The chess games of Mikhail Tal

Tal

Mikhail Tal
Number of games in database: 2,812
Years covered: 1949 to 1992
Highest rating achieved in database: 2645
Overall record: +1127 -303 =1312 (65.0%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
      Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.
      70 exhibition games, odds games, etc. are excluded from this statistic.

MOST PLAYED OPENINGS

With the White pieces:

Sicilian (340)
    B46 B43 B82 B32 B40
Ruy Lopez (256)
    C92 C95 C93 C96 C84
Ruy Lopez, Closed (164)
    C92 C95 C93 C96 C84
Caro-Kann (103)
    B14 B17 B18 B12 B10
French Defense (95)
    C07 C18 C09 C05 C16
English (92)
    A15 A14 A13 A17 A16

With the Black pieces:

Sicilian (340)
    B43 B40 B46 B22 B52
King's Indian (114)
    E94 E92 E98 E69 E62
Queen's Pawn Game (82)
    E10 A46 E00 A40 A41
English (81)
    A15 A14 A10 A13 A17
Nimzo Indian (79)
    E48 E52 E53 E46 E56
Modern Benoni (74)
    A56 A64 A61 A62 A65

Repertoire Explorer

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

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
   Guess-the-Move Chess: 1960-1979 (Part 3) by Anatoly21
   fav Tal & Topalov games by guoduke
   Geller and Tal beat the French by ughaibu

Search Sacrifice Explorer for Mikhail Tal
Search Google^® for Mikhail Tal

MIKHAIL TAL (born Nov-09-1936, died Jun-28-1992) Latvia	PRONUNCIATION:		[what is this?]
Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal was born November 9, 1936 in Riga, Latvia (annexed by the USSR in 1940). At 6, he learned chess from his father,a medical doctor (source: Tal interview in <Chess Life>, May 1967). He won his first Latvian Championship in 1953, and earned the title of Soviet Master the following year. 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 Portoro� Interzonal and the Candidates in Yugoslavia), he became the youngest World Chess Champion with a match victory over Mikhail Botvinnik. This record was broken by Garry Kasparov in 1985. Suffering from poor health, he lost the rematch the next year. He never qualified for a title match again. Tal 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, briefly climbing 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. Paul Keres was a font of inspiration for him and Tal won three Keres Memorials 1977, 1981, and 1983. Renowned for his aggressive, sacrificial playing style, Tal was also a noted chess journalist and author. In his autobiography, The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, he annotates 100 of his greatest games. A list of books about Tal can be found at http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhai...

page 1 of 113; games 1-25 of 2,812

Game	Result	Moves	Year	Event/Locale	Opening
1. J Klovans vs Tal	0-1	18	1949	Riga	C10 French
2. Tal vs M Strelkov	1-0	16	1949	Riga	C10 French
3. Kholmov vs Tal	0-1	21	1949	Riga	D44 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav
4. Tal vs Ripatti	½-½	41	1949	Riga	B74 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical
5. Tal vs Leonov	1-0	25	1949	Riga	B13 Caro-Kann, Exchange
6. Tal vs C Weldon	1-0	65	1949	Vilnius	B40 Sicilian
7. A Parnas vs Tal	0-1	29	1949	Riga	C91 Ruy Lopez, Closed
8. Tal vs J I Zilber	1-0	33	1949	Riga	C07 French, Tarrasch
9. Nevitsky vs Tal	0-1	43	1949	Semi Finals Youth Championship	C49 Four Knights
10. K Klasup vs Tal	½-½	41	1950	Riga	D30 Queen's Gambit Declined
11. Tal vs Miglan	1-0	21	1950	URS jr	C82 Ruy Lopez, Open
12. Tal vs N Darsniek	0-1	26	1950	Riga	C98 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Chigorin
13. Jullik vs Tal	0-1	39	1950	Riga	A16 English
14. Tal vs Sodell	0-1	23	1950	URS	C91 Ruy Lopez, Closed
15. Pakala vs Tal	0-1	29	1950	Riga	D02 Queen's Pawn Game
16. Tal vs Kliavin	1-0	54	1950	Latvian jr Champ	B74 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical
17. Leonov vs Tal	0-1	34	1950	URS	E17 Queen's Indian
18. Liepin vs Tal	0-1	44	1950	Riga	B59 Sicilian, Boleslavsky Variation, 7.Nb3
19. Ivanov vs Tal	1-0	25	1950	URS	C90 Ruy Lopez, Closed
20. Lavrinenko vs Tal	0-1	38	1950	Riga	B59 Sicilian, Boleslavsky Variation, 7.Nb3
21. Tal vs Pliss	1-0	37	1950	Riga	C99 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Chigorin, 12...cd
22. Birjanis vs Tal	0-1	35	1951	Riga	A91 Dutch Defense
23. Tal vs T Zeid	1-0	29	1951	Riga	D10 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav
24. Tal vs Gipslis	1-0	24	1951	Tournament	E30 Nimzo-Indian, Leningrad
25. Tal vs Gradus	1-0	24	1951	Riga	C98 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Chigorin


