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List of 60 Games by Masters with Tactical Importance

February 4, 2025

List of 60 Games with Tactical Importance

Absolutely! Below is a curated list of 60 brilliant attacking and tactical masterpieces from various chess legends, arranged by player. These games are packed with sacrifices, combinations, and instructive ideas to sharpen your tactical vision.

1. Romantic Era (Sacrificial Style)

  1. Paul Morphy vs. Duke Karl / Count Isouard (1858) – "The Opera Game"
  2. Adolf Anderssen vs. Lionel Kieseritzky (1851) – "The Immortal Game"
  3. Adolf Anderssen vs. Jean Dufresne (1852) – "The Evergreen Game"
  4. Paul Morphy vs. James Thompson (1858) – Queen sacrifice & crushing attack
  5. Louis Paulsen vs. Paul Morphy (1857) – Morphy’s king hunt

2. Wilhelm Steinitz & Johannes Zukertort (Early Positional Masters)

  1. Wilhelm Steinitz vs. Curt von Bardeleben (1895) – King march in the endgame
  2. Johannes Zukertort vs. Joseph Blackburne (1883) – Tactical domination

3. Mikhail Tal (The Magician from Riga)

  1. Mikhail Tal vs. Mikhail Botvinnik (1960, World Ch.) – Sacrificing everything!
  2. Mikhail Tal vs. Vasily Smyslov (1959) – ♘ sacrifice on f7
  3. Mikhail Tal vs. Bobby Fischer (1959) – Tactical slugfest
  4. Mikhail Tal vs. Tigran Petrosian (1975) – Breaking the "Iron Tigran"
  5. Mikhail Tal vs. Bent Larsen (1965) – Queen sacrifice

4. Alexander Alekhine (Dynamic Attacker)

  1. Alexander Alekhine vs. Aron Nimzowitsch (1930) – ♗ sacrifice on h7
  2. Alexander Alekhine vs. Efim Bogoljubov (1922) – Double bishop sacrifice
  3. Alexander Alekhine vs. Richard Réti (1925) – Tactical masterpiece

5. Bobby Fischer (Precision & Calculation)

  1. Bobby Fischer vs. Donald Byrne (1956) – "The Game of the Century" (♕ sacrifice)
  2. Bobby Fischer vs. Robert Wade (1964) – ♘ sacrifice on e6
  3. Bobby Fischer vs. Tigran Petrosian (1971) – Positional crush
  4. Bobby Fischer vs. Bent Larsen (1971) – 6-0 demolition
  5. Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spassky (1972, Game 6) – "The perfect game"

6. Garry Kasparov (Aggressive Dynamism)

  1. Garry Kasparov vs. Veselin Topalov (1999) – "Kasparov’s Immortal" (♕ sacrifice)
  2. Garry Kasparov vs. Viktor Korchnoi (1983) – Tactical melee
  3. Garry Kasparov vs. Anatoly Karpov (1985, Game 16) – ♘ sacrifice on d5
  4. Garry Kasparov vs. Viswanathan Anand (1995) – King hunt
  5. Garry Kasparov vs. Nigel Short (1993) – ♗ sacrifice on h6

7. Judit Polgár (Most Tactical Woman Ever)

  1. Judit Polgár vs. Garry Kasparov (2002) – Beating Kasparov with tactics
  2. Judit Polgár vs. Vladimir Kramnik (2003) – Brilliant attack
  3. Judit Polgár vs. Alexei Shirov (1998) – Fire on board!

8. Alexei Shirov (Fire on Board!)

  1. Alexei Shirov vs. Vasily Ivanchuk (1991) – ♖ sacrifice in time trouble
  2. Alexei Shirov vs. Joel Lautier (1994) – ♕ sacrifice
  3. Alexei Shirov vs. Viswanathan Anand (1998) – Tactical chaos

9. Viswanathan Anand (Lightning Calculation)

  1. Viswanathan Anand vs. Veselin Topalov (2010) – King walk
  2. Viswanathan Anand vs. Levon Aronian (2013) – Tactical finish
  3. Viswanathan Anand vs. Michael Adams (2001) – ♗ sacrifice

10. Magnus Carlsen (Endgame & Practical Tactics)

  1. Magnus Carlsen vs. Levon Aronian (2015) – Endgame magic
  2. Magnus Carlsen vs. Sergey Karjakin (2016, World Ch.) – Winning endgame
  3. Magnus Carlsen vs. Anish Giri (2019) – Practical squeeze

11. Other Modern Tactical Masters

  1. Hikaru Nakamura vs. Levon Aronian (2011) – ♕ sacrifice
  2. Levon Aronian vs. Peter Svidler (2008) – Brilliancy
  3. Veselin Topalov vs. Vishy Anand (2005) – King attack
  4. Vladimir Kramnik vs. Peter Leko (2004) – Endgame tactics
  5. Fabiano Caruana vs. Wesley So (2016) – Tactical slugfest

12. Hypermodern & Positional Sacrifices

  1. Richard Réti vs. Savielly Tartakower (1910) – ♕ sacrifice
  2. Aron Nimzowitsch vs. Siegbert Tarrasch (1914) – Positional crush
  3. Bent Larsen vs. Boris Spassky (1965) – ♗ sacrifice

13. Modern Tactical Classics

  1. Wesley So vs. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2016) – Endgame tactics
  2. Alireza Firouzja vs. Magnus Carlsen (2019) – Young gun’s attack
  3. Ian Nepomniachtchi vs. Ding Liren (2023) – World Championship tactics

14. Unusual & Creative Sacrifices

  1. Gata Kamsky vs. Veselin Topalov (1996) – ♖ sacrifice
  2. Boris Gelfand vs. Judit Polgár (2002) – Double rook sacrifice
  3. Vladimir Kramnik vs. Peter Svidler (2001) – ♕ sacrifice

15. Lesser-Known Gems

  1. Rashid Nezhmetdinov vs. Oleg Chernikov (1962) – ♕ sacrifice
  2. Efim Geller vs. Bobby Fischer (1962) – Breaking Fischer’s streak
  3. Miguel Najdorf vs. Oscar Panno (1954) – Tactical melee

16. Computer-Assisted Brilliancies

  1. Deep Blue vs. Garry Kasparov (1997, Game 6) – Historic upset
  2. Stockfish vs. AlphaZero (2018) – Modern AI tactics

17. Recent Tactical Masterpieces

  1. Ding Liren vs. Ian Nepomniachtchi (2023, WCC) – Endgame tactics
  2. Anish Giri vs. Magnus Carlsen (2021) – Practical squeeze
  3. Wesley So vs. Hikaru Nakamura (2020) – Endgame precision
  4. Levon Aronian vs. Magnus Carlsen (2017) – Tactical slugfest

How to Study These Games?

  1. Play through them without engine help first – Try to guess the next move.
  2. Note the key moments – Where did the sacrifice happen? What was the idea?
  3. Recreate the tactics – Set up the board and replay combinations.
  4. Compare with annotations – Books like "The Most Instructive Games of Chess Ever Played" (Chernev) help.

Would you like PGNs or video links for any of these? Let me know, and I can provide resources!

Aidchess's Note: We recommend memorizing these games on this website. Head over to Featured Openings to find all these games in a study. Once you study and learn them all, don't forget to use the Repetition feature to recall the moves with daily quizzes powered by spaced repetition.