The 64

Hi everyone. New poster. Recently got back into chess, and I've really caught the chess bug! Problem I have is that I spend more time reading the history of the game and it's players, rather than studying how to improve my game! With that in mind, I've been thinking about the concept of 'The 64'. 64 squares on a chess board- who are the 64 most significant chess players in history? One player for each square on the chess board. I'm sure something like this must have been considered before, but it's giving me a lot of fun trying to come up with a list of the 64 most significant players. It's actually really hard to come up with only 64! 'Significant' can mean anything you want it to mean. Obviously the strongest in history, including the world champions, must be on there. But I've also tried to include players who have contributed the most to chess in one way or another. I would love your thoughts, suggestions and ideas! Thanks! Ian

Here's my list so far-

Philidor

LaBourdonnais

Stuanton

von der Lasa

Anderssen

Steinitz

Morphy

Zukertort

Chigorin

Tarrasch

Lasker

Maroczy

Pillsbury

Schlechter

Marshall

Rubinstein

Speilmann

Nimzowitsch

Tartakower

Reti

Bogoljubov

Capablanca

Alekhine

Breyer

Euwe

Sultan Khan

Menchik

Flohr

Najdorf

Botvinnik

Reshevsky

Fine

Keres

Smyslov

Gligoric

Bronstein

Geller

Benko

Petrosian

Korchnoi

Tal

Stein

Larsen

Spassky

Fischer

Karpov

Timman

Andersson

Seirawan

Kasparov

Short

Anand

Ivanchuk

Shirov

Kramnik

Topalov

J.Polgar

Leko

Svidler

Aronian

Grischuk

Karjakin

Carlsen

Caruana

Most lists I've seen only list the top 20 or so.  The further down the list, the more subjective it becomes.  Here are some lists from Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_top_chess_players_throughout_history

Great lists, thank you Yenny! In my mind, 'The 64' isn't necessarily about the strongest players in history, but the most significant, which I agree, is very subjective. But, there are something like 40 odd players that would appear on any list. So filling in the last 24 is the challenge! Who would you put on the list that I've missed?

Ian

If you're talking significance, where's Greco? or even Paulsen?

v.d. Lasa

the 64, 32squares for chess writers, 32squares for chess players...

Maybe you could also make one for chess.com members...

I have only heard of him due to the variation in the Scotch gambit, otherwise I probably wouldn't have heard of him either 

Not sure who would lose a spot on your list, but I would consider Isaac Boleslavsky for inclusion. He was one of the players who turned the KID into a formidable weapon. He also developed a lot of the theory of backward d pawns in the Sicilian. And he very nearly qualified for the 1951 WC match against Botvinnik, tying with Bronstein for first place in the Candidates Tournament, drawing a 12 game playoff match with Bronstein, and finally losing a 2 game tie breaker.

Add Vishy

Already there.

Oh yes didn't noticed 

And hikaru is not there

Ruy Lopez

Hi all .That's for the input and sorry about the absence. Boleslavsky is a deffinate contender. Paulsen and Nakamura were on the 64 for a while, but lost their spots to Speilmann and Ulf Andersson. I thought about Greco and Ruy Lopez , there's also a couple of Arabic masters, and other 'ancients', but I thought sticking to the modern eara was the best way to go, and Philidor seemed the only place to start. Yes, the definitive 64 is tricky. If I spent more time studying how to improve my play instead of studying chess history I'd be a much better player!  I've really enjoyed your replies, thank you.

Ian

About 30 years ago, there was the book, Warriors of the Mind.

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-players/strongest-players

Is that the one that GM Keane was involved in? Heard of it but never read it . Thank you, I may give that a shot.

Oh and I've remembered an excellent article I read in British Chess Magazine, vol 138 August 2018, by John Ellis. It's called 'The Great Six' and in it he describes the six strongest players in history based on their dominance over their contemporaries. Interestingly Capablanca for one isn't on it, nor Botvinnik (or Keres!). Ellis's Great Six consists of Lasker, Alekhine, Fischer, Tal, Karpov and Kasoarov. It's a compelling read. Quite fascinating to read his explanations of why these are The Great Six.

Obviously, a few short of a 64 there, but I thought I'd mention it.

Keene and Divinsky.

There was an update (Who Was the Strongest?) with Sonas also involved. I think the update covered more than 64 players.