whoes your favourite ever player?

Discuss anything you like about chess related matters in this forum.

favourite player(2 added later by popular demand and a few more)

Poll ended at Tue Oct 25, 2022 6:51 am

Bobby Fischer
1
11%
Paul Morphy
0
No votes
Mikail Tal
0
No votes
Garry Kasparov
0
No votes
Alexander Alekhine
0
No votes
Anatoly Karpov
0
No votes
Jose Capablanca
0
No votes
Tigran Petrosian
0
No votes
Magnus Carlsen
0
No votes
Mikhail Botvinnik
0
No votes
Emanuel Lasker
2
22%
Victor Korchnoi
1
11%
Seigbert Tarrasch
1
11%
Nigel Short
2
22%
other(please post)
2
22%
 
Total votes: 9

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Tue Aug 09, 2022 1:21 pm

AlanLlewellyn wrote:
Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:57 am
Nick Ivell wrote:
Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:50 am
I voted for Bobby, of course.

Is there not a chap called Magnus who can play a bit?
magnus isnt very entertaining in my opinion winning drawn endgame after drawn endgame is about as entertaining as watching paint dry.
Carlsen has played some terrific attacking chess in his time. Very rarely does he get outdone in tactical terms.

Stylistically he is, as many have remarked before, strikingly similar to Fischer - whose almost terrifyingly accurate technique secured many of his wins. But for some reason or other, dear old Bobby's chess rarely gets described as "dull".
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

Mike Gunn
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by Mike Gunn » Tue Aug 09, 2022 1:48 pm

I have got great affection for Tigran Petrosian because I can remember being in a group of schoolboys in 1966 trying to work out the reasons behind his moves. That was entertainment (of a sort). (Not a popular choice, I anticpate.)

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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Tue Aug 09, 2022 2:02 pm

I recall Gazza saying something like "Petrosian was a terrific tactician, you can't play the way he did if you're not".
"Set up your attacks so that when the fire is out, it isn't out!" (H N Pillsbury)

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Joey Stewart
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by Joey Stewart » Tue Aug 09, 2022 2:40 pm

That's a good point Matt, players like Karpov, Petrosian, carlsen etc get labeled as grindy non risk takers but if they were truly just draw mongers they wouldn't have won world titles and been generally successful.
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

NickFaulks
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by NickFaulks » Tue Aug 09, 2022 2:49 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote:
Tue Aug 09, 2022 2:02 pm
I recall Gazza saying something like "Petrosian was a terrific tactician, you can't play the way he did if you're not".
Someone else, long before that, said there was little point in looking for combinations against Petrosian because he had already seen them and done something to make them not work.
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Geoff Chandler
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by Geoff Chandler » Tue Aug 09, 2022 3:39 pm

John Townsend wrote:
Tue Aug 09, 2022 12:35 pm
I think Alan is saying he wants more exciting play. If so, what about Labourdonnais for a choice?
David Bronstein rated Labourdonnais quite highly.

Carlsen's 'paint dry' wins are remembered because quite a few were must win situations and therefore famous.
It's also a skill to keep setting OTB problems against good players so they go wrong in apparently drawn positions.

He is, IMO, a mixture of all the great players, universal with a very large dollop of himself in there.
I wonder if decides who he will be before each game. Nimzovitch, Lasker, Fischer...maybe Karpov with a dash of Keres.
We are so lucky to have him, imagine, and soon we might have too, what it would be like without him. (hopefully not.)

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AlanLlewellyn
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by AlanLlewellyn » Tue Aug 09, 2022 4:20 pm

Matt Mackenzie wrote:
Tue Aug 09, 2022 1:21 pm
AlanLlewellyn wrote:
Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:57 am
Nick Ivell wrote:
Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:50 am
I voted for Bobby, of course.

Is there not a chap called Magnus who can play a bit?
magnus isnt very entertaining in my opinion winning drawn endgame after drawn endgame is about as entertaining as watching paint dry.
Carlsen has played some terrific attacking chess in his time. Very rarely does he get outdone in tactical terms.

