Top Ten Indian Actors of All Time

Indian film industry has always been dominated by actors. They play a very crucial part in the film. Even the success of the film also depends on them. Actors are treated more than stars. They are like demi-gods to their fans.

Here, I have made a list of top ten Indian actors of all time. Actors have been taken from different region films based on their performances, popularity, success, skill and contribution to the film industry.

You may agree or disagree with me as some of the legendary figures have not been included in this list. That is why, I ask apologize to all readers.

Dilip Kumar (Hindi):

Dilip Kumar is a living legend actor in Hindi film industry. Though he was born as Muhammad Yusuf Khan, this Indian actor and former Member of Parliament started his acting career in 1944 in Jwar Bhata with a screen name, Dilip Kumar, given by Hindi Author Bhagwati Charan Varma.

Since his debut on a big screen, Dilip Kumar has spanned five decades and acted over 60 films and appeared in diverse roles such as the romantic Andaz (1949), the swashbuckling Aan (1952), the dramatic Devdas (1955), the comical Azaad (1955), the historical Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and the social Ganga Jamuna (1961).

His debut film could not give him much success as a leading actor. However, he didn’t have to wait for a long time as he got first major success with the film Jugnu released in 1947.

For his performances in the romantic melodramas Mela (1948), Andaz (1949), Deedar (1951), Daag (1954), Devdas (1955), Naya Daur (1957), Yahudi (1958) and Madhumati (1958), he got the screen image "Tragedy King".

Dilip Kumar has been described as the greatest actor ever. Legendary figures like Amitabh Bachan and Satyajit Ray has described him as "the Ultimate, the best" and "the ultimate method actor". He is considered to be one of the greatest actors of Indian cinema. He is also known as the acting king of Hindi cinema.

For his performance in the 1952 film Daag, he got Filmfare Best Actor Award and became the first Indian actor to receive such prestigious award and with eight wins, he shares the record along with Shahrukh Khan for the most number of Filmfare Awards won for that category.

Amitabh Bachchan (Hindi):

Amitabh Bachchan is undoubtedly one of the most popular figures in Hindi film industry. Despite his late sixties, he is still considered to be one of the most powerful actors in Bollywood. He is also regarded as one of the greatest and powerful actors in the history of Indian cinema. He has spanned more than four decades and acted in over 180 Indian films. For his acting performance, he is called Big B, Shahenshah etc.

It was not easy for him to make his entrance in the film industry. At first, he made his debut as a voice narrator in 1969 in Mrinal Sen's National Award winning film Bhuvan Shome. He got his first acting opportunity in Khwaja Ahmad Abbas directed Saat Hindustani as one of the seven protagonists.

He was not well accepted as a hero because of his tall height and fair body color. He had to struggle hard to cement his place as a hero. However, he gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema.

In his career, he has won numerous major awards including four National Film Awards, and fourteen Filmfare Awards. With 36 nominations overall, he has become the most-nominated performer in any major acting category at Filmfare.

Amitabh Bachchan is a man with versatile geniuses. He is well known as a playback singer, film producer and television presenter. He hosts the television game show Kaun Banega Crorepati. His company ABCL produced many films and unfortunately most of the films were flop. He also entered politics briefly.

Kamal Haasan (Tamil):

Kamal Haasan is one of the very few lucky actors who has gained equal popularity in almost all the major Indian language films- Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. He is also one of very few actors to have completed 50 years in cinema.

In his long acting career, he has starred in more than 150 movies including all the major Indian languages and a big portion of his acted films are Tamil. He won several Indian film awards, including four National Film Awards and numerous Filmfare Awards. He is perhaps the one and only Indian actor bagging more than 18 Filmfare awards.

He made his acting debut as a four-year-old child artist in Kalathur Kannamma where he starred alongside the veteran Tamil actor Gemini Ganesan. It helped him to get the National Film Award for Best Child Artist. He went on to act as a child actor in five other Tamil films. He is considered to be one of the method actors in the Indian cinema.

Kamal Haasan made his debut as an adult in the 1975 drama Apoorva Raagangal, in which he played a rebellious youth in love with an older woman. After that, he went on to act in several romantic films. Some of his notable films are 16 Vayadhinilae, Nayakan, Guna, Mahanadhi, Hey Ram and Alavandaan.