page 1 of 113; games 1-25 of 2,812

REFINE SEARCH: White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Tal wins | Tal loses

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 101 OF 101 · Later Kibitzing>
Feb-27-12		Zugzwangovich: <drnoo> I tried to reply via your instructions but I'm not sure if it went through.

Mar-09-12		laurenttizano: I believe Tal is still living in the heart's of chess enthusiast's no wonder because of his bag full of tricks (Gm Viktor K.)

Mar-15-12		Dr. Yes: Someone deleted my reply to 5hrsolver on the Kramnik site, so I'll repeat it here. The late great Larry Evans was in favor of chess games starting with randomly selected openings, as they used to do in American checkers tournaments. I would suggest 3 mandatory moves by White, followed by 2 mandatory moves by Black, which might help to neutralize White's advantage. Kasparov once lost a match to Short where the Opening was selected from the King's Gambit, an opening as rare as a diamond in today's chess. Kasparov threw a tantrum when he got clobbered rather quickly and complained that he was given a hopeless position as Black. He later analyzed the opening for his book, and gave White only a slight advantage, (.2 according to the computers).

Mar-16-12		whiteshark: "The hours of analysis and the few minutes of a practical game, they are absolutely not one and the same." ~ Mikhail Tal

Mar-17-12		Dr. Yes: Thanks Whiteshark! lol. In this month's Chess Life, Grigory Kaidanov, (ya gotta luv this guy!) explains just how far computers have influenced game study. It goes too much beyond just studying the openings. It goes to game conclusion and Kaidanov in a moment of self deprecation (whether intentional or not) says of a game which he won against A. Ivanov, that "at least I memorized it."

Mar-19-12		kamalakanta: Hi, laurenttizano! Yes, Tal lives in the hearts of poeple llike me, not only for his imagination, but also for his human touch! There are three chess authors who, through their writing, make me love chess more. They are Tal, Bronstein and Tartakower. When you read Tal's book about his life and games, it is like listening to a dear uncle tell you one of his life's adventures. He does not talk down to you; he shares his moments of brilliance and his blunders... I am privileged to read his books and read about him.

Mar-20-12		brankat: Very true.

Mar-20-12		ephesians: Absolutely, I think that was written just right.

Mar-21-12		cro777: <Dr. Yes: I hate rehearsed post Fischer-era chessgames.> Thank you for pointing to Kaidanov. Would you give some more details with your comments.

Mar-21-12		ughaibu: How about rehearsed Fischer-era games: L Sanchez vs Pachman, 1959?

Mar-21-12		brankat: Yep, there have not been any decent chess games ever since 1972.

Mar-21-12		cro777: <Dr. Yes: In this month's Chess Life, Grigory Kaidanov explains just how far computers have influenced game study. It goes too much beyond just studying the openings.> Gregory Kaidanov - Alexander Ivanov Eastern Open, Washington DC 2011 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 c5 8.dxc5 g5 9.Bg3 Ne4 10.e3 Qa5 11.Nge2 Bf5 12.Be5 O-O 13.Nd4 Re8 click for larger view <14.Nxf5> Before the game Kaidanov had used a computer program to analyze this position. "I played a rare move 14.Nxf5 which was played only in two games, so I assume this move was not played more often because it was considered to be bad. But after digging into that I realized that it�s actually very good. The game lasted 32 moves and 22 of them were my preparation," Kaidanov said. 4.Nxf5 Rxe5 15.Nxh6+ Kg7 16.Ng4 Re6 17.Bd3 Nxc3 18.O-O Ne4 19.a3 Qxc5 20.Qd1 Bd2 21.Bxe4 Rxe4 22.h3 f5 23.Nh2 Bxe3 24.fxe3 Rxe3 25.Kh1 f4 26.Qg4 Rg3 27.Qf5 Qf8 28.Qxd5 Nc6 29.Ng4 Qd8 30.Qe6 Qe7 31.Qh6+ Kg8 32.Rae1 Qg7 33.Nf6+ Kf7 34.Qxg7+ Kxg7 35.Nh5+ 1-0 "I would love to take credit for exclamation marks, however, all those moves were results of computerassisted analyses. It appears that I played a �perfect� game, meaning every move was best or at least as good as any other. For me at least this is an extremely rare occurrence. This game won the first Brilliancy prize and the third Best Played Game prize."

