Nominations:
Beloved by their colleagues: Gufeld, Bogolyubov
Good sportsmanship: Aaron "why must I" Nimzowitsch
The Worst Chess Role Models of all Time
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What about the respect for women nominations? I nominate Fischer and Korchnoi.
Healthy lifestyle? I nominate Gideon Stahlberg [said to be the greatest ever combination player - that is combining chess and alcohol]. Add him to the sobriety nominations also.
Once Stahlberg turned up to a tournament plastered. He was legless. Yet he blasted Nadjorf off the board.
Good sportsmanship: I add Cheparinov, the player who loves to shake your hand.
Bent Larsen for being the best personality. GM roman said that in a video.
Estragon wrote:
In Keres' defense, all his favorable writings about Nazis were written while he was a prominent young chessplayer in territory under Nazi control. It is rather easy to be heroic when you don't have to worry about being taken away in the dark of night because you didn't comply with Nazi directives.
Could be. So howcum they only forced him to play and not ex-WCH Max Euwe, who was stuck in occupied Holland during WW2 with his family?
Not that this proves anything but I never read that Keres wrote any pro-Nazi essays (like Alekhine did) but that after the war ended the Soviets were going to give him a blindfold, cigarette and 5-gun salute just for "collaborating" ie playing in Nazi-sponsored tnmts; and that Botvinnik talked them out of this in return for Keres promising never to try winning the WCH as long as Botvinnik was trying to (or holding the title)
Everyone else: Stahlberg si, Nimzovitch nyet. I'm not inc. Nimzovitch or Cheparinov just based on one incident in an entire career. (Send some more evidence to support their inclusion) I'm not adding Larsen because bobbyDK is obviously out of the loop here, but I'm not always on top of things either so don't take this observation personally!
I'll add Bogo and/or Gufeld if anyone can send me some supporting evidence for their inclusions in the "Hall of Shame" and Korchnoi after I see some evidence of his misogyny (I already know about "Booby" Fischer's retarded attitude)
Feel free to nominate more entries in each category here and/or suggest new categories.
If some of these names don't ring a bell you can look them up in www.chesshistory.com or wikipedia
Beloved by their colleagues: Howard Staunton, GMs Alekhine (after WW2), Raymond Keene and Topalov
Good Sportsmanship: GM Matulovic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Matulovi%C4%87
Healthy Life Styles: GMs Harry Nelson Pillsbury, Stahlberg, Tal
Honesty is their Middle-Name: "Dr" Alekhine, BOORislav Ivanov, IM Norman Whitaker, Susan Polgar, Raymond Keene and J.H. Zukertort - the Baron Munchausen of chess players
Open Minded Views on Nazis: Alekhine, Bogoljubov, Fischer, Keres.
Open Minded Views on Plagarism: Eric Schiller, Nathan Divinsky, GMs Emms, Grivas and Keene http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/copying.html
Paragons of Sanity: GM Tony Miles, Paul Morphy, Bobby Fischer, Akiba Rubinstein, Wilhelm Steinitz
Paragons of Sobriety: Alekhine, J.H. Blackburne, James Mason (the British chess master not the British actor) Gideon Stahlberg. Honorary Mention: GM V. Tkachiev
The Souls of Tact: GMs Fischer, Korchnoi, Steinitz
Special Achievement Award for Promoting Chess by Suing the USCF: Susan Polgar
http://www.chess.com/article/view/lawsuits-chess-and-susan-polgar