Rajinikanth (Tamil):

If you are a fan of Indian cinema then you should have heard the name of Rajinikanth. He is said to be one of the most powerful actors in Indian cinema. Casting Rajinikanth in the male lead role always work like a magic. His name was enough to attract millions of fans and make a film box-office hit.

His way of delivering speech, style and mannerisms helped him to get huge popularity. Because of these qualities he could ruled the film industry for more than three decades. He has acted in almost all of the Indian film industries but most of his films were in Tamil language.

Before making his entrance to the film industry, he had to do all types of odd jobs, including carpenter, coolie, buss conductor. K. Balachander directed 1975 Tamil movie Apoorva Raagangal gave him the opportunity to make his debut as a co-star alongside Kamal Haasan. His role was small and less important but he could catch the attention of movie lovers. After that, he went on to act as a co-star in several films.

However, he was cast as a main hero in the 1978 film Bairavi. This film was box office hit and he didn’t have to look back. With Allauddinum Albhutha Vilakkum, he made his Malayalam film-debut released in 1979. He also made his entrance in Bengali cinema through Bhagya Debata, which released at the end of 1995. In his 2007 film Sivaji, he was paid 26 crore (US$5.9 million) for his role and became the highest paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan.

He had acted in more than 150 films across various film industries of India and has won a Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award and six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, including four Best Actor Awards and two Special Awards for Best Actor.

For his contribution to Indian cinema, he was given to Padma Bhushan in 2000. Except acting, he also worked as a producer and screenwriter.

Vikram Kennedy (Tamil):

Vikram Kennedy is one of the most popular faces in Tamil film industry. He is undoubtedly one of the best actors in Indian cinema. He is also highly talented and handsome actor. He will be remembered to the minds of his fans for his acting skill and style.

He made his acting debut in 1990 with the film En Kadhal Kanmani and during 1990s; he acted in a number of small-budget films in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam languages. However, his first breakthrough came in 1998 with the Sethu directed by Bala. In this film, Vikram appeared as a rogue turned lover and it helped him to get fame as an actor.
In 2000, he appeared in a number of masala films, with Dhill (2001), Gemini (2002), Dhool (2003) and Saamy (2003). These films got commercial success. His career has spanned more than two decades and acted in almost 50 movies.

For his performances in Tamil movie, he has got Filmfare Award for Best Actor four times and one National Film Award and Tamil Nadu State Film Award.

Uttam Kumar (Bengali):

Uttam Kumar is a legendary figure in Bengali film industry. He is regarded as the super star of Bengali cinema and the most popular Bengali film actor ever. The void that was created because of his death more than thirty years ago could not be replaced by anyone till now. He was blessed with versatility. He was a talented actor, director, producer, singer and music director and because of his multifaceted talent he was gained much acclaim and adulation.

He was born as Arun Kumar Chatterjee in 1926 to a middle class family in Calcutta, but he is widely known as Uttam Kumar and Mahanayak. Nitin Bose directed Drishtidan was his first released film which got released in 1948. Before this film, he acted in Mayador which was not released. After that, he acted in a number of films but Basu Paribar helped him to get popularity.

Uttam Kumar had successful on screen pair with Suchitra Sen. This pair’s first film was Sharey Chuattor (74 and a half anna), but his first breakthrough film with Suchitra Sen was Agni Pariksha. With this film, Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen got huge popularity as romantic pair and their combination became a very house hold name to Bengali movie lovers. After that, they gave several successful films.

Uttam Kumar also acted in some Hindi films such as Chhoti Si Mulaqat, Amanush, Anand Ashram, Dooriyaan, and Kitaabwith, but he could not gain that much success in Bollywood.

He died on 24th July 1980 at the age of 53.

Mammootty (Malayalam):

Mammootty is a big name in Malayalam film industry. Those who watch Malayalam cinema should know this legendary figure.

Since making his debut in 1971 with the film Anubhavangal Paalichakal directed by K. S. Sethumadhavan, he has acted in more than three decades and acted in more than 360 films. He is the second Indian actor after Prem Nazir to act in the number of lead roles in Indian films. In his long acting career, he also appeared in duel roles nine times in Malayalam films which is still highest in number.

