on us patzers when we try at such grace. Honorable mention to Alekhine, whose ego probably arrived before he did and stayed late in the skittles room to show everyone 'the point' ; ), and for having the sickest combinational skills to back up his boasting.

 

Bobby Fishcer. This man just rocks.  ( He stopped rocking a few months ago but anyway...)

Mikhail Tal - the one and only, accept no substitutes

At the moment I follow Carlsen and Aronian but Capablanca and Steinitz are my favorites.

Kasparov- simply because he was the greatest ever!!! but my best/fav ever is Carlsen (read my article i wrote on him) along with capablanca and Anand/kramnik!

Karpov, Fischer. Of now playing - may be Anand...

Fischer and Spassky

I have to throw my love in for Josh Waitzkin. The affect on my life of his chess career is encompassing - I saw his movie while quite young, and came to respect the game as intellectual, while I went through something similar with violin. When I returned to chess, and watched the masterful work Josh has done with the Chessmaster series, I was seriousy blown away. His explanations are worth the purchase of the program were it only that. Most grandmasters charge wild fees per hour, buy chessmaster once and you get 4x your money's worth.

 

-I agree Rael.  I have Chessmaster for Xbox and i watch his tutorials almot every day.  Amazing! i cannot convey how much it has helped my game. and it isn't boring even, his voice and enthusiasm, etc.   

Vladimir Kramnik and Tigran Petrosian would be mine.

My favorite grandmasters (best personality and nicest) that I have actually met and interviewed are Ian Rogers of Australia, Yasser Seirawan, Edward Gufeld, Eugenio Torre, Arnold Denker, Igor Ivanov, Paul Keres, Peter Biyiasis, George Koltanowski, Anatoly Karpov, Larry Christiansen, Isaac Kashdan, Viktor Korchnoi, Mikhail Tal, Robert Byrne, Miguel Najdorf, Michael Rohde, Maurice Ashley, Joel Benjamin, and Sergey Tiviakov.

Others that I have met, but not the best personality include Walter Browne, Bill Lombardy, Johann Hjartarson, Alex Sherzer, Samuel Reshevsky, Garry Kasparov, Andy Soltis, Roman Dzindzihashvili, and Maxim Dlugy.

Best International Master I've met personality-wise is John Donaldson. 

mdzhippie wrote:

I have to throw my love in for Josh Waitzkin. The affect on my life of his chess career is encompassing - I saw his movie while quite young, and came to respect the game as intellectual, while I went through something similar with violin. When I returned to chess, and watched the masterful work Josh has done with the Chessmaster series, I was seriousy blown away. His explanations are worth the purchase of the program were it only that. Most grandmasters charge wild fees per hour, buy chessmaster once and you get 4x your money's worth.

 

-I agree Rael.  I have Chessmaster for Xbox and i watch his tutorials almot every day.  Amazing! i cannot convey how much it has helped my game. and it isn't boring even, his voice and enthusiasm, etc.   

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Other than my father who taught me how to play, I like IM Josh Watzkin, GM Maurice Ashley hand down! I learn the most from watching Josh tutorial on Chessmaster.

Garry Kasparov!