The top 10 most famous chess players that never became world champion

(just saw your edited post after I finished responding)

Definitely.

I think that makes him pretty famous.  Name a chess player who hasn't heard of him.

I was going to name guys like Philidor and Greco, but decided against it.

Carl Schlechter,an Austrian,drew his match for the world championship against Lasker 5-5 (in 1910).Lasker retained his title.

Yeah I'd have a tough time placing her on a list of best never to be champ.  

I guess I picked my list based on strength,too.

Well Korchnoi had a lifetime record of something like 13-4 against Tal.Nobody believes Korchnoi was better than Tal.As for Stein,it is true that he is relatively little-known in the west.Compared to Larsen,Stein was considerably stronger.

Chessmetrics has Najdorf as the #2 player for 33 months of a 3 year period.  Not sure how that's just a "sympathetic choice" but not world championship material.

Stein was #3 for 5 months in a one year period.

Korchnoi, Keres, Rubinstein, Gunsberg, Schlechter, Tarrasch, Fine, Zukertort, Pillsbury, Bronstein.

Most famous?  How about the best players never to become WC ?      Korchnoi, Reshevsky, Rubenstein, Keres, Tarrasch, Chigorin, Morphy, Nimzovitch, Larsen, Bronstein, Fine...

good list.But Morphy is widely regarded as the unofficial world champion so his inclusion doesn't count.

She's the strongest woman ever (maybe soon no longer), but it was her sister who became world champion.

Wonder how many people have seen "Searching for Bobby Fischer"?

Are we forgetting Portisch?

True,Larsen was famous but there were at least twenty -less famous than Larsen- soviet grandmasters stronger than him.Stein won the soviet championship three times and beat every strong player of his time.Unfortunately,he died very young.If you insist on fame,no comparison,Larsen was a star,Stein worked in the mines.But strengthwise,Stein was stronger.

Borislav Ivanov!!my number one choice for famous player never to have become world champion!!

I agree with most these posts (nimzoisch, reshevskly, etc).

But what about John Nunn?

"Famous"-wise, I would think John Nunn or Nimzowitsch

Fine,let's go by fame.Borislav Ivanov,Larsen,Timman,Danny Gormally,Nimzovich,Tarrasch,Donner,Chigorin,Polgar,Taimanov.

But what about Nunn :(

That's infamous. Different word.