People talk about chess stylet. Obviously, some players such as Tal or Shirazi sought out highly tactical positions but is there anything more to it than that? The only alternative to being a tactician appears to be a positional player. Are there other dimensions of style or is that it? I suspect there are other dimensions. For example Petrosian, Carsen and Karpov are more positional players but their styles were quite different. Similarly, Spassky is a tactical players but quite different from Tal.
2 Answers
ChessPersonality.com lists the following chess styles, listed with a great player who exemplifies that style and opening recommendations:
- Professional
- Romantic
- Surgeon
- Technician
- Anaconda
- Assassin
- Barbarian
- Champion
- Escape artist
- Genius
- Grinder
- Mad scientist
- Magician
- Mastermind
- Natural
- Prodigy
Each style varies according to where players typically sit on the following spectra:
- Attacking - positional play
- Aggressive - solid
- Intuitive - calculating
- Emotional - calm
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No problem @ProjnabrataSeth. If this answered your question, please upvote using the up arrow and/or accept using the tick icon.– user1108Feb 27, 2017 at 15:35
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Nice answer! Just curious, what chess style (from the list you provided) does Magnus Carlsen play? Anaconda? Dec 23, 2017 at 13:24
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@HarryWeasley: He's listed under the prodigy link– user1108Dec 23, 2017 at 22:44
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When you say the word "Chess Style " the kind of Play the Player will reveal. The Style means what kind of play he is adept with and he likes to play the most. Yes Styles can even be transitioned .e.g. Bobby changed his playing style and his opening repertoire in 1992 match against Spassky . Chess Style reflects your own Personality and brings out the facets of the game according to your own way. The Style is something you are born with.
There are not many different kinds of Style that Chess has been bestowed . Already you have named the different Players where they categorise .
- Fischer/Kasparov :- Tacticians and also Positionally sound .
- Mikhail Tal :- Highly imaginative & Wild Tactician play.
- Botvinnik/Karpov/Petrosian :- Very Positional
- Capablanca :- Fights with small force.
- Alekhine :- A Style as Brilliant as Sunlight . Brilliant Tactician.
- Nimzowitsch :- His Opponents proclaimed Magical Moves as like Wizard.
- Rubinstein/Magnus Carlsen :- End Game Experts
Rudolf Speilmann :- Art/Master of Sacrifice.
Vishy Anand :- No specific style but lots of Hard work and effort with some ultrasonic gigantic calculating ability .
- Vladimir Kramnik :- Very mobile with pieces.
There are many other players whom I cannot define everyone but what I mean I can look into any games of these above players and I can tell by looking at the Style that it belongs to Tal/Capa/Magnus or any other .