Photograph courtesy of the Dutch National Archives

Mikhail Tal
Number of games in database: 2,827
Years covered: 1949 to 1992
Highest rating achieved in database: 2645
Overall record: +1146 -310 =1324 (65.0%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
      Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
      47 exhibition games, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS
With the White pieces:  Sicilian (338)      B46 B43 B82 B32 B40  Ruy Lopez (258)      C92 C95 C93 C96 C84  Ruy Lopez, Closed (166)      C92 C95 C93 C96 C84  Caro-Kann (104)      B14 B17 B18 B12 B10  French Defense (97)      C07 C18 C09 C05 C16  English (93)      A15 A14 A13 A17 A16	With the Black pieces:  Sicilian (345)      B43 B40 B46 B22 B52  King's Indian (115)      E94 E92 E98 E69 E62  Queen's Pawn Game (83)      E10 A46 E00 A40 A41  English (82)      A15 A14 A10 A13 A17  Nimzo Indian (79)      E48 E52 E53 E46 E56  Modern Benoni (74)      A56 A64 A61 A62 A65

NOTABLE GAMES: [what is this?]
   Tal vs Larsen, 1965 1-0
   Tal vs Karpov, 1987 1-0
   Tal vs Hjartarson, 1987 1-0
   Tal vs Smyslov, 1959 1-0
   Tal vs Miller, 1988 1-0
   Bobotsov vs Tal, 1958 0-1
   Tal vs Hecht, 1962 1-0
   Fischer vs Tal, 1959 0-1
   Tal vs Sviridov, 1969 1-0
   Tal vs Koblents, 1957 1-0

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: [what is this?]
   Tal-Botvinnik World Championship Match (1960)
   Tal-Botvinnik World Championship Return Match (1961)

GAME COLLECTIONS: [what is this?]
   Tal Fever by chocobonbon
   Match Tal! by amadeus
   Mikhail Tal: Selected Games by wanabe2000
   Mikhail Tal's Best Games by KingG
   Tal king of chess by LESTRADAR
   The Magician, supplemental by Yopo
   remembering Tal by Yopo
   tal best games by brager
   The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal by MoonlitKnight
   Road to the Championship - Mik Tal by Fischer of Men
   TAL by chessdeviant
   Geller and Tal beat the French by ughaibu
   fav Tal & Topalov games by guoduke
   benjobench's tal games by benjobench

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MIKHAIL TAL (born Nov-09-1936, died Jun-28-1992) Latvia [what is this?] Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal was born November 9, 1936 in Riga, Latvia (later annexed by the USSR in 1940). He learned chess from his father when he was eight years old. In 1953 he won his first Latvian Championship, and the following year he earned the title of Soviet Master. In 1957, he became the youngest-ever Soviet Champion. In 1960, following a string of victories in strong tournaments (including a second consecutive Soviet Championship, the Potoroz Interzonal and the Candidates in Yugoslavia), he became the youngest World Chess Champion with a match victory over Mikhail Botvinnik. This record was later broken by Garry Kasparov in 1985. Suffering from poor health, he then lost the rematch the next year. He never qualified for a title match again. He continued to struggle with health problems for the rest of his career, which was often marked by inconsistent results. On a number of occasions, however, he was still able to achieve world-class successes. He added four more Soviet Championship victories to his resume (in 1967, 1972, 1974 and 1978), equalling Botvinnik's all-time record of six. In 1979, he won joint first place at Montreal with Anatoli Karpov and briefly climbed back to second place in the world rankings. In 1988, he won the World Blitz Championship. He died of renal failure in 1992, at the age of 55. Renowned for his aggressive, sacrificial playing style, Tal was also a noted chess journalist and author. His autobiography, The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, annotates 100 of his greatest games.

