Knight facings - a WC study

I just saw* this picture of Fischer sitting at the board before a game.  He apparently was one of those players who likes to face their knight sideways but both facing inwards towards the center...

I wonder if we can build a table based on photographic evidence of each world champ's knight-facing preference?  

[Edit: "I just saw" was in 2014, if you are reading this for the first time]

Wilhelm Steinitz (1886-1894) --> unknown knight facing

Emanuel Lasker (1894-1921) --> unknown knight facing

Jose Raul Capablanca (1921-1927) --> knights facing left

Alexander Alekhine (1927-1935, 1937-1946) --> knights facing forward

Max Euwe (1935-1937) --> knights facing diagonally inward? (photo of Alekhine with Euwe out of frame only, so inconclusive)

Mikhail Botvinnik (1948-1957, 1958-1960, 1961-1963) --> (sideways facing center, or sideways facing outward)

Vasily Smyslov (1957-1958) --> sideways facing center

Mikhail Tal (1960-1961) --> sideways facing away from center? (photos show other facings, too)

Tigran Petrosian (1963-1969) --> knights facing forward

Boris Spassky (1969-1972) --> knights facing forward

Bobby Fischer (1972-1975) --> sideways facing center

Anatoly Karpov (1975-1985) --> knights facing left

Garry Kasparov (1985-2000) --> knights facing left

Vladimir Kramnik (2000-2007) --> knights facing left

Viswanathan Anand (2007-2013) --> knights facing forward

Magnus Carlsen (2013-2023) --> sideways facing center

Ding Liren (2023-current) --> sideways facing center

Other notable players:

Caruana --> knights facing left

Topalov --> knights facing forward

Nakamura --> knights facing right

Judit Polgar --> see below

Kramnik:

Kasparov:

Karpov:

Anand:

Side trivia question:

Who is Fischer playing in this photo?  

He is playing with knights sideways but facing away from center, which seems pretty rare ;)...

Spassky:

Petrosian:

Nice find...

Tal:

Tal has no strong preference that I can see...if anything he seems to like to place his knights sideways facing away from center more often than not.

I would imagine that once the knight has been moved, it's driven by the clock position: people seize the knight between thumb and pointer, the fingers being aligned with the head, no matter where it was before.

Assuming clock on Black's right side in #13, the Nf3 pointing away of the clock would indicate Tal was left-handed... Anyone can test my speculation?

Tal had a deformed right hand which he always kept " hidden " as much as possible 

Smyslov:

Sideways facing center seems most prevalent, though I did see both knights facing left, also.

Tips on finding knight facings in photos...

Now that I've started looking, I found it interesting that there are a few important criteria for picking definitive photos...

- You want a photo of the player starting a game, ideally, or definitely one with both knights on the board (although you can extrapolate both knights facing forward from just one facing forward...if you assume nobody likes to play with one knight always facing forward and one sideways ;)...)

- The photo needs to be a just starting or already started game, though.  There are many, many photos of the champs just sitting posed for a photo in front of a board that they may not have set up themselves.

Hmmm... :)

When I ran into the Polgar photo with the knight facing backwards, I dug some more and I think Judit Polgar might just be one of those players that likes to face her knights randomly, or in a way that she feels could distract her opponent? 

Facing in...

Facing out...

Forwards...

Backwards...

[Comment deleted since photo is no longer available...]

Botvinnik:

Euwe:

(placeholder)