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Mikhail Tal

MIKHAIL TAL (born Nov-09-1936, died Jun-28-1992, 55 years old) Latvia PRONUNCIATION: [what is this?] Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal was born in Riga, Latvia (annexed by the USSR in 1940). At six, he learned chess from his father, a medical doctor (source: Tal interview in <Chess Life>, May 1967). Tal won his first Latvian Championship in 1953, and earned the title of Soviet Master the following year. In 1957, aged twenty, he became the youngest-ever Soviet Champion. In 1960, following a string of victories in strong tournaments (including a second consecutive Soviet Championship, the Portorož Interzonal and the Candidates in Yugoslavia), Tal 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, Tal lost the rematch with Botvinnik in 1961. 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. Tal 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 Anatoly Karpov, briefly climbing back to second place in the world rankings and becoming only the third player after Fischer and Karpov to reach a rating of 2700.* In 1988, Tal won the World Blitz Championship. He died of renal failure in 1992 at age 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/... Wikipedia article: Mikhail Tal A chronological list of Tal's Tournaments and Matches 1949-1973: Game Collection: Tal's Tournament and Matches 1949-1973 * http://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo198... Last updated: 2021-06-28 21:06:43

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page 1 of 119; games 1-25 of 2,957  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. A Parnas vs Tal 0-1 33 1949 URS U18 Team-ch Semifinal C91 Ruy Lopez, Closed 2. Tal vs I Zilber 1-0 33 1949 Riga Pioneer Palace Championship C07 French, Tarrasch 3. Tal vs Vedrov 1-0 65 1949 URS B40 Sicilian 4. J Klavins vs Tal 0-1 18 1949 Riga Junior-ch Final C10 French 5. A Nevitsky vs Tal 0-1 43 1949 Semi Finals Youth Championship C49 Four Knights 6. Tal vs A Vilup   0-1 59 1949 Ch URS (team)(juniors 1/2) C03 French, Tarrasch 7. Tal vs M Strelkov 1-0 16 1949 Riga Junior-ch Final C10 French 8. Mendeleevsky vs Tal   1-0 39 1949 Ch URS (team)(juniors 1/2) D46 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav 9. Tal vs Leonov 1-0 25 1949 Riga Junior-ch Semifinal B13 Caro-Kann, Exchange 10. Tal vs Ripatti ½-½ 41 1949 URS U18 Team-ch Semifinal B74 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical 11. Butvit vs Tal   0-1 37 1949 Riga C01 French, Exchange 12. Kholmov vs Tal 0-1 21 1949 Simul D44 Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav 13. Tal vs I Miglans 1-0 21 1950 Latvian Youth Championship C82 Ruy Lopez, Open 14. Juliks vs Tal 0-1 39 1950 Riga Championship semifinal A16 English 15. Tal vs Sodell 0-1 23 1950 URS C91 Ruy Lopez, Closed 16. Liepins vs Tal 0-1 44 1950 Riga Team Championship B59 Sicilian, Boleslavsky Variation, 7.Nb3 17. Tal vs A Darznieks 0-1 26 1950 Riga Championship semifinal C98 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Chigorin 18. A Pakalns vs Tal 0-1 29 1950 Riga Championship semifinal D02 Queen's Pawn Game 19. K Klasups vs Tal ½-½ 41 1950 Riga Championship semifinal D30 Queen's Gambit Declined 20. Tal vs J Klavins 1-0 54 1950 Latvian Youth Championship B74 Sicilian, Dragon, Classical 21. Lavrinenko vs Tal 0-1 38 1950 Riga-ch Final B59 Sicilian, Boleslavsky Variation, 7.Nb3 22. Leonov vs Tal 0-1 34 1950 URS E17 Queen's Indian 23. Tal vs M Straihers 1-0 6 1950 Riga Championship semifinal B00 Uncommon King's Pawn Opening 24. V Ivanovs vs Tal 1-0 25 1950 URS C90 Ruy Lopez, Closed 25. Tal vs Pliss 1-0 37 1950 Riga Championship quarterfinal C99 Ruy Lopez, Closed, Chigorin, 12...cd  page 1 of 119; games 1-25 of 2,957

