Most "Important" players in chess history?

I'd say many pre Fischer world champions did a lot. Other than Vishy and Kaspa I actually find that most recent world champions haven't contributed quite as much to the wider chess situation as their predecessors. Most of them had a short tenure and are widely unknown, whereas that one most well known one just gets into all kinds of scandals and plays amazing chess (a joke before someone comes after me). Other than that he doesn't really affect chess. And I mean "affect" in the way Vishy is a chess hero of India (the country that's currently dominating the chess scene), Kaspa contributed to the world's chess education with the "my great predecessors" series, Bobby did that whole cold war thing, and created chess960. He also said some pot stirring things about stuff (chess included).

A lot of the champions before him wrote great books, and came up with revolutionary theory. These things to this day are recommended to anyone who's become semi serious in chess. They are true icons in a way that modern chess players can't really achieve yet (there are exceptions of course, but I'm trying to make a point so I won't get into that).

Of course I acknowledge that where these so called "icons" contributed to the educational side, modern chess "stars" have done a lot for the publicity of chess

Ding Liren has almost gone into hiding since he became World Champion.

The most important players are people like Morphy, Steinitz, Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine, Tal, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, and a few others.

Steinitz, Nimzovich, Capablanca

From my perspective I am the most important player in chess history. if it wasn´t for me I wouldn´t care one iota. I mean, how could I? Second place: Beth Harmon, and Capablanca a distant third.

Morphy perfected the art of playing in open positions.

Steinitz contributed greatly to the understanding of closed games.

Tarrasch formalized positional technique.

Nimzovich, Reti and Breyer got the hypermodern revolution underway.

Alekhine underscored the importance of dynamic elements in chess.

There was a guy, Pedro Damiano.

Taught generations of chess players not to play 2…f6

Chronologically, here are a few that must be contenders for being path finders, theoriticians and organisers:

El Greco

Philador

Morphy

Steinitz

Chigorin (popularising chess in Russia)

Nimzovitch

Botvinnik

Euwe

Fischer

Kasparov

Anand

Carlsen

Kasparov brought back many dead openings. His style is just unique!

William Steinitz

Andrés Phillidor for his study of rook endgames and the Phillidor defense. and Hans Smoch for Pawn Power in Chess.

Tal, because of his swashbuckling style and sense of fun.

You guys forgot Howard Staunton.

Staunton organized the first ever international chess tournament in 1851, setting a precedent for all the great tournaments to follow.

He wrote books and published a highly influential chess column and can be thought of as a pioneer in chess journalism.

He was ahead of his time in exploring flank openings.

And perhaps greatest of all was his endorsement of what we now call the Staunton design of chess pieces, which gave us the standard sets all serious chess players use now.

Nimrzo, bobby, garry. Tal, vishy, magnus, Gotham, Hikaru, alekhine

Paul,

Napoleon Bonaparte and Robert Oppenheimer (both keen amateur chess players) probably had more influence on the course of history than Morphy or Capablanca.

the blog has been released btw so thanks all for your opinions: https://www.chess.com/blog/AstroTheoretical_Physics/most-important-players-in-chess-history

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