Ulf Andersson comes to mind--along with Akiba Rubinstein of course.
Positional Players
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Off the top of my head I have:
Capablanca, Smyslov, Karpov, Petrosian, Fischer, Gelfand, Rubenstein, Kramnik, Korchnoi, Morphy (to some extent), Nimzowitsch, Reti, Zhu and Euwe (I suppose) and now Ulf Andersson.
C'mon, there has to be more than this.
Thank you aansel for your comments.
Um, wouldn't every grandmaster be a positional player?
Jul 10, 2009
0
#5
Korchnoi? His and Karpov's styles were pretty far apart.
I also wouldn't put Fischer in there. I put Fischer and Kasparov in a hybrid group (which is probably the best group to be in). Petrosian might play positionally even when the board position did not dictate. Shirov might attack when the position did not call for it.
Yes the styles could argueably be different.
Karpov by move 20 its = than by move 30 its +/= by move 40 its +/- as he slowly manuvers on the first 3 ranks then by move 40 the opponent suddenly falls to bits.
Korchnoi grabs an advantage (a pawn usually) and then sits on it for 40 moves until the opponent makes a mistake and then his opponent fall to bits with very presise counterthrusts.
Both positional styles but they do differ, I agree.
I also agree about fischer. He could be very agressive and gambit-ish but similarly his positional plans in his games are crystal-clear. For example his play with the Kings Indian Defence is model-worthy. A truly great all-round player.
I always thought short was supposed to be an agressive tactical player? I don't know for definate though so I'll check it out
Jul 11, 2009
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#8
Kepler wrote:
Short is the one one who said "Modern chess is too much concerned with things like pawn structure. Forget it - checkmate ends the game." That doesn't sound particularly like a positional player.
positional play shows the ability for deep statergy and in won of shorts best games against karpov in servile world champonship eliminzator game six i think Nigel played ruy lopez worrell attack amzingly karpov did amazing not to get blowen away very quickly and even though he didn't put a foot wrong he lost a rook for free and only karpov's defensive skill drew the game out to a resonable length even thouht short goes for cheakmate he was without thought creating and exploiting weaknesses in karpovs position so in effect short shows his stategic positional ability in this game
ozzie_c_cobblepot wrote:
Korchnoi? His and Karpov's styles were pretty far apart.
I also wouldn't put Fischer in there. I put Fischer and Kasparov in a hybrid group (which is probably the best group to be in). Petrosian might play positionally even when the board position did not dictate. Shirov might attack when the position did not call for it.
And Tal might sacrifice just because, well, he's Tal !!
Hi folks. Okay who can name as many positional players as possible. I don't just mean Karpov and Capablanca I'm talking about the less known guys too.
Can anyone help?