Croes, Rob C. for Anefo · CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

Became the eighth World Chess Champion in 1960 at age 23, the youngest to hold the title at the time, playing an attacking, improvisational style that traded material for initiative in ways opponents struggled to calculate against. Nicknamed "The Magician from Riga," he holds the record for chess's longest unbeaten competitive streak — 95 games between 1973 and 1974 — a mark that stood for over four decades.