Besides acting in Malayalam films, he also appeared in a few Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada films. Some of his notable films are Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (1989), Mathilukal (1990), Ponthan Mada (1994), Vidheyan (1994), and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar (2000).

For his performances in movies, he got numerous awards, including the National Film Award for Best Actor three times, five Kerala State Film Awards and eleven Filmfare Awards. For his contribution to Indian cinema, he was given the Padma Shri award and became the first Malayali actor to get this honour.

He was given Doctor of Letters by University of Kerala in January 2010 and by University of Calicut in December 2010.

Mohanlal (Malayalam):

Mohanlal is a name of a popular Malayalam actor who is blessed with versatility. He got well reuptation for his natural acting in Indian cinema. There is no doubt about his talent in acting. He was good in both comedy and serious roles. It is obviously a rare talent that not too many actors can expose with the same ease. Fans should remember him for his comedy roles and unique style of dialogue delivery. He is considerd as one of the finest actors in Indian cinema and is a cultural icon.

His first film was Thiranottam which was not released. However, he started his career in a villain role in Manjil Virinja Pookkal in which Fazil also made his directorial debut. It was also the debut film for both Shankar and Poornima Jayaram who played the lead roles. After the success of this film, Mohanlal did not have to look back and went on to give many hit films.

He has spanned more than thirty years in the film industry and acted over hundreds of films and bagged numerous awards, including four Indian National Film Awards and one Award for Best Film as producer along with six Kerala State Film Awards for Best Actor.

He was given to India's fourth highest civilian honour, Padma Shri, award for his contribution to Malayalam film industry.

Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao (Telugu):

Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao is a well-known Telugu actor. He is widely known as NTR and fondly referred to as Anna Garu. He was an actor with versatile geniuses. Besides acting, he had directed and produced many films. He was also actively involved in politics.

Though he made his debut as an actor in Mana Desam (1949), he got stardom in the early 1950s as "messiah of the masses" and has become one of the most prominent figures in the history of Telugu cinema. After that, he acted in a number of films in a antagonistic roles. In Palletoori Pilla, he was selected as a hero for the first time.

He will be rememberd to the hearts of Telugu movie lovers for his portrayals of Hindu idols, especially Lord Krishna and Lord Rama. He was the founder of the Telugu Desam Party in 1982 and served 3 terms as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh between 1983 and 1994. For his contribution to Telugu cinema he was Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1968.

Chiranjeevi (Telugu):

Chiranjeevi is a towering figure in Telugu film industry. He is also widely regarded as "Megastar" in the media. He has huge fan following in Andhra Pradesh.

Apart from this power packed performances in movies, this macho man is well known for his extraordinary dances and fights.

His real name is Siva Sankara Varaprasad but with a screen name “Chiranjeevi” suggested by his mother, he made his acting debut in the film Punadhirallu. His first released film was Pranam Khareedu.

He started getting fame with the 1981 film Initilo Ramayya Vidhilo Krishnayya. His screen persona along with his film roles contributed to a change in the concept of a Telugu film lead actor. He has acted different types of characters and won numerous awards.

He has already taken retirement from acting and now keeping his life busy in politics and humanitarian works. Forming Praja Rajyam Party in 2008, he entered into politics and in 2009, he was elected as the State Assembly from Tirupati constituency.

Top Ten Wishes for Arsenal in 2012

There are just few hours left before we enter the New Year ‘2012’ with lots of hopes and wishes in mind. Arsenal fans are also perhaps wishing and praying for a very successful 2012. The North London side may not have won any title in 2011, but there were some exciting prospects of ending their six-year trophy drought.

Wenger boys reached the final of League Cup last season, only to be defeated by Birmingham City after conceding a late goal caused by a defensive howler. They were serious title contender in the Premier League until February. However, Arsenal’s 2-1 home victory over Barcelona was perhaps the highlight of the season, even though they failed to progress beyond the last 16 in Champions League.

Here, I have made a list of top ten wishes that any Arsenal fan would love to see turn true in 2012. You can add to the wishes in the comment section.

1. Captain Robin van Persie signs a new contract in what would ensure his staying with the Gunners beyond the end of the next season when his current contract expires.

