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Player: Rob Hartoch
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| Nov-17-22 | | generror: Tal's obituary in The Independent mentions the following story (see https://www.independent.co.uk/news/... or archived at https://ghostarchive.org/archive/Wy... ): "He smoked and drank at a level that would have been inadvisable even for a man of robust health. Thanks to Tal's efforts, the Hastings hotel at which he celebrated the 1975 New Year was drunk dry of brandy. I remember him vying for first place with another Soviet grandmaster in a tournament in Holland. On the night before the final round they began buying each other drinks and lining up the empties on the table. When I left them at around 2am, Tal had the remains of 11 drained brandies, his rival had 11 empty rum-and-cokes. They continued for another two hours. At 8.30 in the morning, Tal trotted downstairs to start the last round looking fresh and relaxed. He won easily to take first prize, while his drinking companion was happy with a quick draw." This seems to be this tournament: Before the last game, Tal and Balashov were both tied. In the final round, Balashov drew in 10 moves (Ribli vs Balashov, 1973), while Tal won in 39 moves (Tal vs C Zuidema, 1973). |
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Nov-17-22
 | | perfidious: The morning in 1988 when we had a blitz session, after breakfast, Tal clutched a bottle of vodka in one hand while chain-smoking. |
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| Nov-17-22 | | generror: Oh boy... Anyway, guess drinking actually helped him win this tournament :) |
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| Nov-18-22 | | Olavi: In The Life and Games of Mihail Tal he writes that both of them played for a win in the last round, only he was successful. Well if that's the case Ribli convinced Balashov of the futility of the effort pretty quickly... |
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