Who are the nicest chess players at the top?

I met calrson at the recent sinquefeld tourny. he was kind of a jerk.

Aronian was really nice. He actully came to the chess club and was playing blitz with club players. Gata Kamsky was also a really nice guy.  

May I request chess.com staff to take official survey for this? This would reveal people's view about top players concretly. Also I think that survey should include only active players. Thank you

Wow "...snake..."!   Is that the sentiment that fuels so much man-love for Fischer around here?

No, I'm not Jewish, one doesn't need to be to perceive the faults of that poor demented person.   

There are a great many people whose public personna is "loved" by many but who in their private lives were mean or otherwise dysfunctional personalities.   A couple who come to mind were Lance Armstrong, Peter Sellars, Bing Crosby, and Kirk Douglas.

Fischer once let it be known how shaken he was after his match with Spasski because despite winning the match he never felt Spasski's ego collapse as he was used to experiencing against all other players.    My suspicion is that in his heart Fischer knew that it was his histrionics that tipped the match to his favor.   He clutched the WC title with the same maniacal desperation as Smeagle clutching the ring.

None of this is to say he wasn't an incredible chess genius who as a player doesn't deserve to be included among the all time greats.

How can anyone know for sure without having really met or spoke with them about their approach to life and their consideration of others... 

Like many, in public spaces/gatherings most people are well mannered, civilised, respectful, law-abiding etc, I know for sure some titled players that use chess.com fit the label "troll", then again the online world is different to the real world. 

I would like to think most if not all GM's are in general polite and respectful to some degree. 

Question to ask is, does success (or being masteful at something) make someone more prone to being arrogant and "unsociable". 

Nobody mentioned Capablanca, but I hear he was a true gentleman. Perhaps I am off?

Its hard to say at this distance, by all accounts he was a big hit with the ladies, but that doesn't mean he was a gentleman! Euwe was apparently a very proper and courteous man who to his eternal credit refused to be coerced into playing in the Nazi sponsored tournaments during WW2, I've always thought he gets a bum rap as a chessplayer, as if Alekhine just gifted him the world championship for a couple of years..

levon aronian

I assume you weren't around when Fischer played for the World Championship? It wasn't just a chess match, it was a symbol of the cold war and portrayed as western individualism versus the state machinery of a communist regime. What people saw in Fischer (at the time) was the romance of a single man taking on the chess apparatus of an entire nation and beating them. Spassky of course is a charming and humane man and not really cut out for the role of villain but thats how it was advertised in the media at the time. Fischer wasn't as paranoid and delusional then as he became later so to Americans and Western chess fans in general he became a hero, when it became apparent he was not going to defend his title thats when the disappointment started. After that it was just all downhill, in his own mind nobody ever took the title from him over the board but it was 'stolen' from him. Scapegoats had to be sought, and when literally nothing matters to you in life other than your ability to play chess and you are a sociopath to boot, those scapegoats turn from 'the russians' to your own country and what your increasingly damaged mind believes to be some jewish conspiracy preventing you from getting your dues.

Thats all rather sad (to say the least) so people prefer to remember the Fischer of 1970-72 and the 20 consecutive wins and the crushing of Petrosian and Spassky rather than dwell on the appalling later years.

Judith Polgar

(PS well written, Vease)

Thank you Varelse, I try to be objective but with the public perception of Fischer as this ranting insane anti semitic monster it's easy to forget why he was revered in the first place.

Morphy went through a similar experience in his life.  The Civil War devestated the South's manpower, and Morphy went to France during those years.  His abilities as a chess player meant nothing to the vets who had served in the war, and he faced an ostracism that, though not open, did exist.  That his health was too fragile to allow him to serve didn't matter; kids and old men had served in the trenches, too, and Morphy had publically been against secession before the war.  He really was never forgiven for that.  But he was always known as a proper gentleman.

Fisher doesn't belong in this discussion, but, to be fair to him, I don't think he was a mean person. Most people that interacted with him that I have heard from had mostly nice things to say about him, including Spassky.

Someone, I should add, who seems like a stand up guy from what I've heard, but haven't seen in this discussion was Vasily Smyslov!

Someone was correct, Fischer should not be in this discussion, the question was "...who is the nicest..."    

If the question was "...who is the most entertaining..."  he might be a candidate in a macabre sort of way...

 Kasparov is a gangster, he is a disgrace to chess, he is a disgrace to the human race. He is not something Russia should be proud of. He should join Khodorkovsky in prison. He has committed a terrible fraud with all these prearranged games and matches.

• Radio Interview, May 15 2005 [29]

• You don't learn anything in school. It's just a waste of time. You lug around books and all and do homework. They give too much homework. You shouldn't be doing homework. Nobody's interested in it. The teachers are stupid. They shouldn't have any women in there. They don't know how to teach. And they shouldn't make anyone go to school. You don't want to go, you don't go, that's all. It's ridiculous. I don't remember one thing I learned in school. I don't listen to weakies. My two and a half years in Erasmus High I wasted. I didn't like the whole thing. You have to mix with all those stupid kids. The teachers are even stupider than the kids. They talk down to the kids. Half of them are crazy. If they'd have let me, I would have quit before I was sixteen.

• I don't like American girls. They're very conceited, you know. In Europe they're more pleasant.

Bobby is a tragic personality... He is an honest and good natured man. Absolutely not social. He is not adaptable to everybody’s standards of life. He has a very high sense of justice and is unwilling to compromise as well as with his own conscience as with surrounding people. He is a person who is doing almost everything against himself. I would not like to defend or justify Bobby Fischer. He is what he is. I am asking only for one thing. For mercy, charity. If for some reason it is impossible, I would like to ask you the following: Please correct the mistake of President François Mitterand in 1992. Bobby and myself committed the same crime. Put sanctions against me also. Arrest me. And put me in the same cell with Bobby Fischer. And give us a chess set.

• Boris Spassky in an appeal to George W. Bush, August 7 2004 [33] Fischer is said to have responded to news of this letter with "I don't want him in my cell. I want a chick in my cell."

Or, more specifically, I think he wanted Alexandra Kostenuik.

Who wouldn't??

For that letter, I think Spassky belongs on this list. Stand up guy.

Anyone of the above super GM's who give me a 3 move checkmate when I play them.

@ChastityMoon:

I get the point about your last post on Fischer. The evidences you showed were true and convincing.

@pelly13

Your point well taken.  Adjustments  made.

~*~