Greatest Chess Photos

This is a classical chess photo, one of if not the most famous: Alekhine's death scene.

It is thought that Alekhine collapsed in front of his hotel door and was dragged inside by persons unknown to leave him in a more dignified repose.

There are other famous pics out there but this probably tops them all.

Interesting picture

This one is not nearly so famous or dramatic, but it's a proper companion to the Alekhine photo above. This is the Capablanca funeral procession when it reached Cuba. Capa was, and remains, a hero to the people of the small island nation.

i think the Alekhine picture was set up by the KGB or something, its not natural!  the chess board is set up but no pieces moved!?  come on now Alekhine wouldnt have a board set up and not  move anything!  hes wearing a coat at the dinner/chess table?!  no signs of a struggle like someone choking or stroking or having a heart attack, he looks like he fell asleep at the table...it was believed that someone placed him there!?  yea the KGB!  (sorry to offend any KGB agent reading this dont kill me please im just a stupid american kid)

I always thought this one was pretty well known (Bobby Fischer):

cool

This is an iconic photo: Little Sammy Reshevsky in his sailor suit on tour, giving another simultaneous exhibition. Sammy was seemingly born with the capacity to play strong chess and was master strength from early on. This photo is from 1920. In 1922 he defeated Janowski ( a very strong player though past his prime) in a tournament. Sammy was 10 years old by the conventional account, though some believe that his parents subtracted 2 years from his age to make his simultaneous exhibitions more attractive, and his small stature abetted this subterfuge. Reshevsky always denied this.

original GrandMasters of chess (St. Petersburg, 1914)

(l-r) Lasker, Alekhine, Capablanca, Marshall, Tarrasch

my personal favorite

Very nice. Merci!

Here is a pic you've probably never seen before, but I think it is a great one. We see Fischer in as typical a pose as you will ever find him: Studying Spassky's games in preparation for the WC match, using his favorite set of men (he would describe to reporters how great is was, with no sharp edges and so very matte) on one of those vinyl boards without fabric backing but also very matte with great low contrast colors. Cue the dingy hotel room. There we have a pure bit of Fischer. Working hard and alone, singlemindedly.

This one gets me every time. Imagine having to sit at a table for 5 hours with this guy staring at you :)

Later thought: if you hold on for 5 hours, you're probably not that bad yourself, but...man...THE STARE!

Mikhail Tal was famous for his stare too--and I have a photo coming of him--but in The Inner Game by Lawson (about the Kasparov-Short match) Tal's stare is called benign compared to Kasparov's "malignant" eye-work.

 and silly me..

I always thought a stare is a stare!!!

damn the kaspa one is mind bogglingly maddd!!

I have always loved this one of Tal.

That's the one I was going to post lol. Benko tried to fight the stare with big reflective sunglasses but he gave up on that idea. Korchnoi also tried the big wrap around reflectives on Karpov but I believe he gave up on it too.

Leaving your regular routine is a hazard in itself.

Here is a piece of footage of Tal and I believe you can see Benko and his sunglasses. They look dark rather than reflective to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jshd4ZwB_Vw

Anna's favorite MUST be Tal ?!!  Ofcourse mine is Fischer and the pic of him in post 10 is one of my favorites of him. You guys keep em coming and lets see if we can get pics of all the world champions in this thread ?!  I would help but I am an old geezer and technologically challenged.

I think #10 of Fischer is from the very beginning of his match with Petrosian in Argentina. He is composing himself before game 1. Nice equipment for that match, too. The previous match, vs. Larsen, they used a cheap board and PLASTIC pieces. That was in Denver. Well, they were those Drueke Players Choice pieces. At least they were nice plastic pieces :)