2. The Dutch forward continues his high-flying scoring form, and most importantly, stays fit throughout the year.

3. They continue their run in Championship League, by finishing in the top four in the league.

4. Arsenal wins silverware in 2012, and thus, putting an end to their six-year period without a trophy.

5. Arsenal gets out of the seemingly ‘never-ending’ injury crisis which made Emirates its favorite home over the last few seasons.

6. Wenger continues making astute signings as he has been doing for a long time.

7. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain turns out to be a top class ‘surprise’ performer as was Jack Wilshere last season (2010-11).

8. After a long time, Arsenal got a pair of reliable hands under the posts in Wojciech Szczęsny. Hopefully, the Polish custodian continues his fine run of form next year too.

9. Jack Wilshere along with a group of important players including fullbacks like Andre Santos, Kieran Gibbs, Bacary Sagna and Carl Jenkinson returns from injury ahead of schedule.

10. Talented young players like Ryo Miyaichi, Emmanuel Frimpong, Francis Coquelin and Ignasi Miquel get matured and start making impact in the first team.

Top Ten Greatest Cyclists of All Time

Bicycle racing is one of popular sports in today’s world. Predominantly most popular in Western Europe, bicycle racing also has significant popularity throughout the Europe, United States and some other parts of the world. The 20^th stage of the 2009 event of the Tour de France (Tour of France), which is the most prestigious and popular event in the road bicycle racing, attracted a whopping 44 million total global television audience, and thus, becoming the 12^th most watched sporting event that year.

Bicycle racing was graced by many great players over the years. So, choosing ten cycling legends out of many great cyclists is a bit hard and it is less likely to make a perfect list of top ten greatest cyclists of all time. Still, I tried to make as perfect a list as possible, though some great players were left from my list. So, I mentioned their names at the end of the list. You can share your thoughts about the list and your choices in the comment section.

Eddy Merckx

Eddy Merckx is almost undoubtedly the greatest cyclist in the history of cycling. The Belgian is apparently the most decorated of all cyclists in terms of winning tournaments and titles. With five Tour de France titles to his credit, he is currently just one of only five cyclists in the history who have won five or more titles in this Grand Tour. Merckx, nicknamed ‘The Cannibal,’ also won five Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) titles, a feat that only two other cyclists have achieved so far. So, he is now the only cyclist in the world who has won five titles in each of these two Grand Tours. In addition, he also won the other Grand Tour, Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain), once.

Besides, Merckx also has an enviable record in the monument classics, the five oldest and most prestigious one-day races of cycling. To add to his glorious career, he is just one of the three cyclists who have won all the five monuments of cycling and is the only cyclist who has done it twice. Overall, he holds a record 19 victories in monuments with compatriot Roger De Vlaeminck being closest to him with 11 titles. “The most accomplished rider that cycling has ever known” is what French magazine Velo said about Eddy Merckx.

Bernard Hinault

Like Merckx, French cyclist Bernard Hinault also has five Tour de France titles and won the other two Grand Tours too. Hinault, however, is not only ahead of Merckx, but all other cycling greats in the sense that he is the only cyclist who has own all three Grand Tours at least twice during his career.

In Tour de France, he has won 28 stages in total, just behind Merckx’s record 34. The Frenchman, who is also known as Le Blaireau (the Badger), has 3 Giro d'Italia and 2 Vuelta a España titles to his name. His five titles in monuments may not match that of Merckx, but still Hinault is undoubtedly one of the best cyclists of all time, and his excellent personality only helps this cause.

Jacques Anquetil

Another legendary entertainer of cycling, Jacques Anquetil is the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times and the first rider to complete victories in all three Grand Tours including two Giro d'Italia and a Vuelta a España titles.

Well-known for his outstanding ability to maintain almost same speed throughout the stages of stage race competitions, Anquetil became the first French cyclist to wear the yellow jersey from day one to the last in his 1961 victorious campaign in Tour de France. He won the tournament in the following three years too, and thus, becoming the first cyclist to win the most prestigious stage race in four successive years. In 1960, he became the first Frenchman to win Giro d'Italia title. Anquetil’s exceptional stamina and strength helped him to race against the clock in the individual time trial races.

