Hi all,

Thought this would make an interesting topic to discuss, which chess player/s is/are your favourite/s? Is it someone you have studied in the past, a player who's style has influenced yours? perhaps the first chess player you ever knew about?

Look forward to reading your replies and reasons
Greg

Petrosian and Tal simply because I just finshed the clarke book on both players and what a difference in playing style..
all postional w/a great sense of danger..
the other just walks into a lions den and play tactics,tactics..

modern players, i would say Anand.. Hes fantastic.. he plays the game effortlessly.. although the rock of K- Kasparov,Kramnik.. are very tough to move.

Interesting question. When I started buying the "red book" series in the early 70s I could only afford one per week. I did not buy them in numerical order. The first one I bought was Tal. Second was Petrosian. Third was Capablanca. Fourth was Andersson. I suspect that order is significant. I have always loved to play over Tal's games though I can't play anything like he did.

Most respected? Joseph Platz, John Jacobs, Peter Sakkinen, Ken Smith, Sammy Reshevsky, and George Koltanowski come immediately to mind. My wife liked and respected Koltanowski so much that she'd ask me to attend tournaments he'd be at so she had an excuse to go too! Normally she wanted nothing to do with tournaments and wished I'd attend far fewer.

thats a great story..
myself i like to collect game collections of the past champions but i also collect some of the interesting characters of chess.. George Koltanowski, fischer,alekhine,morphy, bronstien, spassky,and one of my favorite GM's that i have been fortunate to meet.. Leonid Shamokovich...
that man reminded me of "YODA" , nice, kind on the outside.. but YOU don't want to see him play against you!!!!
I was at a US OPEN once and saw him give a lecture and he proceeded to demolish the field.. in one of those weekend blitz tourneys that take place there.. it was fantastic.. watching him parry, attack and defeat players who were younger than him.
This topic is great..

My favorites are probably Tal and Capablanca.

No one will ever come close to the masterful play of Fischer in 1972!

Actually, his incredibly masterful play began in 1970, and at one point, playing against many of the world's best he had an amazing 20 consecutive wins! Included in those 20 consecutive wins were two candidates matches against Taimanov and Larsen both scores: 6-0-0!

I stand corrected

Interesting anecdote - after Taimanov's loss he lost his funding from the Soviet chess authorities - only after Larsen lost by the same score did he have it restored!

Petrosian for his defensive playing style.. also Lasker.