Who's your most favorite chess player?

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Avatar of TNT_21

Who is it? (Mine is Carlsen)

Avatar of krudave

This may seem like an unusual one, but I'm a big fan of Tartakower. After playing through his book, "My Best Games of Chess 1905-1954," I realized how good of a player he actually was. If you covered up the player names of any of his early games, you'd actually believe they were played by Morphy (no higher compliment IMO). Later, he became more positional, but still just "did stuff" until he could get around to a kingside attack. Still later, he became more truly positional, playing soundly until he could find a tactic to turn things to his advantage or win in the endgame.

The interesting thing about this many-sided progression is that at any given tournament, he might play a rock-solid QGD, or the Orangutan; he could play a manly, straight-up "develop and kingside attack" that looks like it was played in the 1800's, a wild tactical slugfest ala Tal, or a game that looks like Capablanca played it. I can't think of many players with such a range.

His endgame was strong (Rubinstein referred to him as one of the 3 best endgame players in the world at one point), he often broke away from known openings and played his own game, he aimed for interesting positions, and never shied away from fight. He also had that spark of genius that allowed him now and then to find those weird, completely unexpected moves that turn the game around.

Avatar of JubilationTCornpone

Plus Tartokower was funny.

Avatar of DoctorKraken42

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Avatar of TNT_21

I'm guessing that you like Tal?

Avatar of krudave

Man this forum really is filled with trash. Can anyone recommend a better forum, perhaps one with thoughtful, intelligent comments? Or maybe an "over 50" forum somewhere so only the adults can post?

Avatar of ipcress12

Spassky -- a player with a universal style, world champion, a generous spirit with a sense of humor, who created a life on his own terms and played those amazing King's Gambits.

Avatar of meijinmike

My favorite....Original pick:  Magnus Carlsen. So far, any way.

Magnus, Please don't self destruct like Tyson, Woods, Fidrych, and of course Fischer.  

It takes talent and passion to get to the top and it takes character to stay there. 

Avatar of ablankslate

Tigran Petrosian

Avatar of INIESTA2OOO

Hikaru 

Avatar of RottenPretzel

Emanuel Lasker

Avatar of Snowcat14

 Nimzowitsch

Avatar of Diakonia

Capablanca

Avatar of Diakonia
krudave wrote:

Man this forum really is filled with trash. Can anyone recommend a better forum, perhaps one with thoughtful, intelligent comments? Or maybe an "over 50" forum somewhere so only the adults can post?

Welcome to the internet, where we keep the bar low, and the standards lower.

Avatar of Airedale1

Fischer

Avatar of krudave

Rather than just posting a name, I wonder if people could explain why they like a given player? Doing so could be instructive/intriguing to others, perhaps introducing them to a player they haven't studied before.

Avatar of dima31415

Alexandr Aloyhin

Avatar of paretobox

Capablanca, for two reasons.  First is that his games seem so pure and simple.

Second, of all the pre war players, he seems to be the one most likely to be able to quickly adjust to modern play if he were resurrected today in good health with all his knowledge intact circa 1938. I believe even Lasker and Alekhine would need much more study to become competitive today while a healthy Capa would be a top ten player within a year or so.

Botvinnik and many other stars testified to his quickness of vision.  And Capa managed to stay on top when confronted by the hypermoderns and the rising Soviets despite not spending any time studying openings.  He often beat prepared openings over the board.

It is also forgotten that his lapses towards the end occurred when he was suffering from multiple health conditions that later took his life and made it hard for him to play steadily in tournaments.  In better health I think he would have trounced the younger generation of Botvinnik, Fine, Reshevsky, and Keres.  And of course, Alekhine was too chicken to give him a rematch.

Avatar of krudave

Good stuff on Capablanca, man. 

As for the "if resurrected would adapt" point, IMO any great player should be able to adapt pretty easily.

Avatar of kojakk11

Bobby Fischer, surely.