Fausto Coppi

Known as ‘Il Campionissimo’ (champion of champions), Fausto Coppi’s rise in world cycling (in 1940’s) is often marked as the beginning of the golden years of world bicycle racing. The two-time Tour de France winner’s dominance in world cycling started before the break out of World War II and continued after the war as well. The Italian is just one of the three cyclists who have five Giro d'Italia titles to their credit.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Fausto Coppi’s competition with compatriot Gino Bartali is one of the greatest rivalries in world cycling. He also won World Championship title in 1953 and his victories in nine monuments include five Giro di Lombardia titles, a record that still stands. His hour record achieved in 1942 stood 14 years before Anquetil broke it in 1956.

Lance Armstrong

Armstrong is the latest legend of world cycle racing. The American cyclist graced the world cycling with a record seven successive victories in Tour de France (from 1999 to 2005), the most prestigious of three Grand Tours. Armstrong’s greatness as a cycle racer would only be increased by putting in the fact that he had to survive a testicular cancer, diagnosed in 1996, and undergo brain and testicular surgeries and take chemotherapy, before accomplishing his Tour de France successes.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Lance Armstrong, also known as ‘The Boss,’ has received many awards during his illustrious career including Sportsman of the Year award by Sports Illustrated magazine in 2002, BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality award in 2003, ESPY Award for Best Male Athlete by ESPN four times (from 2003 to 2006), and many more.

Miguel Indurain

The most dominating figure of world cycling in 1990’s, Indurain became the first cyclist in the history to win the Tour de France title in five successive years from 1991 to 1995. His two Giro d'Italia titles came in 1992 and 1993, and thus, he became one of only seven cyclists to win Tour-Giro double in the same season. In 1994, he set up an hour record of 53.040 kilometres.

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Known as ‘Miguelón’ or ‘Big Mig’, referring to his 6 ft 2 in height and 176 lbs weight, Indurain exploited his strong physical advantage to the fullest during his career. He wore the yellow jersey for total 60 days in Tour de France. He also clinched the gold medal in Men's Individual Time Trial in 1996 Summer Olympics, just a year after winning the World Time-Trial Championship title.

Gino Bartali

The first star cyclist from Italy, Bartali shot to fame in the preceding years of World War II. He won Giro d'Italia in 1936 and 1937, before winning the first of his two Tour de France titles in 1938. After the war, he won his last Giro title in 1946, defeating biggest rival Coppi. His second and last Tour de France title came in 1948 with which he registered a record for the largest gap between victories in this tournament. Bartali also has seven victories in monuments to his credit.

Image Source: cyclingtime.com

In those days, the rivalry between Bartali and Coppi used to divide whole Italy in two parts with the rural south supporting Bartali and the industrial north favoring Coppi. Their rivalry only made cycle racing more popular in Italy and many consider it the first and the biggest rivalry ever seen in the cycle racing history.

Felice Gimondi

Another great cyclist from Italy, Gimondi won all three Grand Tours during his successful career which is decorated with one Tour de France, one Vuelta a España and three Giro d'Italia titles, all but 1976 Giro winning in 1960’s.

Image Source: cyclinghalloffame.com (courtesy of www.theracingbicycle.com)

Felice Gimondi took little time to prove his talent as he clinched his only Tour de France title in 1965, the year he turned professional. With the victory in Vuelta a España in 1968, he became the first cyclist after Anquetil to have won all three Grand Tours, a feat accomplished by only five cyclists so far. Gimondi, also known as The Phoenix, also won four monuments during his career.

Sean Kelly

Unlike other greats placed in this article, Sean Kelly is well-known for his successes in the classic events, rather than Grand Tour successes. He accomplished nine victories in monuments and his achievements in classic cycle races made him one of the all time greats of classics. He won all the monument classics at least twice, barring the Tour de Flanders, the only monument he could never win.

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Kelly’s only Grand Tour success came in 1988 Vuelta a España. Though he could never win general classification title in Tour de France, he won green jersey as the leader of the points classification four times in this tournament. The Irishman also won Paris-Nice for seven successive years. He was the first no. 1 cyclist in the FICP rankings, introduced in 1984, and remained no. 1 cyclist for six years, a record that he still holds. Overall, Sean Kelly won 193 professional races in his career.

Laurent Fignon

The French cyclist was a prominent figure of cycle racing in the 1980’s. Laurent Fignon won the first of his two Tour de France titles in 1983, just a year after turning professional. He continued his success in the Tour the following year as well.

