Mikhail Tal

Biography (1936–1992)

The meteoric rise of Mikhail Tal staggers imagination — he made it all the way from a mere master to the World Champion over three years. After winning the Candidates Tournament (Yugoslavia, 1959), he challenged Botvinnik in 1960 and seized the chess crown after winning the title match 12½-8½ (Moscow, 1960). Tal had the nickname "The Wizard from Riga" because of his combinational style, full of sacrifices and struggle for the initiative.Tal’s reign was short-lived, as he lost the rematch to Botvinnik a year later. Tal came very close to challenging the World Champion one more time but lost the final Candidates match to Spassky (Tbilisi, 1965). Tal was 6 times USSR chess champion and 8 times FIDE Chess Olympiads winner. For a long time Tal held the record for the longest unbeaten streak in competitive chess history with 95 games (46 wins, 49 draws) between October 1973 and October 1974. In 1988, at the age of 51, he won the official World Blitz Championship at Saint John, ahead of WCh Kasparov.

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I realized a very simple truth: not only was I worried, but also my opponent

Of course, errors are not good for a chess game, but errors are unavoidable and, in any case, a game without any errors, or as they say ‘flawless game’ is colorless

You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one

To play for a draw (at any rate with White) is to some degree a crime against chess

In my games I have sometimes found a combination intuitively simply feeling that it must be there. Yet I was not able to translate my thought processes into normal human language

Quiet moves often make a stronger impression than a wild combination with heavy sacrifices

On Tal

Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal at the end of the 50s amazed the chess world with a series of brilliant tournament successes. However, not only sports results, but also exceptionally lively and witty games won him immense popularity. He was loved, isn't that happiness? On the chessboard, Tal was implacable, but in life, it would seem, a harmless person. But at the same time he was smart and ironic. Chess was his passion, or rather, not chess in general, but the game of chess. He did not write books, did not publish analyzes, he was only forced to improve in the theory of beginnings. It was a true virtuoso; he enjoyed when, relying on his phenomenal combinational vision, he found paradoxical solutions in the game

When Mikhail Tal appeared in big chess, he produced the effect of an exploding bomb, because his style of play was distinguished by an extraordinary combinational brilliance. The figures seemed to come to life under his hand. He succeeded in everything, and only he could create and play “his own”, it would seem, irrational positions

A chess genius is ahead of his time, but you can only see it later, looking back. From this point of view, not many can be called geniuses. Morphy, Steinitz... Maybe Tal. The Riga grandmaster brought something to chess that was not fully understood by his contemporaries. Unfortunately, too soon we were able to look back with admiration at the peak of Tal's remarkable work. Although maybe I was a bit hasty...

I must say that we had excellent relations with Tal. Although they always fought desperately at the board, and in 1965 they even played a Candidates match. Misha is perhaps the only one of the great chess players who did not know the feeling of envy. Of course, he played best when he had the initiative. I suffocated without her. - We analyzed the position where he sacrificed pieces to the right and left. I say: “Misha, it doesn’t happen like that.” He shrugs, “I know. But I want to." In this phrase the whole of Tal, a bright combinational chess player

Despite the super short stay on the chess throne (also a record), Tal was one of the brightest stars in the chess sky. Combinations, sacrifices, inexhaustible optimism - all this was a reflection of the Soviet society, which breathed a sigh of relief after the iron fists of Stalinism. Tal won the title in 1960, but his effervescent performance captivated his fans as early as 1956. His victory is the triumph of a rebellious poet over a cold-blooded materialistic techie