Mikhail Tal

Biography (1936–1992)

The meteoric rise of Mikhail Tal (1936–1992) staggers the imagination. He rose from a mere master to World Champion in just three years. After winning the Candidates Tournament in Yugoslavia in 1959, he challenged Botvinnik in 1960 and seized the chess crown by winning the title match 12½-8½ (Moscow, 1960). Tal earned the nickname "The Wizard from Riga" because of his combinational style, full of sacrifices and fight for the initiative.Tal’s reign was short-lived, as he lost the rematch to Botvinnik a year later. He came very close to challenging the World Champion again but lost the final Candidates match to Spassky in Tbilisi in 1965. Tal was a six-time USSR chess champion and an eight-time winner at the FIDE Chess Olympiads.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 in Saint John, ahead of World Champion Kasparov.

Notable game

This game was played in Round 8 of the 1959 Candidates Tournament which Tal convincingly won

Play like a champion!

Black to move.

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# 1 / 6

I realized a simple truth: not only was I worried, but so was my opponent.

Of course, errors are not ideal in a chess game, but they are inevitable. In any case, a game without any errors—a so-called 'flawless game'—would be 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.

Playing for a draw (especially with White) is, to some degree, a crime against chess.

In my games I have sometimes found combinations intuitively, simply sensing that they must exist. Yet I was not able to translate my thought process into normal human language.

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

On Tal

He was loved; isn't that happiness? On the chessboard, Tal was implacable, yet in life, he appeared to be a harmless person. At the same time, he was also smart and ironic.

The chess pieces seemed to come to life under his hand.

The Riga grandmaster introduced a dimension to chess that was not fully grasped by his contemporaries.

We analyzed the position where he sacrificed pieces left and right. I said, 'Misha, it doesn’t work like that.' He shrugged and replied, 'I know. But I want to.' This sums up Tal, a brilliant combinational chess player.

Despite his brief reign on the chess throne (also a record), Tal was one of the brightest stars in the chess sky. His combinations, sacrifices, and boundless optimism reflected Soviet society's relief after the harsh Stalinist era.