<12/31/2021 – Nona Gaprindashvili wrote referring to Milunka Lazarevic: “A literary person by profession, lively and impressionable, Lazarevic is one of the brightest figures in women’s chess of the sixties”. Milunka attracted attention by her exciting, uncompromising style: sacrificing pawns and pieces and despising draws, which made her famous and endeared her to chess audiences! | Photo: Balkan Chess >

<https://en.chessbase.com/post/milun...>

<Tal played the most beautiful and the most wonderful chess. He is my chess Zeus. A person like him will not be born again. Now that he is gone, everyone admits that he was a genius, but during his time everyone disputed him. While he was alive, they received his sacrifices with scepticism. Now, in Kasparov’s books My Great Predecessors, after the computer analysis, his sacrifices are not considered ‘semi-correct’ as they were in his time, but the human mind could not perceive the truth about Tal... The chess that he played cannot be learnt. He has no followers. One needs to be born with it. It is not enough to say that he was a genius. He was out of this world... >

Well...is that really true? I thought that computers had found some holes in Tal's games.

<Milunka reminiscences on the 1959 Candidates tournament in Bled where a match was played between Tal and Smyslov: “...Tal would sacrifice one piece after another, and after winning the game he came up to me as I was seated in the front row of the auditorium and told me: ‘I did it for you, madam!’”

A gossip was rife at the time that she had an affair with Smyslov, and that Tal particularly relished beating him 2½-1½ in this mini match, which was their first over-the-board confrontation. >

of course they worship chess in the Balkan nations. Where else could Fischer/Spassky 1992 have had a prize fund of $5M?

<As Milunka was a star in the Soviet Union, Tal enjoyed an amazing popularity in Yugoslavia and particularly in Belgrade.

Master Class Vol.14 - Vasily Smyslov

Smyslov cultivated a clear positional style and even in sharp tactical positions often relied more on his intuition than on concrete calculation of variations. Let our authors introduce you into the world of Vasily Smyslov.

One day we were walking to the playing hall. Streets were lined up with students, people were leaning over balconies applauding and calling his name. There were ‘orders’: ‘Misha, sacrifice the rook to Fischer!; Misha, today sacrifice the knight!’ At one moment, a group of students just lifted him and carried him up in their arms. I was running behind them, anxious that something might happen to him. People were making space for them to pass, policemen stopped quietly aside. But, he was loved everywhere. I was present in America at one of his tournaments. People adored him over there, too. He was a miracle. >

There are a few cases with Tal losing to dubious looking sacrifices: Tal vs H Israel, 1964