By attacking Black's Queen the move 24 Bb6 removes with tempo an obstruction on the c file so that on 24...axb6 White can, by means of the move 25 Rc1, pin the B on c6 which attacks White's Queen on a8.

This game was not played in Riga.

It was played in the <USSR Republics Junior Team Championship 1954>, held 9-23 August in Leningrad.

Tal played 1st board for Latvia, scoring 7/9. Latvia finished 3d, behind RSFSR and Moscow, ahead of Leningrad, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania, Armenia and Estonia.

Moves 21-41 of this game are given in Mikhail Tal, "The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal" (Cadogan 1997), p.30.

Tal labels the game "USSR Youth Team Ch, Leningrad."

The tournament can be found here at <Rusbase> http://al20102007.narod.ru/ch_urs/1...

Here is the entire game score downloaded from that <Rusbase> page, which also lists the site as <Leningrad>:

[Event "Ch URS (team) (juniors)"]
[Site "Leningrad (Russia)"]
[Date "1954.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Tal Mikhail (LAT)"]
[Black "Visotskis"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E87"]
[WhiteElo "0"]
[BlackElo "0"]
[Annotator ""]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[Remark ""]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 O-O 6.Be3 e5 7.d5 Ne8 8.Qd2 f5 9.O-O-O f4 10.Bf2 Nd7 11.Nge2 Nb6 12.Qd3 g5 13.Kb1 Bd7 14.Nc1 c5 15.dxc6 bxc6 16.c5 Nc8 17.cxd6 Nexd6 18.Bc5 Rf6 19.Be2 Qc7 20.Nb3 Be8 21.Nd5 cxd5 22.Qxd5+ Nf7 23.Qxa8 Bc6 24.Bb6 axb6 25.Rc1 Bxa8 26.Rxc7 Rc6 27.Rc1 Rxc7 28.Rxc7 Ncd6 29.Nd2 Bf8 30.Bc4 b5 31.Be6 Kg7 32.a4 Kf6 33.Bxf7 Nxf7 34.axb5 Bb4 35.Nc4 g4 36.Ra7 gxf3 37.gxf3 Bxe4+ 38.fxe4 Ng5 39.b6 Bc5 40.Ra6 Ne6 41.b7 1-0

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More evidence that this game was played in <Leningrad>, not <Riga>.

Both these sources say this game was played at the <USSR Republics Junior Team Championship 1954> and both sources list the city as <Leningrad>:

-Hilary Thomas "Complete Games of Mikhail Tal 1936-1959" (Batsford 1980), pp.39-40

I don't know.

You can see the spelling <Rusbase> gives above there: "Visotskis"

<Khalifman et al> also give "Visotskis"

But <Thomas> gives "Visockiss"

None of them gives a first name or even an initial.

Strange page on Janis Visockis eh?

Like he jumped straight from birth to senior championships.

If I were forced to bet, I'd say it was him. He's the right age and he's from Latvia.

I can't imagine how we'd prove it.

Preponderance of evidence still supports <Leningrad>, no?

On the other hand, without knowing data provenance we are blind.

We know that <Rubase> got that pgn from <chessbase> because they list it as the source. Hmm but where did <chessbase> get it...

To tell you the truth though, I still think the venue should be changed based on the <Khalifman> and <Thomas> sources alone.

They are both "dedicated" to collecting the games of just one player, and so may have made more of an effort to get the facts right- about Tal, that is.

Mickey Mouse translation:

heh... thanks for that great anecdote, and I like your translation.