The Top 10 Most Liked Chess Players Of All Time
Who really is everyone's favorite chess player(s)? Magnus Carlsen? Bobby Fischer? Or perhaps even Hikaru Nakamura? And thus began my journey of asking the chess.com community (a group of 25 people in this case) who these people are! Out of these 25 respondents over 35 unique responses were made! Unfortunately, I could not mark all of them or else that would take too long but for your own enjoyment take a look at the chart below-containing data of those chess players that received more than 2 votes.
This project was one that started way back last year in 2022 and after a failed first attempt of publishing this post…I felt it was time to give it another chance and republish it for BlogChamps Season III. After receiving all those responses, some counting, and of course procrastination, this blog is ready! So without further ado, I present to you, The Top 10 Most Liked Chess Players, ranked by the chess.com community!
#10 - Levy Rozman
IM Levy Rozman is a popular chess international master from New York! Rozman is better known as GothamChess throughout the chess community and has gained more and more popularity since 2020. From his daily streams, crazy donations & educational chess courses, Levy has really changed online chess over the last couple of years. Out of the community votes, Rozman managed to beat Stockfish and Bill Gates in a ratio of 3:1:1! Here's a video of his popular and funny chess impressions!
#9 - Viswanathan Anand
Viswanathan Anand was born in Mayiladuthurai, India on December 11th, 1969. He is well known for being the first-ever Indian Chess Grandmaster from India, deputy president of FIDE, and five-time World Champion. Being the first-ever World Champion in India has led him to be one of the leading factors in the recent chess boom in India (You can read more about this in Fire's Blog, here). I without a doubt agree with the community on this choice, Anand is a very strong player and definitely deserved to be on this list! (Do you guys think he should have been ranked higher??? Let me know what you think in the comments) Below is one of the games that Anand won against Alexei Shirov resulting in his first ever World Chess Champion title.
#8 - Vasyl Ivanchuk
Vasyl Mykhaylovych Ivanchuk born on 1969 in Kopychynsti, Ukraine is probably one of my most favorite chess players of all time and the community agrees easily. In my opinion, easily one of the funniest grandmasters of all time Ivanchuk is well known for also winning the 2016 World Rapid Chess Championship placing even above the famous Magnus Carlsen. Below is a video of one of his funniest moments.
#7 - Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal born on November 9th, 1936 in Riga, Latvia is well known for his unpredictable, weird yet offensive gameplay. The Latvian chess player asserted dominance even against Bobby Fischer whom he crushed in a score of 4-0 in the 1959 Candidates tournament. His plays have inspired many so without a doubt, the community and me can agree that he deserves to be ranked on this list.
#6 - Anatoly Karpov
Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov born May 23rd, 1951 in Zlatuost is a former World Chess Championship and is widely regarded as one of the best players from his era. Not much is there to say, he is an incredible player still to this day who once was even capable of scaring one of the greatest chess players, Bobby Fischer! He definitely without a doubt deserves to be on this list!
#5 - Hikaru Nakamura
Christopher Hikaru Nakamura born on December 9th, 1987 in Hirakata, Japan is an American chess grandmaster, Twitch Streamer & five-time US Chess Champion! Considered a chess prodigy after earning the title of grandmaster at the age of 15 and being considered as the richest chess player ever are only some of the incredible feats that Nakamura has accomplished. Currently, he actively streams on his Twitch channel and YouTube channel amassing well over 1,000,000 subscribers. Below is a video of his funniest moments.
#4 - José Raúl Capablanca
Jose Raul Capablanca was born on November 19th, 1888 in Havana, Cuba. The famous Cuban chess prodigy is "widely renowned for his exceptional endgame play and speed of play" (Wikipedia). Furthermore, he even held the World Chess Champion title from 1921 to 1927 while supposedly of never having, "read chess books or studied chess openings" (Columbia.edu). Without a doubt, he deserves 4th place on this list.
#3 - Bobby Fischer
Robert James Fischer was born on March 9th, 1943 in Chicago, Illinois. The famous American chess grandmaster has been considered as one of the 'GOATs' of chess along with Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov. Well known for becoming the eleventh World Chess Champion, his incredible games, and more, it is without a doubt that the community ranked him as number 3rd on this list. Despite all the chess prodigy suffered severely from mental health and other reasons... (If you want to hear Rodgy's blog about it click here!) Below is Fischer's most famous game!
#2 - Magnus Carlsen
Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen was born in Norway on November 30th, 1990 and the current World Chess Champion. Known for a variety of reasons including being holding five-time World Chess Champion titles, the Niemann controversy and more, Magnus is easily one of the best players of all time. Although he is supposedly stepping down as the World Chess Champion, it will be quite interesting in seeing his plans for the future. Here's a funny clip of the communities favorite grandmaster!
#1 - Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov was born on April 13th, 1963 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The famous World Champion prior to Carlsen's takeover is widely known as one of the 'GOATS' of chess. In addition to being the youngest World Chess Champion ever, he is also well known for his match against the chess computer Deep Blue, which he won against in 1997. Following his retirement from competitive chess in 2005, Kasparov has become more and more involved in politics along with writing multiple chess books. One of my personal favorites is Kasparov on My Great Predecessors! The community quite highly voted in his favor with around 5 votes more than Hikaru Nakamaru and Bobby Fischer. Here is one of my favorite games he has played.
Thank you so much for reading! A lot of this information was found through Google searches, Wikipedia pages, Britannica and more! I hope you enjoyed, see you next time!
