tal is great. i'd suggest morphy also.
Greatest Attacking Chess Players Of All Time
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I'd like to nominate Frank Marshall and Rashid Nezhmetdinov as the greatest attacking chess players of all time.
All great names (above), allow me to add Leonid Stein to the list.
Loads of his best efforts can be found here:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1012238
and in hardcopy here:
http://www.amazon.com/Leonid-Stein-Hardinge-Simpole-classics/dp/1843820188
i would suggest morphy here.
PrawnEatsPrawn wrote:
All great names (above), allow me to add Leonid Stein to the list.
Loads of his best efforts can be found here:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1012238
and in hardcopy here:
http://www.amazon.com/Leonid-Stein-Hardinge-Simpole-classics/dp/1843820188
I'd wanted some attacking games to review -- this should be a great list, thanks :)
insertnamehere99 wrote:
i would suggest morphy here.
yeah that is one of the greatest attacking games i've ever seen. hence why i also suggested morphy. here`s another great game by him:
All these names and you leave off Alekhine? Distasteful personality (to say the least) aside, he was one of the greatest combinational geniuses in the history of chess. Also, you've got to factor in Bronstein, Keres, Kasparov, and Shirov, who are/were all brilliant attackers as well.
Gambitknight wrote:
All these names and you leave off Alekhine? Distasteful personality (to say the least) aside, he was one of the greatest combinational geniuses in the history of chess. Also, you've got to factor in Bronstein, Keres, Kasparov, and Shirov, who are/were all brilliant attackers as well.
All those names but no games or references? 
PrawneatsPrawn: I'll play your games.
Alekhine: some sample games.
Alekhine: vs. Bogoljubov (1922) http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1012099
vs. Reti (1925): http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1012326
Bronstein: vs. Ljubojevic (1973): (watch and be amazed) http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1034661
vs. Keres (1955): http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1033895
Keres: (a note on Keres: he doesn't strike me to be quite as imaginative an attacker as Bronstein or Tal were, but once his combinations seemed to be a lot cleaner, which is a sign of greatness in and of itself)
vs. Szabo (1955) http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1136833
vs. Geller (1962): http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1049065
Kasparov: vs. Topalov (1999): http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1011478.
vs. Kramnik (1994): http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1070747
Shirov (very complicated and messy (looking at many of his sacrifices, I cannot help but think that Rybka would be able to find a way out); neverthless, many of his conceptions remain nothing short of spectacular): vs. Lipinsky (1990): http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1074916
vs. Kramnik (1994): http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1085871
Topalov is agressive player.
Be it on the board, off-board
I'd nominate some super GMs today that are really good at making those crazy sacrifice attacks:
Alexei Shirov, Vugar Gashimov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Teimour Radjabov, and of course Garry Kasparov has some amazing games like that too.
Garry Kasparov game with 3 sacrifices:
- "Nobody sees combinations like Rashid Nezhmetdinov." Mikhail Botvinnik
- Nezhmetdinov is "the greatest master of the initiative." Lev Polugaevsky
- "His games reveal the beauty of chess and make you love in chess not so much the points and high placings, but the wonderful harmony and elegance of this particular world." Mikhail Tal
- "Rashid Nezhmetdinov is a virtuoso of combinational chess." David Bronstein
Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh, a strong positional and endgame player, suggested a possible reason for this in his interview by Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam in The Day Kasparov Quit:
- "Nezhmetdinov, . . . if he had the attack, could kill anybody, including Tal. But my score against him was something like 8½–0½ because I did not give him any possibility for an active game. In such cases he would immediately start to spoil his position because he was looking for complications."
Nezhmetdinov won a number of games against world champions such as Tal and Spassky, and also had success against other world-class grandmasters such as Bronstein, Polugaevsky, and Geller. He achieved a plus score in the 20 games he contested against World Champions. But in addition to his aforementioned dismal score against Averbakh, he could only score +0−3=2 each against excellent defenders Petrosian[1] and Korchnoi.[2]
morphy,alekhine,tal, botvinik,stein,plays in the era where chess is not highly evolved as today..unlike in the era of kasparov,too many books have written too many strong computer,to dominate in these era is awesome,kasparov is a monster with 10 eyes.. just have to study his game to see how awesome this guy was...
Bronstein's games doesn't strike me as being clearly attacking games, they just strike me as being really complicated. Sometimes in attack, sometimes in defensive situations, and sometimes just due to the unorthodox ideas he has. Such as his rather famous queen sacrifice for the bishop pair and 2 pawns in the early stages of the KID.
Morphy & Alekhine have got to be up there w/ the best " Attacking " competitors of all time... wouldn't one think ?!
morphy is more attacker
I klike Morphy's games
There were many chessplayers who played risky games full of traps and victims in the chess history. But the players whose an agressive style of play had a strong base in position were few. I mean Morphy , Alekchine , Tal.
May I suggest Smyslov?
A positional player, yes, but still one of the best attakers ever. For example:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1126406
One of my favorite attacking chess players are Mikhail Tal. He is a perfect example of pure tactical genius. In fact, in my mind, he may have been the best. But that is just my opinion. So there are other chess players out there as well. Topalov can be attacking, but he just doesn't have the certain spark to his attacks like Tal did. So who do you think is the best?