Smyslov_Fan wrote on 06/10/07 at 06:56:51:


Oh yes, Euwe did. Maybe more in his last 15 years than before, I don't know. The last years of his life Euwe regularly played in Dutch team matches. All testimonies are the same: after the game Euwe spend some time analysing.

@Willempie
Alas I have not spend much time in The Netherlands last 7 years, so no, I have missed that documentary. I already knew the story though, probably in a In Memorial on Donner. The version I know ends, that Donner's suggestions usually turned out to be interesting. In this version Donner invented this new moves in the streetcar on his way to Euwe, ordering Tabe Bas (indeed, it is him) to remain silent for a couple of minutes.

Petrosian was socially inept.  This is almost certainly due to the fact that he was almost completely deaf.  Petrosian wasn't really difficult to get along with, but communications with him were famously difficult.  

Korchnoi was never World Champion, but his paranoia and belligerance puts him on the short list of most unlikeable (personally rather than morally) chess greats.  I understand that Alekhin was fairly charming before WWII.

Of course, Max Euwe was the model gentleman... with other GMs.  I never heard of him analysing with duffers the way Tal did.  Still, I from what I know, Euwe clearly ranks as one of the nicest World Champions.  (I wonder if "nice" was even a goal for most WCs.)

Oh yeah, let me throw in a word for my monniker!  Smyslov was apparently quite well liked by most people who met him.  Even David Bronstein, who later accused him of colluding with the Soviets against Jews and non-Russians (without supplying any actual evidence), had only nice things to say about Smyslov for most of his life.

I remember reading that Petrosian was a down to earth guy.  (Maybe I read that in a Kramnik interview.)

MNb wrote on 06/09/07 at 20:57:05:

Again we are not disagreeing, where is the world coming to?

Have you ever seen the documentary about Donner? In it Tabe Bas (iirc) relates how he and Donner would get wasted in Amsterdam and then at 6 in the morning wanted to have breakfast. So Donner suggested going to Euwe's house. So with the pretense of some new move in the Nimzo they would barge in and get breakfast (the old fashioned dutch one, courtesy of mrs Euwe), meanwhile analysing this new move with the WC himself. According to him the move unsurprisingly turned out to be rubbish.

Euwe

BTW:  Capa had the reputation of being a complete snob.  One would think a diplomat from Cuba would be more suave, but he was apparently one of the more arrogant people playing professional chess.  (That's a tough crowd to be considered among the most arrogant!)

JonHecht wrote on 06/09/07 at 15:12:01:



Many?  Of the ones usually recognized as WC, only Steinitz and Fischer immediately come to mind as "crazy."   Ok, I'll throw in Morphy too.  I'm not sure or I can't recall about Alekhine though.   

Of the current top players, Kramnik and Anand strike me as very normal or regular.   I could say the same about Leko and a number of others.  The only current top player that immediately comes to mind as odd is Ivanchuk.