This collection is part of Game Collection: Tal's Tournament and Matches 1949-1973

These are all the games Mikhail Tal played at the <USSR Clubs Team Championship 1968>, dated and in correct round order.1

This was Tal's last event of the year, hosted by the Trade Union Palace of Culture in his home town of Riga (11-24 Dec).2,3 Tal took 1st board for club Daugava in the "Upper Division," and got off to a bad start in round 1 against Igor Zaitsev, who was not even a FIDE international master. Needless to say, Tal was disappointed with this loss: "I declined a draw offer..., adjourned the game in an inferior position, then reached a drawn position, but I blundered badly..."5

Tal then "went down with a crash," as he put it, against David Bronstein, before notching his first win in round 3 against the unheralded Aarne Hermlin. 5 Four anemic "grandmaster draws" followed against Lev Polugaevsky, Efim Geller, Paul Keres and Ratmir Kholmov. Only two victories in the final two rounds prevented what could have been a disastrous final score.

Tal finished in 6th place with +3 -2 =6, behind Polugaevsky, Geller, Kholmov, Keres and Leonid Stein, ahead of Bronstein, Vladas Mikenas, Leonid Shamkovich, I. Zaitesev, bad player ID and Hermlin.6 Daugava finished 7th, behind Burevestnik, Soviet Army, Spartak, Trud, Avangard and Lokomotiv, ahead of Kalev, Moldova, Dinamo, Žalgiris and Jõud.4 Tal summed up the event in somewhat morose terms: "...my result could not be called anything but mediocre."5

Notes

1 Khalifman, ed. "Mikhail Tal Games II 1963-1972" pp.222-227; Olimpbase "6th Soviet Team Chess Cup: Rīga 1968-Daugava" http://www.olimpbase.org/1968sc/196...

2 Olimpbase "6th Soviet Team Chess Cup: Rīga 1968-Basic Information" http://www.olimpbase.org/1968sc/196...

3 Di Felice, "Chess Results 1968-1970," p.111

4 Olimpbase "6th Soviet Team Chess Cup: Rīga 1968- Final Group" http://www.olimpbase.org/1968sc/196...

5 Mikhail Tal, "The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal" (Cadogan 1997), p. pp.347-348

6 Hilary Thomas, "Complete Games of Mikhail Tal 1967-1973" (Batsford 1979), p.36

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More "Tal at the USSR Team Championships":

Game Collection: Tal at the USSR Clubs Team Championship 1954

Game Collection: Tal at the USSR Republics Team Championship 1955

Game Collection: Tal at the USSR Republics Team Championship 1959

Game Collection: Tal at the USSR Clubs Team Championship 1961

Game Collection: Tal at the USSR Republics Team Championship 1962

Game Collection: Tal at the USSR Republics Team Championship 1963

Game Collection: Tal at the USSR Clubs Team Championship 1964

Game Collection: Tal at the USSR Republics Team Championship 1967

Game Collection: Tal at the USSR Clubs Team Championship 1966

Game Collection: Tal at the USSR Clubs Team Championship 1971

Game Collection: Tal at the USSR Republics Team Championship 1972