Your 5 most inspirational players?

Finegold, Morphy, Kasparov, Ivanchuk, Carlsen

Why is Kummer not allowed? His recovery from extreme meth use is inspiring.

1 - Logozar

2 - Robert New_Alekhine

3 - Solskytz

4 - Hou Yi Fan (because she played the amazing Fool's Mate in a pro tourney).

5 - MarcoBR444, The King of Patzers.

I entered because I saw "MarcoBR444" as the author of the last entry- I had a hunch that I will find myself listed :-)

You didn't disappoint :-) 

Yes, of course, you a chess amateur, but once beat a title player! How could I forget?   :)

I would say - Capablanca first and foremost, then Kramnik, Morphy, Kasparov and Fischer. 

But it's frustrating to limit it to five!

Honorable mention: Alekhine, Keres (I was inspired by his endgame book), Silman (another really great source of inspiration), Tal (no "inspirational" list can be complete without him), GM Gadi Rechlis (you should watch him play blitz, you will understand why) - and of course GM Maurice Ashley - for his amazing energy in his video annotations. 

You know what? Based on this last criteria, I will have to add GM Seirawan - and right after him, GM Naroditzki and the Ginger GM. 

This must be a partial list... just can't limit to 5 - 

AND Nimzowitsch, and Tartakower, and Lasker, and if we talk about authors too, then Chernev... it will be an endless list. Let's stop here before I start talking about the GMs of year 2000 and northwards - then it will really never end. 

<Marco> More than once... much more than once... :-) I gathered many a scalp over the years... and still working on my collection. 

Good to know you are improving like that.

Yes, let's trick those patzers"!!

Titled players are not that good.

One very famous GM once copied a game I played, then he played a queen sac as I did 4 months before:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/11302016---the-winner-takes-it-all

Yeah, I remember that story - it made headlines!

Why do you find Capablanca inspiring? Im jealous of that kid, he learnt chess before learning how to speak.

I already gave my top-5 inspirations, but I gave only well known players.

I'd like to make an honourable mention to Triantafyllos Siaperas (1931-1994) who has inspired me and many many other Greek chess players through his writings. He was a chess player, chess-studies maker, chess journalist, chess writer and international arbiter. Twice crowned Greek Chess Champion. International Master (IM), no.214 in world rankings in 1971 with an ELO of 2418 (his highest ELO was 2427 in 1972, when he was world no.225)

https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A4%CF%81%CE%B9%CE%B1%CE%BD%CF%84%CE%AC%CF%86%CF%85%CE%BB%CE%BB%CE%BF%CF%82_%CE%A3%CE%B9%CE%B1%CF%80%CE%AD%CF%81%CE%B1%CF%82 

His first chess book, which was published in 1967, was the first chess book of such volume (356 pages) that was written directly in Greek language. It is directed at beginners and class A, B, and C players, and has been a way for a large number of Greek chess players to learn the game and progress in chess. It is very often suggested in Greece as one of the first chess books for someone to read even nowadays.

Yeah I know him. Goes by Steve. He's one of a group of friends I analyze chess/play bughouse/Skype with often. He's helped me prepare in one of my openings. 

If I had to be very thorough I would list a number of my good friends. Especially one, whose name I won't give here.

I will say one player who inspires me, despite being around a hundred points lower rated than I am, is Milliern. Because his progress from beginner-level to 1800+ given his age shows that it might just be possible for me to continue improving into my adulthood. 

My first coach was extremely inspirational. His rating was around 2100. No one helped me more than he did.

Famous players from whom I draw inspiration? Well the friend whose name I omitted is kind of well-known actually, but not a GM or anything. And I don't draw any inspiration from Super GMs because they're all former prodigies and what they do is beyond what I could ever be capable of. 

If we're talking who inspires my playing style? Not sure anymore. I think my playing style when it was forming during my 1000-1700/1800 growth spurt was largely formed from videos by Melbourne Chess Club, SLCC, Aww-rats, and a few others.

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