The London 2013 Candidates chess tournament will be remembered not only for its high quality of play, but also for the extraordinary collective talents of its eight participants. Simply put, with just a few exceptions, the participants represented the cream of human chess players on the planet.
Chess has been celebrated for its prodigies, much like music and mathematics. The talents which we call ‘extraordinary’ are rare, becoming famous over time. We are familiar with such names as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, or Beethoven, or the erudite Indian mathematician who invented the zero. They are all matched with the likes of Fischer,