Top 10 Best Tactical Players of All Time

1. Bobby Fisher

2.Magnus Carlsen

3.Teiymor Radjabov

my top 1 its Alekhine, that man was a chessmonster

gotta be Tal

even though he admits that not all of his sacrifices were sound, and some of the tactics could have been exploited

he said some sacrifices made him nervous, but he realized that they made his opponets more nervous

1. Morphy

2. Tal

You just missed the king of them all..Tigran Petrosian.The Iron Tiger.

Petrosian wasn t surely spectacular player, but his tactics of constraining opponent moves and slowly get small advantages was legendary.

Guess Tal, Alekhine, Fischer and Kasparov are the top 4. Alekhine MUST be in that top 4.

1. Capablanca

2. Kasparov

3. Fischer

4. Morphy

That would be my list :)

I'd like to put David Bronstein into the mix - here's a game of his that I think is especially brilliant, as he accepts a lot of tactical dangers himself yet maintains a strong attack throughout.

25. e3 probably deserves a !! marking not only because it's part of Bronstein's plan and white's king is seemingly exposed to checks, being in the middle of the board - which would in normal circumstances defuse a tactical attack - but also because (according to this borrowed analysis) it is the only winning move in the position:

+4.58 25.e3 h5 26.xh5 xb3+ 27.axb3 d5+ 28.d4 e6+ 29.xd5 gxh5 30.xh5+ g8 31.g4 xg5 32.xg5+ h7 33.e7 b5 34.d7 g6 35.f6+ h7

-0.30 25.f2 d3+ 26.g1 c5+ 27.g2 e1+ 28.xe1 d4 29.h4 xh4 30.xh4 g7 31.d5 d7 32.a4 b5 33.f6+ xf6 34.exf6+ h6 35.xb5

-0.46 25.d1 f1+ 26.d2 d3+ 27.e1 b1+ 28.f2 h5 29.xh5 d3+ 30.e2 e1+ 31.xe1 xe1 32.f6 xf3 33.xf3 g7 34.e3

That is a amazing game!

1. Tal

2. Tal

3. Tal

4. Tal

5. Tal

6. Tal

7. Tal

8. Tal

9. Tal

10. Tal

All great players are in some sense great tacticians and great positional players there's no denying that... You don't get to be world champion being one-sided.  Buuut... that said... Petrosian is at the top, or near the top of the anti-tactical players! You have to love what Botvinnik said about Petrosian, "When Petrosian sacrifices a piece: resign." 

Karpov is another great postional crusher -- and he's an absolutely amazing tactician when he needs to be, (Kramnik too) -- but tactic-tal fireworks is not his preferred game.

Great positional/defensive players, in no particular order:

Steinitz

Karpov

Petrosian

Botvinnik

Schlecter

Maroczy

Kramnik

Nimzowitsch

Many others I'm sure I've missed.

1. Kasparov 

2.  Fisher 

3. Anand 

4.Carlson 

5. Morphy 

6. Capablanca 

7. Karpov 

8. Krammnik

9. Tal 

10. Polgar  

Yeah... I think a lot of people people misinterpret "tactical" for "aggressive" or at the very least cannot differentiate between the two.

Great defenders such as Petrosian, Karpov, and Kramnik had to be exemplary tacticians to perform so well against great attackers. I personally don't believe Tal isn't any better or worse a tactician than Petrosian.

anderson

Please be relevant, helpful & nice!

1.Kasparov

2.Karpov

3.Bobby Fischer for me. 

nyLsel, you could have done that in one post!  :-p

I'm going to have to agree with some of these posts and say it's crazy that Fischer wasn't on the list or even given an honorable mention, but Spassky is.

Tal, Ivanchuk, Shirov, Fischer