The Greatest Chess Players
Checkmate: The Greatest Chess Players
They say every move you make on the chessboard should have a purpose. These players mastered the art of making your move at the right time and "staying silent, only speaking to say "Checkmate".
Let's go over some of the greatest players of all time and how they became the best in the world.
Paul Morphy
The first professional American chess player, Paul Morphy won the first American Chess Congress in 1857. Morphy then travelled to Europe and defeated some of the European greats of the mid-19th century—including Germany's best, Adolf Anderssen. Shockingly, Morphy would retreat from public life entirely after just two years, never competing in professional chess tournaments again.
Viswanathan Anand
India's very first chess grandmaster and five-time World Champion, Viswanathan Anand put India on the map, or chessboard, as it were, through the 1980s and 1990s. Anand was known as a child for his rapid playing speed and was nicknamed "Lightning Kid" by his fellows. He's considered to be the greatest rapid chess player of his generation. He won his first World Rapid Championship in 2003 and then again in 2017.
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Vladimir Kramnik
Vladimir Kramnik was born in the USSR and studied chess at the school established by Russian chess legend Mikhail Botvinnik. He would win his first gold medal in the 1992 chess Olympiad in Manila. From there, Kramnik would go on to establish himself and became the world number one in 1996, and in 2000, he defeated reigning World Champion Garry Kasparov to become World Champion, his first of five titles.
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Emanuel Lasker
For 27 years, Emanuel Lasker was the Chess World Champion, reigning from 1894 until 1921. Not only that, he would pioneer approaches to the game by playing inferior moves that would unsettle his opponents—a uniquely "psychological" way of approaching the game. He was friends with Einstein and would also make mathematical contributions to games such as bridge, showcasing the depth of his intellect.
