Kasparov, Karpov, Anand, Kramnik, Carlsen, Fisher

 

In 1979 I was almost everyday at the Copacabana Palace FIDE Grandmasters Challenge with my little chessboard kit, it was close to my parent's home and it had free entrance for people to watch the games. I'm proud to have met Viktor Korchnoi, Tigran Petrossian and Jan Timman - the only ones that can I recall today, as they were with many other Grandmaster chess players in a big room, where they gathered and even 'practiced' before everyday's round matches, unfortunately the other contenders right there I couldn't retain in my memory as I was only 15 years old! I was so excited and I cannot remember what I talked to them, besides my english was not as good as now, but at least I remember that Korchnoi seemed well surprised about my interest and curiosity about chess, the only thing I regret now is the damn shy I was at those moments... And can't remember how on earth I got to be there at that grand saloon where only the professionals gathered.

 

But here I congratulate Icarium for the nice selection of fantastic Grandmaster chess players, if I'm not wrong Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand are the 'young' players here, two that proved to be capable of face Kasparov's power - Anand in 1998 won the famous Linares Tournament ahead of Kasparov and five other top rated stars; Kramnik quickly gained the distinction as one of the few who was able to give Kasparov a run for his money.

 

However, I would have included also these other fantastic ones:

 

Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine - Stormy attacks with superb endgame technique.

Jose Raul Capablanca - Phenomenal intuition, after the first World War he was considered so invincible that his nickname became 'the chess machine.'

Mikhail Tal - Fearless and imaginative attacks, full of nervous energy.

Boris Spassky - Fantastic strategist. Soviet authorities punished him for losing to an American.

Viktor Korchnoi - Famous for his ferocious counter-attacks, in 2002 he became the oldest player to ever win a professional tournament, although he was often ranked as the strongest player who never became world champion.

Tigran Petrossian - His unique defensive bent made him almost impossible to beat due to his extreme prophylactic play.

Jan Timman - At the time I met him in 1979 at the Copacabana Palace FIDE challenge, he had beaten all reigning world champions in individual games and had always had fine results, including Mar Del Plata 1982 (first ahead of Karpov by two full points).