Best Chess Players Ever (Whose Last Names Start With Each Letter Of The Alphabet)

Anand
Botvinnik
Carlsen
Ding
Euwe
Fischer
Gelfand
Harikrishna
Ivanchuk
Jakovenko
Kasparov
Leko
Mamedyarov
Nakamura
Onischuk
Petrosian
Quinteros
Radjabov
Spassky
Tal
Uhlmann
Vachier-Lagrave
Wang
Xu
Yusupov
Zhou

I value the chess playing ability higher than the achievements of the past giants like Steinitz, Zukertort, Najdorf, Lasker, Larsen, Anderssen, Staunton, Chigorin and Tarrasch. Arguably great players in their era, but most of them couldn't hold a candle against a top 100 player of today. Comparing between someone like Mamedyarov or Morphy is a bit silly, but I think Mamedyarov would come out ahead in a match. Same goes for Carlsen versus Capablanca or Anand versus Alekhine, Kasparov versus Karpov is a tight one and same goes for Gelfand versus Grischuk. Luckily most letters don't have many great ones, so picking is pretty easy.

Fun list!

Hkaru is better suited to be on the list than Harikrishna

But isn't Hikaru his first name and Nakamura his last? Or is there something I am missing here?

Oh, sorry, I completely forgot, thanks for pointing out!

And he is on the list lol

Hikaru is a first name, look under N for Nakamura.

GM Ben Finegold 😄

If you're looking for a better H, Robert Huebner surely has better credentials than Harikrishna or Hjartarson.

I'd add Dubov in that list for sure