The most misspelled players of all time

As others have pointed out: if your native language doesn't use the Latin alphabet, then the "correct" spelling of your name in that alphabet is usually hard to be definitive about. That goes for the countless players whose native languages were written in Cyrillic. Someone also mentioned Nimzowitsch: I believe his birth language was Yiddish, which uses the Hebrew alphabet, so it's not surprising that his name lacks a single correct English spelling.

Botvinnik must take the prize. I have seen Botwinnik in chess books by noted authors such as Golombeck. So if it's defined as misspellings in published material and by good authors, then Botvinnik/Botwinnik wins.

If I wanted to be a smart alec then the answer is the 19th century chess master called Mason. His true surname was never known according to Chernev, so his name is spelled wrongly every single time!!!!!!

It's an accepted spelling bro, try reading the previous posts.

keep trying, you'll get there. Maybe 3rd time lucky ?

Max Euwe

Ac tually I was taking "misspelled" to mean multiple spellings in which one had become more "correct" by being used more often in chess books. I wasn't really taking "misspelled" as a meaning of different linguistically 'correct' variations within the one language.

Nobody has tried to play that Roman dude's name yet? Amazing.

Dishdashishdishvilli?

Dishdashishishvillilill?

A soccer referree would have a nightmare giving him a yellow card.

Then you are changing the meaning of the prefix 'mis-'

Actually no. Rather, I was looking at the world from a pragmatic perpective.

What about Kramnik/Krammik/Kramik?

I agreed that Carlsen and Fischer is often misspelled.

See post #14.

Some people spell it Talj. How can people mess that one up?

Talj is actually phonetically correct! His name in Russian is Михаил Нехемьевич Таль. 

The soft sign at the end of his name is often transliterated as a j, especially in German and other manuscripts.  

So you are supposed to say Taldge?

I'd say least misspelled has to be Short (I don't count So as he's only 17).  But Nimzowitsch is not a fair winner for hard to spell, as his name is an attempted translation which can be spelled several different legitimate ways.  Nimzovich is also considered correct, his birth name actually translates as Niemzowitsch, and Nimtsovich is another translation - hardly a fair one for hard to spell!  Difference between Nimzowitsch and Nimzovich is like the difference between Aleksandr or Alexander as spellings of the same name.  Korchnoi or Kortschnoj is the same thing.  Hm though.. my choice for most misspelled would be Fischer, as he's the name most frequently dropped by players who haven't read enough to spell GM names correctly.  However, my nomination for most difficult spelling goes to Nepomniachtchi (Dzindzichashvili isn't so bad if you know how it's pronounced, and it's also used so often as an example of a long name that it's become mainstream)

Dzindzichashvili

Can anybody even tell me how to pronounce that? LOL

Looks like his parents dropped a Scrabble box on the floor, wherever the tiles landed, that's what went on the birth certificate.

jin-jee-khash-VEE-lee (emphasis on the VEE)

Also, there's only one z in a scrabble box 

Jan Nepomnhhhchiii