Greatest Attacking Chess Players Of All Time

Here's an impressive game by Anderssen:

whenever i hear the word "attacker" or "best attacker" of all time, Paul Morphy always comes to my mind. Because of his amazing games... you will see it if you see his games... You guys don't have to be a strong player to understand it.

why would you attack chess players?

Anderssen, Morphy, Tal, Stein and Alekhine come to mind, out of those GMs no longer with us.

THANKS FOR THAT FANTASTIC GAME BY ANDERSSEN.

BISHOP SACRIFICE PAYS OFF.

it looks like ? in the game above could have easily taken the bishop with 12. cxd4 and gone ahead with relative king safety and a positional and material advantage...

Not if you follow the line in blue.

I nominate Karel Traxler, a late 19th, early 20th century Catholic priest. Besides being a great attacking player (see Traxler counter-attack on youtube), he was a chess composer. Notre Dame could have used him against Alabama.

Carlsen knows how to attack. Of course he does. But the hallmark of his victories has been outplaying his opponents positionally. He does not deserve to be in a discussion of the greatest attacking players any more than Capablanca would.

And yes, Capablanca knew how to conduct an attack.

Anand is a great attacker, but probably the best pure attacker today is Hikaru Nakamura. Yes, Naka is a mean defender, but he strives to attack whether he's White or Black. He often is down in material because he's sac'd it to get an attack. His high rating is a testament to his excellent defensive skills. Pure attackers don't tend to be as highly rated as more universal players these days.

Other great attacking players to keep an eye include Giri, Wang Hao, Aronian, Caruana, and among the old guard,  Morozevich, Ivanchuk, Polgar, Shirov.

Historically, I still look to Morphy, Pillsbury, Marshall, Alekhin, Keres, Bronstein, Geller, Tal, Larsen, and especially Kasparov. Of all those players, Kasparov's attacks were the most lethal, stood up best to close scrutiny, and were among the most creative ever seen.

Alekhin, Tal and Kasparov stand out for being world champions and great attackers. If we were to judge attacking skill compared to their contemporaries, these three deserve to be considered the three greatest attackers of all time. (Morphy deserves an honorable mention, but he lived in an era of great Romantic attackers. In his own day, his attacking skill wasn't considered to be unique.)

TAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fischer

Whoa (that was like a Who concert).

what about bobby fischer ? the most precise attacker in chess.

Precisely!

yeah FIscher!!!! 

David Bronstein, not really remembered specifically for his attacking style, but he was able to find really unusual original ideas over the board which often led to some very beautiful wins. I have his book called 'The sourcerers apprentice' which is full of loads of his games and they are inspirational.

Great attackers:Morphy, Chigorin, Pillsbury, Marshall,  Tarrasch, Spielmann, Alekhine, Keres, Tal, Bronstein, Geller, Nezhmetdiinov, Stein, Spassky, Kasparov, Shirov, Topalov, Anand.

Bobby Fischer.

Maybe someone who is a better chess player than me can answer this, but I don't think Bobby Fischer can be classed as an attacking player? Not compared to Morphy, Keres, Tal, Spassky, Kasparov. According to Kramnik, his specialty was relentless positional pressure: constantly asking his opponent to solve very complex challenges, battling for the initiative from the word go. Relentless pressure until you crack can be more disconcerting than a beautiful attack! More Nadal than Federer, to borrow from another sport.....