favorite chess players

I know many people talked this already, but it seems that there wasn't any favorite players forum on chess.com lately.

So please tell us your favorite chess player(s) and the reason why.

My favorite chess player is Karpov.

I love his style and especially for his mix of capablanca and petrosian's skills.

Mikhail Tal 

All-time: Garry Kasparov

Active men's: Gata Kamsky

Women's: Nadezhda Kosintseva

Capablanca

Larsen

Blackburne

Short

Morphy

Timman

Geller

Ólafsson

Stein

Keres

Lasker

Fischer because of the absurdity of his life story.

Tal because - based on his writing - he seems like a really interesting, funny, guy.

Alekhine because of his aggressive attacking style, and also his adventerous life.  :)

Alekhine actually sounds like he was the worst dickwad.

Past players: Petrosian and Lasker

Present players: J. Polgar and Aronian

I like Judit Polgar a lot actually.

Well, I didn't know the man personally, so I didn't comment on that aspect.  I *know* his chess was good, and that his life was adventurous!  Sticking with the facts can save a lot of embarrassment.  :)

Well no I never knew him personally, but there are plenty of recordings and what not. Seems he was a poor loser, and a bit of an arse.

If you think Alekhine was a poor looser, how can  you like Fischer? I mean, he said quite a few not so nice things about the Russians, communists, jews and how they stole his World championship crown did he not?

That´s like dissliking Ted Bundy for being a murderer, but being a fan of Stalin.

Fischer wasn't a poor sport. He just had some mental health issues. As far as I can tell when he was healthy and playing he was a fairly gracious chess player.

When he did complain he was complaining about things like arranged Soviet draws and what not.

It is also important to remember that Bobby Fischer was a real chess gentleman during games. He was always very fair and very correct. - Mikhail Tal

While he undoubtedly was a sportsman at the table, he said some low things about the russions as a whole, even before he won the world crown. And let´s not forget that while Petrosian, Keres and Geller did agree to draws between them, Korchnoi did not, and he still got dragged through the dirt. As did quite a few other russian players he badmouthed before 1972.

And while it´s true that Fischer where the only one to visit Tal, which where very chivalrous of him, and something he should be apploaded for doing, there might be many reasons why the Russians didn´t. It´s not like USSR-citizens could roam about the world however they wanted back then.