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His only Giro d'Italia success came in 1989. He accomplished two monument classics, both in Milan – San Remo, in 1988 and 1989. Fignon died from cancer in 2010.

Some notable omissions: Jan Ulrich, Louis Bobet, Greg LeMond, Tony Rominger, Mario Cipollini, Alberto Contador, Roger De Vlaeminick, Erik Zabel, Laurent Jalabert, Charly Gaul, Marco Pantani, Francesco Moser, Fiorenzo Magni, Alessandro Petacchi, and Jan Jansen.

Top Ten Chess Players in the History

Chess is one of the most popular board games in the world. Making a list of ‘top ten’ great players of any spots with a long history is very difficult. It is even more difficult for chess, given that there was no established tournament to decide the world champion until 1948 when FIDE (World Chess Federation) introduced World Chess Championship. Moreover, there was no ranking system in chess before 1971. So, making comparison between players of different eras is not only hard, but almost impossible to be flawless. Different methods of comparison have been introduced over the years, but still no concrete solution has been found so far to make an undisputed list of top ten great chess players of all time.

Here, while making the list, not only did I consider the player’s strength, skill, number of world championship reigns, and duration of their reigns, but also I took into account the player’s innovations, distinctive playing styles and above all, their overall contribution to the development of the game. No doubt, there are a number of other great players whom I could not give a place in this list, but I mentioned their names at the end of this article. I hope you will enjoy this list and just feel free to put your opinions in the comment section:

Garry Kasparov

The Russian grandmaster is arguably the greatest player in the history of chess with many records to his name. A graduate of famous Mikhail Botvinnik chess school, Garry Kasparov became serious to pursue a career in chess when he won the Sokolsky Memorial tournament in Minsk and eventually became a chess master at the age of 15.

A six-time world champion, Kasparov won his first world championship title in 1985 when he defeated another great Anatoly Karpov in a historical match, and thus, becoming the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion at the age of 22. Since then, he dominated the chess world in the following two decades, almost always remaining world champion, until his retirement.

Overall, Kasparov is the highest rated player in the chess history with 2851 FIDE ratings and holds the record for winning the highest number of consecutive tournaments, remaining world number 1 for 255 months, and winning highest 11 Chess Oscars.

Bobby Fischer

To many, Fischer is the greatest chess player of all time. His reign as world chess champion from 1972 to 1975, covering 54 months in total, is the third longest of all time and Fischer was the first number-one rated player in FIDE ranking in 1971. He started showing his chess talent from his childhood. At the age of 13, he played a match against Donald Byrne which is widely considered as the “The Game of the Century,” and at the age of 15 and half, he became grandmaster which was a record at that time.

Bobby Fischer also had immense contribution to the modification of chess timing system and his proposal of adding a time increment after each move by a chess player is now a well-established rule. He also invented and promoted Chess960, a variant of traditional chess, which is also known as Fischer Random Chess.

Anatoly Karpov

Another great disciple of Mikhail Botvinnik Chess School, Anatoly Karpov is undoubtedly one of the legends of chess history. He remained world chess champion for a total of 90 months, second only to Garry Kasparov, spanning two periods: first from 1975 to 1985 and then from 1993 to 1999. He produced many classic matches including the 1984 world championship match against Kasparov, the only championship match which ended without producing a winner after 48 games in five months, and that was the beginning of a great rivalry between the two Russians.

Karpov loved to put pressure on the opponents by following a pure positional play and always looked for opponent’s mistakes and did never hesitate to attack his opponent ruthlessly even in case of a very small mistake by the opponent.

Mikhail Botvinnik

A professional electrical engineer and computer scientist, Botvinnik is a great chess player who, besides winning chess matches and tournaments, contributed heavily to the development of chess and was one of the founders of ‘Soviet School of Chess.’ His coaching system which is also known as Mikhail Botvinnik School of chess has produced the future greats like Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik.

Image source: Wikipedia

Botvinnik won the first ever FIDE organized World Chess Championship in 1948 to become the new world chess champion after the death of previous champion Alekhine. His three reigns as world chess champion, covering around 13 years, made him the dominant player in the world following the World War II. Botvinnik is also remembered as one of the early advocates of computer chess and he created a chess-playing algorithm himself in an attempt to enabling computer to think like a human player.