Mar-21-12		cro777: <whiteshark: "The hours of analysis and the few minutes of a practical game, they are absolutely not one and the same." Mikhail Tal> According to Jeremy Silman many of Tal�s sacrifices begin with basic pattern recognition (i.e., knowledge of typical attacking structures and even a learned �feel� for the cadence of an attack) but then are �substantiated� by intuition since they are often incalculable.

Mar-21-12		talisman: <cro777> what about the king in the center?

Mar-21-12		cro777: Keep the opponent king in the centre and yours away from centre (till endgame) is an element of Tal System of attack. "As long as my opponent has not yet castled, on each move, I seek a pretext for an offensive. Even when I realize that the (opponent) king is not in danger". (Mikhail Tal)

Mar-21-12		cro777: Alexander Shashin, a professional chess coach and a former theoretical nuclear physicist, developed a new theory of chess thinking. In his book "Best Play: Revolutionary Method for Finding the Strongest Move" (to be published in 2012 by Mongoose Press) he describes the so-called <Tal algorithm> as the main method for finding the stongest move in a position with advantage in activity. Tal algorith means that we look for 1) an open attack, 2) optimal piece deployment, 3) sacrifice. As an illustration he used the famous game Tal - Tolush (the USSR Championship, Leningrad 1956). 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Qb6 8.Qd2 Qxb2 9.Rb1 Qa3 10.e5 dxe5 11.fxe5 Nfd7 12.Ne4 Qxa2 13.Rb3 Qa1+ 14.Kf2 Qa4 click for larger view Intuitively sensing that the position demands a sacrifice, Tal played here <15.Bb5!?>. Soon afterwards they found <15.Nxe6!> as even stronger move in this position.

Mar-31-12		Dr. Yes: Perhaps someday intuition and method chess will make a comeback, but for now even Kasparov prefers number crunching with Houdini or other computer programs. The comeback might take place when we add a few more pieces to the game at each player's option of choice, so that computers won't be able to follow along so easily.

Apr-13-12		newzild: Are there any pictures available in which Mr. Tal happens to be in focus? Also, the biography contains an irritating redundancy that occurs in a lot of chessgames.com biographies - it states clearly under Tal's name that he was born November 9, 1936, and then it states it again in the first sentence underneath that!

Apr-13-12		talisman: well my beef is that kasparov says that tal beat him in a blitz game...the game is somewhere on this website, kasparov gave most of the moves and yet "Kasparov vs Tal" still gives a goose egg for Tal.

Apr-13-12		Petrosianic: That's not much of a beef, that every BLITZ game a player played in his life isn't in a database. If you've got a beef at all, it's that incomplete blitz and other non-classical games are included in the totals at all. You should be wishing for less, not more, but that would still leave Tal with no wins against Kasparov.

Apr-13-12		talisman: <Petrosianic> let's play by the rules right?...right now blitz games are included. Tal has a blitz victory and it's not included. " i agree w/your point on classical games.

Apr-13-12		Petrosianic: I just had a look at it. This game is in the database: Tal vs Kasparov, 1992 It also looks like the search feature has been updated since I last used it, to show a breakdown of classical and non-classical games even if you use the main search function. In fact, it looks correct: <Classical games: Garry Kasparov beat Mikhail Tal 3 to 0, with 12 draws. Including rapid/exhibition games: Garry Kasparov beat Mikhail Tal 3 to 1, with 12 draws. Only rapid/exhibition games: Mikhail Tal beat Garry Kasparov 1 to 0. *The figures above are based only on games present in our database which may be incomplete.> These results are much more accurate than they used to be.

Apr-13-12		King Death: <Petrosianic> Yeah that feature is great because of all of the rapid type games that so many top players seem to play that find their way into DBs. It's silly to include those as "results".

May-11-12		dehanne: Anybody know where and when the picture of Tal on top of this page was taken? Thanks.

May-11-12		drnooo: obviously this is right after his winning the championship getting off the plane with the same lauralleaves he was presented with at the ceremony

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