It's not very well known these days but Tarrasch was also a talented chess composer, as was Lasker. Even the supposedly "lazy" Capablanca composed a few nice problems (probably didn't take him too long). Reti is still famous for his endgame compositions, of course.

More modern GMs: Paul Keres had some elegant compositions to his name. Yuri Averbakh composed some nice endgame studies between the 50s and 70s. Pal Benko, Jan Timman, Alexander Beliavsky, John Nunn, and Pavel Blatny also come to mind. (I remember a particularly beautiful composition by Pavel Blatny which he personally demonstrated for a delighted audience at a tournament some years ago.)

<atripodi and other chess problem enthusiasts:> From my "top-five" list, a lot of people might think it's too much to include Liburkin in the same category as the other four. It's probably true that he didn't compose *as many* brilliant studies as the others listed (though he still composed a lot of them!), but the best compositions of Mark Liburkin are right up there with the best of the others. I will post my favorite of Liburkin's compositions here because unfortunately there is no ChessGames page for this great problemist.

Mark Liburkin died tragically in his early 40s. He composed the following problem at the age of 23:

<M. Liburkin, 1933.
White to move and win:>

click for larger view

White has a huge material advantage, of course, but Black makes use of his opponent's vulnerable King position to create some serious threats with his three remaining pieces. In order to win, White needs to play like a magician:

1. Ne4+ Kd3
2. Nc5+ Kc3
3. Nb3 Be5
4. f4 Bg7
5. e8N!

The first underpromotion, a knight, which is necessary to avoid mate.

5... Bh8
6. f5 Be5
7. Bh2! Bxh2
8. b7 Be5
9. b8B!

The second underpromotion, a bishop -- getting a queen would be a blunder because Black can force a draw after 9.b8Q?? Kxc4+, 10.Qxe5 c1Q+, 11.Nxc1 stalemate.

9. ... Bxb8
10. Nc7! Bxc7
11. e7 Be5
12. e8R!

The third underpromotion, a rook -- getting a queen would allow the same forced stalemate as before

12... Bf6
13. Re6

and Liburkin's original composition stops here. For completeness, the win is clear after:

13... Bd4
14. Re1! Bf6
15. Rb1! Kd3+
16. Rb2 Ke2
17. a4 Kd1
18. a3 c1Q+
19. Nxc1 Kxc1
20. c5 Bxb2+
21. Ka2 Be5
22. a5

Atripodi,
John Nunn, Jonathan Mestel and Ram Soffer have received the GM title for both OTB play and chess compositions.

http://de.chessbase.com/home/TabId/...

Unfortunately I did not meet Afek personally yet, but we have every now and then contact about chess studies. The contact mostly is because he is editor of "The Problemist" chess studies, the magazine of the British Chess Problem Society, so if I send something in he checks it. He's a very nice correspondent from what I can tell and also very valuable for chess studies.

The following wonderful study was based on a World Chess Championship game (Kramnik vs. Anand, WCH 2008, game 5: Kramnik vs Anand, 2008) but adds new aspects thereby artistically surpassing the game.

click for larger view

Yochanan Afek, Schach December 2008 & January 2009, 2nd prize in biennial tourney 2008-2009 White wins

1.Sd6!! cxd6 2.cxd6 Re1+ 3.Kc2!/i Re2+ 4.Kc3 Re3+ 5.Kc4 Re4+ 6.Kc5! Re5+ 7.Kc6 Re6 8.Rd8 Rf6!/ii 9.Kc5!!/iii Rf5+ 10.Kd4 Kb7 11.d7 Se7 12.Tb8+!

I will never forget that first April afternoon, when I went for the first time into his chess club, an over-confident 17 yo guy who finally manages to beat all of his friends after reading a couple of books.

I was feeling like a great authority on chess, and wanted to play a master (Ran Shabtay) right then and there!

The master himself wasn't so sure about it... and later Afek simply suggested that I try a couple of the fifth-category (1600ish) kids first...

Of course I was in ties and knots over my head after 12 moves or so, game after game...

It was at that moment that I realized that indeed, a chess club does have something to offer in way of some higher understanding...