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Chess players

Well, on the subject of "best" players, keep in mind that the original poster's question was about favorite players, not necessarily the strongest ones.

If I just wanted to look at the "best" players, I'd just look at games between Komodo and Stockfish at TCEC, or high-level correspondence games :)

As to favorite players, my favorite is Ulf Andersson. I know, I know, endgames are boring and all that jazz.

Still, I find it both entertaining and instructive to see how in his prime he would just outplay top GMs in simple endings.

It also more matches how I like to play, although recently my style's been changing a bit, so I might end up with a new favorite player at some point :)
Oh, forgot to mention, purely for entertainment, it's hard to beat Nezhmetdinov's best games...just a lot of fun.

The first time I saw the game Nezhmetdinov-Chernikov left a big impression on me.

Anyway, enough rambling :)
Petrosian must be my favorite of all times. His positional sacrifices are something I don't think any other player, not even Tal, could ever match. And some dare to call him boring, for Christ sake... that guy knew what this game was all about. The quiet beauty of his play, the helpless aim of his opponents for penetrating where not weaknesses could be find at all. Damn.
Talking about current players, well, Topalov is a lot of fun. But chess is in my opinion getting out of artists, of those guys who had an idea and defended it at all costs.
Carlsen? where's the heart? what happened with the passion? the guy is the Cristiano Ronaldo of this sport.

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