The Wizards of Chess

 Estonian  "The Eternal Second".  Defeated 9 undisputed world champions, tied most in history.

 Ukrainian. World Title Challenger (1948–51).  Father imprisoned in Gulag unfairly.

At 22, won Hastings 1895 tournament. Early death prevented challenging for World Championship.

Electrical engineer and computer scientist. 3 time world champion. Pioneer of computer chess.

Ukrainian grandmaster. A leading player in the world since 1988, ranking as high as No. 2 (Elo)

Successful medical practice. Best player in the world in the early 1890s. Faced antisemitism

Classical World Chess Champion 2000 to 2006, and undisputed World Champion from 2006 to 2007

Armenian Grandmaster, World Champion from 1963 to 1969. Hardest player to beat ever? "Iron ___"

 Hungarian practicing engineer. 1902 - 1908 won 5 1st prizes & 5 2nd prizes.

1842 – 1888. Polish chess master. A leading world player for most of the 1870s and 1880s.

Polish accountant by profession. Strong contender for World Championship mid-1930s to mid-1960s

 Strongest player to never become World Champion. Born Leningrad, defected to Netherlands 1976

German mathematician. World Chess Champion for 27 years (from 1894 to 1921).

India's first grandmaster. Undisputed World Champion in 2007 - 2012. Rated #1 for 21 months. 

At age 15 became grandmaster. In 1972, he captured the World Chess Championship from B. Spassky

World champion from 1975 - 1985 & 1993 - 1999. Played 3 matches against Kasparov for the title

Polish. Match vs Emanuel Lasker for World Championship in 1914, cancelled by outbreak of WW I.

Champion 1969 - 1972. Learned chess at age 5 on a train evacuating Leningrad during WW2.

World Champion at age 22. Ranked #1 from 1986 to 2005. Played IBM's "Deep Blue".

Left Soviet Russia, represented France since 1925. Dominant between the World Wars.

Cuban world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. Exceptional endgame . Only 35 losses in career.

Russian World Champion 1957 - 1958. 8 time Candidate for World Chess Championship. Died 2010.

Latvian World Champion 1960 - 1961. Best attacking player of all time? regarded creative genius

 Polish-Argentine.  In Buenos Aires at outbreak of World War II, escaping the Holocaust.

Austrian world champion from 1886 - 1894. Unbeaten in match play for 32 years. Lived in poverty