Stylistically he is, as many have remarked before, strikingly similar to Fischer - whose almost terrifyingly accurate technique secured many of his wins. But for some reason or other, dear old Bobby's chess rarely gets described as "dull".
i think your mixing up magnus carlsen with me Matt lol

Nick Ivell
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by Nick Ivell » Tue Aug 09, 2022 4:52 pm

I don't think Bobby was in the same league as Magnus positionally, but he is still my favourite player.

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Joey Stewart
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by Joey Stewart » Tue Aug 09, 2022 5:08 pm

Just looking at that updated list - is Alitoy Karpov any relation to the more famous Anatoly Karpov ?
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

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AlanLlewellyn
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by AlanLlewellyn » Tue Aug 09, 2022 6:58 pm

Joey Stewart wrote:
Tue Aug 09, 2022 5:08 pm
Just looking at that updated list - is Alitoy Karpov any relation to the more famous Anatoly Karpov ?
hes his less well known brother

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Chris Goodall
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by Chris Goodall » Tue Aug 09, 2022 9:45 pm

Tie between Anna Cramling and Thomas Rendle. Bring back Hack Attack!
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Geoff Chandler
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by Geoff Chandler » Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:19 pm

Joey Stewart wrote:
Tue Aug 09, 2022 5:08 pm
Just looking at that updated list - is Alitoy Karpov any relation to the more famous Anatoly Karpov ?
Thanks Joey, I've been waiting for someone to mention that.
Alan got away with it for quite a while. Me...I put one apostrophe in the wrong place and I'm instantly pelted.
('Whoes")

I've voted for Tarrasch without who none of the others would have been any good. (Morphy a possible exception)
They...no..we, are all standing on Tarrasch's shoulders though not many people realise this.
I was disgusted..no..dismayed when Craig Pratchett told me his book on Tarrasch had been knocked back by
Thinkers Publishing due to a possible lack of interest. (so they publish 'Sicilian Structures part III instead...good grief.)

I refuse to buy any more of their books (I only have the one) and if I see any in Waterstones
I'll move them to the cookery section so people will think they are books on cheese.

And I want two votes (Nigel Short) three votes if you add John Nunn and four votes if you add Gerald Abrahams.
Last edited by Geoff Chandler on Wed Aug 10, 2022 1:22 am, edited 1 time in total.

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AlanLlewellyn
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by AlanLlewellyn » Wed Aug 10, 2022 12:35 am

Geoff Chandler wrote:
Tue Aug 09, 2022 11:19 pm

And I want two votes (Nigel Short) three votes if you add John Nunn and four votes if you add Gerald Abrahams.
I bet you want father christmas to be real too

Geoff Chandler
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by Geoff Chandler » Wed Aug 10, 2022 1:33 am

Alan we should be allowed more votes.

My favourite player actually changes from day to day, in some cases hour to hour.
I might tell my newsagent that Tartakower is my favourite player, two shops later
I'm telling the grocer it's Max Euwe (both not the list BTW)

I've never set up a voting thing at the start of a thread but there will be a 'how many votes per poster' button.
Nudge it up to five or six and edit the title to 'Who Are Your Favourite Players.'

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Joey Stewart
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Re: whoes your favourite ever player?

Post by Joey Stewart » Wed Aug 10, 2022 1:56 am

Actually, on the subject of entertaining players, Wesley so has lived a long time in the shadow of Magnus carlsen but reminded us at the Olympiad that he can produce some astounding tactics.
If you haven't seen this game I strongly advocate pausing and calculating the winning sequence after Rxe4, dxe4 - black annoyingly wrecked the game and denied Wesley the brilliancy, opting instead to lose in a more boring way rather then one that would surely have gained a place in history as one of the best tactical sequences ever!

https://lichess.org/@/chess-network/blo ... a/FIBLYLDC
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.