Emanuel Lasker

Lasker’s contribution to chess is also not limited to winning matches and tournaments. Besides his 27 year-long reign as world chess champion, the German chess maestro was the first to apply psychological approach in chess. He often made inferior moves to deceive his opponents. Well-known for his openings, he employed a complex method in his game, so it is a bit difficult to draw lessons from his games.

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Emanuel Lasker, who was also a mathematician and philosopher, was world chess champion six times in his career. He also contributed to other games like contract bridge, Go and Lasca, and his analysis of games is regarded very highly.

José Raúl Capablanca

Capablanca is undoubtedly one of the greatest chess players of all time with some considering him to be the greatest of all greats. He always kept it simple while playing with extraordinary speed and his excellent endgame skill was the brightest part of his style. His tactical skill and outstanding control over the chess board earned him the nickname ‘Human Chess Machine.’ He became world champion in 1921 and remained so until 1927.

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The Cuban former grandmaster dominated the chess world for almost two decades, beginning from the preceding years of World War I to until losing the world championship match to Alekhine in 1927. During this period, he defeated almost all the opponents and won a number of tournaments that led many to consider him to be invincible.

Alexander Alekhine

A great player with strong imaginative ability, Alexander Alekhine earned greatness by winning tournaments and matches against almost all the contemporary greats, and of course, thanks to his innovations in the game. He became the fourth world chess champion in 1927 when he defeated Capablanca, who was earlier considered to be invincible, in a match which, until 1985, was the longest chess championship match in the history. He remained world champion twice in his lifetime; first from 1927 to1935 and then from 1937 to until his death in 1946. He is credited as one of the founders of ‘Soviet School of Chess.’

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Alexander Alekhine’s creative attacking style was based on extraordinary positional sense and endgame skill. As a popular chess writer and theoretician, he presented the chess world with some innovative chess openings and created a defense theory which is now popularly known as Alekhine’s Defense.

Mikhail Tal

A soviet-Latvian grandmaster, Mikhail Tal achieved greatness, not just winning games, but winning in style. Tal, also known as ‘The magician from Riga,’ is widely considered as the greatest attacking chess player in the history. His combinatorial playing style was based on improvisation and diversity in moves. His unconventional but highly effective style produced many ‘classic’ matches which are now studied by top chess players. About his style, Tal once said that every game was “as inimitable as invaluable as a poem.” He was the world champion in 1960-61 and achieved his peak rating 2705 in 1980.

Image source: Wikipedia

An annual chess tournament named Mikhail Tal Memorial is organized in Moscow since 2006 in his honor.

Wilhelm Steinitz

Steinitz was the first undisputed and modern chess champion in the world during 1886 to 1894. He is also well-known for introducing and advocating positional style of play in chess in 1873 which led him to be involved in a ‘Ink War’ with some other contemporary greats who termed the position style as ‘cowardly’. All-out attacking style was popular and established among his contemporaries, and even Steinitz himself followed this style to become world no. 1.

Image source: Wikipedia

However, the positional style became increasingly popular among the later greats like Emanuel Lasker who defeated Steinitz to become the next world champion. During his illustrious career, Wilhelm Steinitz remained unbeaten for more than 25 years.

Paul Morphy

The American is perhaps the most mysterious of chess legends. According to Bobby Fischer, Morphy is the greatest chess player of all time and had the ability to beat any player of any era. It may sound a bit wired to attribute such greatness to someone who retired from chess at the age of 26 and since then did not play competitive chess until his death.

Image source: Wikipedia

Well, this is where lies the greatness of Paul Morphy. A child prodigy who learned to play chess by simply watching a match between his father and uncle, Morphy became one of the best players in his native state New Orleans by the age of nine and defeated a Hungarian master Johann Löwenthal at the age of 12. He defeated almost all the best players of America and Europe in the period between 1857 and 1859, and was widely regarded as world’s best chess players at that time.

Some of his ‘classic’ games are the brightest examples of combinative style of play in which a player sacrifices his important pieces to deceive the opponent, eventually resulting in his victory.

Some other great chess players: Paul Keres, Adolf Anderssen, Howard Staunton, Vasily Smyslov, Max Euwe, Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, Susan Polgar, Judit Polgar