In my library I have a chess book that quotes a russian grandmaster, when asked about strong players, saying something along the lines of "Of course, none of us can hold a candle to Mischa"

After checking the most likely candidates I can't find the source. Anyone recognize the quote?

Thanks in advance.

Quoting Gallagher's book on this issue:
"After the match with Korchnoi a sort of depression seemed to take hold. True, Tal won a small tournament in Gori, but he then found out that he wasn't in the Soviet team for the Olympiad in Lugano. Korchnoi says that he only found out about his omission from the team at the airport. The vice-chairman of the Sports Committee turned to him and said 'And you Mikhail Nekhemyevich can return to Riga; Smyslov is already in Lugano. He will be replacing you.'

Tal says of the period late 1968 to late 1969 'I would very much like to cross out (this year) from my autobiography. It brought me only failures and failures that hurt very deeply.'

For much of that year Tal was in very poor health and, according to Sosonko, he even became addicted to opium during this period."

I think it should be noted that the two had a warm relationship up to Tal's death, so I see no reason for Genna Sosonko to lie about it.

Go fighters, lets rescue the chess game to the claws of lazy players or drawing masters with low dose of <chesstosterone>!!

Guys! I need I quote for Mikhail Tal, who do you describe his <chesstosterone> level?

You got my vote for best handle.

As far as Tal goes... perfect calm in the middle of chaos ... hence, the hurricane's eye.

A very nice collection indeed!

Since You want to add more of Tal's games of this "type", I suggest games Tal-Larsen, Semi-finals, Candidates, Bled,1965. Tal won the match 5.5-4.5 Just about all of the games would be fitting for the above collection. The games are listed in this database.

Assessing players from different eras is not at all easy. However, even if the question can't be answered definitively, a lot of fun can be had trying!

I've recently been working on a scoring method for absolute playing quality on a scale of 10, for a given player in a given game. Some of the results are given at User: whatthefat. The basic method behind the scoring system is printed at User: Hesam7.

Your point does raise the question of whether it's easier to produce high quality play (by this scale) against weaker opposition. i.e. weaker opposition producing positions that are easier to play.

This could maybe be countered by including the quality score of the opponent in the algorithm. For instance, if Tal scores 7 under the original scheme, and his opponent scores only 3, he gets a weighted score that is less than had his opponent scored 6.

And by the same token, great games are played by players (e.g Topalov today) who are willing to risk losing a great game (e.g. vs. Shirov 1998, vs. Kasparov 99).

In the best games of first 64 Informants (1966-1995):

Tal 17 wins, 5 losses
Fischer 17- 7
Kasparov 64-13
Karpov 62-24
Korchnoi 20-22
Larsen 17-10
Anand 8-9
Spassky 23-21