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< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 21 OF 116 ·  Later Kibitzing> May-08-05    aw1988: Hmm. I have a challenge for you kibitzers. Can you find the game where Tal sacrificed the most pieces he ever sacrificed than any other game? May-08-05    Benzol: <aw1988> My nomination Portisch vs Tal, 1964 May-09-05    ughaibu: Tal vs NN, 1963 May-11-05    Benzol: Not many people have taken up <aw1988> on his challenge. May-11-05    aw1988: I don't think he sacrificed more than 4 though... May-18-05    woodenbishop: Does anyone know where and/or the name of the cemetery Tal was buried in? May-19-05    Airlock: I heard a couple of stories about Tal. When he visited Chicago he played blitz with a number of masters while falling down drunk. He beat them badly. I also heard that that there was something wrong with one of his hands due to some injury. does anyone know anything about this? Drunk or sober he was a fantastic player. May-19-05    ionnn: Tal vs Panno, 1958 May-19-05    woodenbishop: <Airlock> Tal had a short, fat thumb and two long, think fingers on his right hand... a deformality not from an auto accident, but a birth defect. You can clearly see his deformed hand in the pictures presented in the recently published book, PAL BENKO:My Life, Games, and Compositions (pages 154 and 155). May-19-05    woodenbishop: "Sometimes I think that Misha flew in from another planet- just to play chess, and then fly home." "...And on May 28, 1992, at the Moscow blitz tournament, he (Tal) became the only player to defeat Kasparov. I'm told he even left the hospital to play. (Typical behavior of Tal) The strongest chess player in the world still lost to a dying Tal." -Sally Tal http://www.gmsquare.com/SallyTal.html May-19-05    mcgee: Happy news from Riga - today I found the statue/bust of Tal in Vermanes Gardens (even though the tourist information centre didn't know anything about it). I guess this augurs ill if I were to find out where he was buried. As an appropriate postscript I watched the gents playing chess in the same park ;0) May-23-05    Airlock: Thx bishop. I looked at some of Tal's games vs Botvinnik. Everyone talks about his sacrifices and rightly so, but some of the moves he made to set up the sacs were quite brilliant. It reminds me of Spielman's comment about Alekhine that he could play the combinations as well as A. but couldn't get to the positions to play them. Like A. Tal could both get to the positions and play the combinations. May-24-05    chancho: Mikhail Tal was a truly unique player. And one who really had a love for the game.If not for his health problems he would have dominated the game for years, without a doubt. May-24-05    keypusher: I suspect Boris Spassky, Tigran Petrosian, Viktor Korchnoi, Lev Polugaevsky, Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov would disagree with you, <chanco>. May-30-05    Hesam7: No kibitzing for the player of the day? Shame on you! Anyway Mikhail Tal was a great magician, he is famous for defeating the dark wizard Botvinnik in 1960. :-) May-30-05    WTHarvey: Here are some puzzles from Mikhail's games: http://www.wtharvey.com/tal.html May-30-05    Catfriend: <keypusher> I don't think you're right. Fischer said directly Tal might have been the greatest, Spassky said soemthing like that too, and though Tal wasn't Karpov's model, the 12th WC respected the Wizard very much. May-30-05    Ziggurat: Botvinnik once said: "If Tal learned how to program himself properly, he would be impossible to play against", or something to that effect. May-30-05    WMD: It's a pity Botvinnik never learned how to program his chess computer properly. Berliner said his program was rubbish. May-30-05    pubs r us: <Anyway Mikhail Tal was a great magician> "Watch me turn this pawn into a queen right before your eyes." May-30-05    Eatman: <mcgee> not sure if you are still in Riga, but maybe you noticed that Vermanu garden is pretty busy with blitz players. From what I understand, Tal did play there some in his youth. May-30-05    Dirk Diggler: <Airlock: I heard a couple of stories about Tal. When he visited Chicago he played blitz with a number of masters while falling down drunk. He beat them badly> I read that in a New York event, he spent the night drinking at some place called the Lenningrad Club, I think its a place in Brooklyn frequnted by Russian emigrees. The next day, badly hung over, he had to play Joel Benjamin, and tried to make two moves in a row at one point. Benjamin said it was the first time anyone had tried to make two moves in a row against him! May-30-05    Ken MacGillivray: <dirk diggler> I don't suppose Tal won that game against Benjamin, if he had you would have surely remembered and mentioned it. Mind you if he had won, on top of everything else he had achieved, it would have almost certainly qualified him for the title "greatest chess player of all time". LOL May-31-05    WorldChampeen: Now, we read here, Tal had kidney problems. Alcohol certainly exasperates liver problems. I don't know if it is known to act against the kidneys. May-31-05    WorldChampeen: Are there ever sacrifices by anyone at all that fail miserably? Tal use to say "there are two kinds of sacrifices, sound ones and mine" (words to that effect). There are also those types of sacrifices that if the opponent makes, one can survive but the process of extricating oneself is not that simple. Some of Tal's were of this nature. Can one figure out how to get out of hot water. Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 116) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 21 OF 116 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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