page 1 of 114; games 1-25 of 2,827  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. Tal vs M Strelkov 1-0 16 1949 Riga C10 French 2. Kholmov vs Tal 0-1 21 1949 Riga D44 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav 3. Tal vs Ripatti ½-½ 41 1949 Riga B74 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical 4. Tal vs Leonov 1-0 25 1949 Riga B13 Caro-Kann, Exchange 5. Tal vs C Weldon 1-0 65 1949 Vilnius B40 Sicilian 6. Parnas vs Tal 0-1 29 1949 Riga C91 Ruy Lopez, Closed 7. Tal vs J I Zilber 1-0 33 1949 Riga C07 French, Tarrasch 8. Nevitsky vs Tal 0-1 43 1949 Semi Finals Youth Championship C49 Four Knights 9. J Klovans vs Tal 0-1 18 1949 Riga C10 French 10. Tal vs Miglan 1-0 21 1950 URS jr C82 Ruy Lopez, Open 11. Tal vs N Darsniek 0-1 26 1950 Riga C98 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Chigorin 12. Jullik vs Tal 0-1 39 1950 Riga A16 English 13. Tal vs Sodell 0-1 23 1950 URS C91 Ruy Lopez, Closed 14. Pakala vs Tal 0-1 29 1950 Riga D02 Queen's Pawn Game 15. Tal vs Kliavin 1-0 54 1950 Latvian jr Champ B74 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical 16. Leonov vs Tal 0-1 34 1950 URS E17 Queen's Indian 17. Liepin vs Tal 0-1 44 1950 Riga B59 Sicilian, Boleslavsky Variation, 7.Nb3 18. Ivanov vs Tal 1-0 25 1950 URS C90 Ruy Lopez, Closed 19. Lavrinenko vs Tal 0-1 38 1950 Riga B59 Sicilian, Boleslavsky Variation, 7.Nb3 20. Tal vs Pliss 1-0 37 1950 Riga C99 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Chigorin, 12...cd 21. K Klasup vs Tal ½-½ 41 1950 Riga D30 Queen's Gambit Declined 22. Tal vs Gradus 1-0 24 1951 Riga C98 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Chigorin 23. Berg vs Tal 0-1 25 1951 Riga A34 English, Symmetrical 24. Tal vs V Veder 1-0 34 1951 Riga C13 French 25. Tal vs J Fride 1-0 40 1951 Riga B28 Sicilian, O'Kelly Variation  page 1 of 114; games 1-25 of 2,827    REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Tal wins | Tal loses

< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 92 OF 92 ·  Later Kibitzing > Apr-28-10    theagenbiteofinwit: I am appealing to all my chessgames friends to see if anyone can link me a picture of young Misha Tal with a ushanka (Russian fur had) on? I recall seeing one but I can't recall where. Also, the current Tal picture for this page still sucks. Apr-28-10    pankajdaga: <Also, the current Tal picture for this page still sucks.> What are you talking about? This picture captures the spirit of Tal! May-06-10    dcloh2003: At the risk of repeating somebody else's post, I just read a beautiful article on Tal: http://www.google.com.au/imgres?img... May-29-10    talisman: india times says that anand idolized tal as a youth...did not know this. Jun-02-10    wordfunph: USSR - West Germany Match: Mikhail Tal scored 7.5/8 but he mainly remembers the event as the one where he became an official smoker, i.e. he started to buy his own packets instead of just pinching from his friends. (Source: Attack with Mikhail Tal by Iakov Damsky) Jun-19-10    talisman: who holds the record for the longest unbeaten streak in modern history? who is second? Jun-19-10    BobCrisp: <Apparently this record belongs to USCF player Bill Martz who went 104 games without losing, but I have found this hard to verify. Better documented is Mikhail Tal's run of 93 games. He lost to Petrosian in round 15 of the USSR ch. in Oct. 1973 and then went until Oct. 1974 without a loss. Kirov stopped his streak in the 4th round of Novi Sad. Tal had a similar run a little more than a year before. He went unbeaten in 86 games from July 1972 when he lost to Uusi in the tenth round at Viljandi until he lost to Balashov on board 3 at the USSR Team ch. Moscow, round 2 in April 1973 +47=39 Kramnik 82 games from Jan. 12 1999 Euro club ch. Belgrade until he lost 4th round to Adams at Dortmund 2000 Tal 80 games 1980-1 Capablanca 63 games February 10, 1916 New York loss to Chajes to March 21, 1924 New York loss to Reti +40=23> http://www3.sympatico.ca/g.giffen/r... Jun-27-10    talisman: 8 years ago, tomorrow. RIP. Jun-27-10    Jim Bartle: A typo there: 18 years. Jun-27-10    talisman: thanks <Jim> sorry about that. Jul-30-10    drnooo: Is the entire chess world really full of such lunacy. Years ago at this site I posted a correction, a much needed one to the sheer stupidity of the very article mentioned au/imgres above, and it apparently is still running for all to see here and at the very good ( usually)chess site, chessgames. But out of all the gms who peruse it, and all the regular players, apparently nobody has noticed that one of the photos there of the six is NOT , repeat NOT, got that folks NOT of Tal. Last incident around I mentioned who it was, to no effect, so why bother now. We will turn it into a game, maybe that will get the job done, since Tal deserves better: how about chessgames turning the trick, somebody here going to the site and spotting who it really is. It aint that hard, folks, its fairly easy to spot of the six photos who the imposter is. For chrisakes he's more famous to the rest of the world than TAl ever was. Sometimes you wonder if ANYbody in the chessworld ever uses their eyes for anything but the sixty four squares. This is a huge error and apparently just keeps going on and on and on year after year with no correction. Jul-30-10    drnooo: the article mentioned is au/imgres but otherwise the article really is rather good about Tal Jul-30-10    talisman: <drnooo> was it james bond? looked like tal to me. Jul-30-10    drnooo: no talisman, but at least you tried: of the six photos, one ain't waldo. the rest can keep guessing. Its pretty obvious actually. Maybe one of these days they will find the rather obvious error. It just goes to show you how many people have to line up at a car wreck to get one decent witness. All of you will cringe when its pointed out by somebody here just who the interloper is. Tal is too great a player to have this one guy butt in. Jul-30-10    drnooo: the crazy thing is the article ran at Playchess, somebody there should have known better. Yikes. Aug-15-10    thegoodanarchist: OK, this has probably been answered before, but I didn't see it!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6bH... 4:21 into this video shows Tal in the hospital, Curacao 1962, when Fischer comes to visit. TAL'S LEFT HAND IS A CLAW!!! WHAT IS UP WITH THAT? Anyone having an explanation will receive my gratitude - please provide info! Thanks!!! Aug-15-10    thegoodanarchist: Sorry, it was his right hand. But anyway... Aug-15-10    thegoodanarchist: <heagenbiteofinwit: Also, the current Tal picture for this page still sucks.> Yeah, it sucks cigarettes, just as Tal is doing in the pic! Aug-15-10    thegoodanarchist: < drnooo: Is the entire chess world really full of such lunacy. Years ago at this site I posted a correction, a much needed one to the sheer stupidity of the very article mentioned au/imgres above, and it apparently is still running for all to see here and at the very good ( usually)chess site, chessgames. But out of all the gms who peruse it, and all the regular players, apparently nobody has noticed that one of the photos there of the six is NOT , repeat NOT, got that folks NOT of Tal. Last incident around I mentioned who it was, to no effect, so why bother now. ... Tal deserves better: ... It aint that hard, folks, its fairly easy to spot of the six photos who the imposter is. For chrisakes he's more famous to the rest of the world than TAl ever was.> repost the link and I will give it a try... Aug-16-10    HeMateMe: <: Is the entire chess world really full of such lunacy. > I hope not. But, you can visit the <Fischer v. Karpov WC 1975> page and still have a lively conversation with people who think the match is going to take place. Aug-16-10    Check It Out: I love the photo of Tal with the cig; classic. Aug-16-10    Check It Out: <thegoodanarchist> Here's a closeup picture of Tal's hand, a congenital deformity, with some more info. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhai... Aug-16-10    HeMateMe: I heard of a guy like that in Brooklyn; they called him "three finger Eddie". I think he was in the Gambino family. Aug-16-10    Check It Out: That may not have been due to natural causes, however. Aug-16-10    HeMateMe: ...he was TWO days late paying... Jump directly to page #   (enter number from 1 to 92) < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 92 OF 92 ·  Later Kibitzing >

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