Grandmasters I Have Known

No, not me, that's the thread.

http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/skittarch.htm


Scroll down to the title, you'll be fascinated, it's by Hans Kmoch, who was familiar with a half dozen of the greats from the 1930's

I once witnessed a reading/lecture by the great Michail Botwinnik. Does that count ?

I have met quite a few.
If you could assemble all past and present GMs in 1 room, it would be a large gathering of very different people.
Quite a collection of odd-balls in the everyday sense.
Lots of queer behavior and habits.
Jean

Originally posted by Jean Hebert
I have met quite a few.
If you could assemble all past and present GMs in 1 room, it would be a large gathering of very different people.
Quite a collection of odd-balls in the everyday sense.
Lots of queer behavior and habits.
Jean

Any examples?

I know one Dutch grandmaster.

Known in the Biblical sense???
No GM's here, an IM one time.
Nice girl ,still is active chess wise,
not sure about the "other."

Oh, farfeghnugen! I'm trying to bring your attention to a most excellent article, read it and comment on that.

Christianson, Browne, I.Ivanov, D.Gurevich and Annakov I met while directing tournaments.
I played T.Petrosian and A.Ivanov.
But the greatest I ever met was George Koltanowski.

Originally posted by Drumbo
No, not me, that's the thread.

http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/skittarch.htm


Scroll down to the title, you'll be fascinated, it's by Hans Kmoch, who was familiar with a half dozen of the greats from the 1930's

I met GM Alexander Ivanov at the 4th Contininental Chess Congress in Orlando, FL and stood only a few feet away from the board on which he was playing. My mother got his autograph, but I almost shot her for doing it. I mean, autographs from grandmaster's don't go for much unless it's Kasparov, Fischer or Karpov. LOL I guess you have to win the big one to be gathered into the halls of fame and history.

Originally posted by caissad4
Christianson, Browne, I.Ivanov, D.Gurevich and Annakov I met while directing tournaments.
I played T.Petrosian and A.Ivanov.
But the greatest I ever met was George Koltanowski.

I can't believe you played Ivanov. I met another guy who played him at the tournament in Orlando back in 1993. I placed 4th and won a plaque. 🙂
But, just to have played Petrosian - that is timeless! I would never wash those pawns the rest of my life. The Python Petrosian! Yee Haww!

I met David Bronstein, the challenger for the 1951 World Chess Championship (match tied vs. Botvinnik who retained the title). He was a very nice fellow and an extraordinary chess player. In our one game, I played what I thought was a nifty sacrifice, but he easily dealt with my clumsy attack and went on to win.

http://www.chesscafe.com/archives/skittarch.htm

Nice article. Thanks.

Originally posted by der schwarze Ritter
I met David Bronstein, the challenger for the 1951 World Chess Championship (match tied vs. Botvinnik who retained the title). He was a very nice fellow and an extraordinary chess player. In our one game, I played what I thought was a nifty sacrifice, but he easily dealt with my clumsy attack and went on to win.

I played Bronstein about 12 years ago at Hastings and managed to draw, though of course he was into his seventies by then. It was quite a humbling experience analysing the game with him though. That man has forgotten more about chess that most of us will ever know!

Ray Keene used to go to my school and often comes in to play simuls against pupils and teachers. I haven't yet played him but I've said hi and how are you, and plan to play him this summer.

I was lucky enough to go to a chess camp with a couple of buddies about 10 years ago. The only thing I remember is revieiwing some classic games (evergreen and a few others). In one game Kaidanov kept asking what we should do (we had used a knight to fork queen and rook, the queen had moved) and for about 4 turns someone always suggested Nxh8. His reply was always:

"You want ze rook, or you want ze game"? in a accent I could barely understand.

Addendum: I hope that was Kaidanov, my memories of that camp are really hazy.

I have never had a chance to meet any GMs one on one, but the 2 IMs were both very helpful when analyzing the game afterwords.