Who is the most famous person you have ever talked to?

[machomortensen]

I hope that there aren't a similar thread long down in the archives ...

My best shot are Jimmy Connors or Bent Larsen.

And best known Aussies are Ian Rogers and Wayne Arthurs.

[Kevin Bonham]

I hope that there aren't a similar thread long down in the archives ...

Couldn't find one. If there is I'll merge it.

I'm not really sure how to best measure fame between different fields as there are many different fields in which I have met famous people. One doubtless flawed measure I came up with was number of footnotes in a person's Wikipedia entry. On this basis the top eight I so far recall having in-person conversations with, however short or long, came out as:

Garry Kasparov 201
Levon Aronian 118
Bob Brown 81
David Suzuki 79
Andrew Wilkie 69
Richard Flanagan 67
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov 43
Steve Kilbey 40

However I'm not sure whether Flanagan at least is really as famous as a large number of famous cricketers who I bludged autographs from as a child. (I also sat next to the late Martin Crowe on a plane once but can't remember if there was any conversation or not.) It may be more that people tend to write about them in more detail on Wikipedia. Also band and team members may be disadvantaged by more being written about their band or team.

I had a close encounter with Bob Hawke once but not an actual conversation. I am not sure whether or not I met Terry Tao when I was a junior chessplayer.

[b.nancarrow]

This thread is the closest: http://www.chesschat.org/showthread....isit-your-home

[Desmond]

Dr Karl 35
Dave Hughes 24
Ella Hooper 22
Ernie Dingo 18
A few world class swimmers that don't rate highly on that measure (Eg Tarnee White, Geoff Huegill).

[antichrist]

Just remembered i spoke to Chinese world table tennis champion and had a game with him. I retired from the game when he let me get ahead.

[antichrist]

Many conversations with Jack Brabham (?) almost daily.

[antichrist]

Of course Guiness Records holder Paul D and Cec Purdy.

[antichrist]

Many conversations with Jack Brabham (?) almost daily.

And I wasn't the least interested in racing cars and he never mentioned as well.

[Kevin Bonham]

Near miss: George RR Martin (183). Exchanged emails in 1998 but missed a chance to actually meet him because the weekend he came to Tasmania for a convention clashed with the state champs at the other end of the state.

[machomortensen]

I don't know, if the Swedish autor Arne Dahl id famous enough, but I have a few times discussed chess with him.

Most famous Australians at my list are Ian Rogers and Wayne Arthurs.

[MichaelBaron]

I don't know, if the Swedish autor Arne Dahl id famous enough, but I have a few times discussed chess with him.

Most famous Australians at my list are Ian Rogers and Wayne Arthurs.

Or yes, as you mentioned Arne Dahl I realized - I have not mentioned Roald Dahl that I spoke to as a kid (including on the phone) and whose book ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' I translated into Russian!

[antichrist]

Or yes, as you mentioned Arne Dahl I realized - I have not mentioned Roald Dahl that I spoke to as a kid (including on the phone) and whose book ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' I translated into Russian!

For a wedding gift i was given a chocolate chess set yes I ate it.

[Desmond]

Near miss: George RR Martin (183). Exchanged emails in 1998 but missed a chance to actually meet him because the weekend he came to Tasmania for a convention clashed with the state champs at the other end of the state.

I had a near miss of Michael Clarke (112). He was doing autographs in a shopping centre, I would have lined up but they weren't taking more into the queue as he was soon to leave.

[Kevin Bonham]

If we're including talking on the phone (and why not) I can add Nick Xenophon (122).

[edit: also added Wilkie to post 2]

[Scott Colliver]

Greg Blewett

Apart from that Kevin is probably as famous as anybody else.