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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 96 OF 116 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jul-11-11    wordfunph: from the book The Magic of Mikhail Tal by Joe Gallagher.. Mikhail Tal visited Steve Doyle (a U.S. Chess Federation official) at a New Jersey chess club to give a simultaneous exhibition. Later he went to the casino in Atlantic City, but only after Doyle had persuaded Tal to lock up the cash and cheques he was carrying in a safety deposit box. He cajoled Tal into limiting his travelling stash to $500. Once at the casino, Tal went straight to the roulette wheel and put the entire $500 on black. He won. Doyle suggested dinner. Tal left the $1,000 on black. He won again. After winning four in a row on black, he switched to red, but despite Doyle's pleadings to leave he kept betting the house. Two more spins and Tal had amassed $32,000. Tal let it ride again. He lost. Without changing his demeanour, he stood up and quietly headed to dinner with Doyle. http://www.amazon.com/Magic-Mikhail... Jul-12-11    kellmano: Nice story. He should have asked taken Ivanchuk along. He claims his intuition helps him win at roulette. Jul-12-11    perfidious: <wordfunph> Great story! <kellmano> Almost busted a gut a while back when reading Ivanchuk's thoughts on that........believe I posted a time or three back then...... Jul-12-11    drnooo: right if they were going to use the photo of the decrepit Tal then to be fair they should also use the one of Fischer being arrested both fairly shocking even arresting shots of the them long past their prime Jul-12-11    Petrosianic: Maybe, but Tal was still one of the world's best players when he looked like that, while Fischer was long since retired. Lasker is another player where you seem to see a lot more photos of him in his later years than in his younger ones. Jul-12-11    kingfu: From the movie , "Hard Times" . James Coburn: "The only thing better than playing and winning is playing and losing." Tal is one of my favorite Champions of all time. Jul-20-11    Albertan: The Last Days of Tal (in Russian): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6nU... Aug-20-11    tpstar: "Staring at your opponent is an unpleasant - though regrettably fairly common - dirty tactic. One of the most celebrated offenders was Mikhail Tal, who was World Champion in 1963 at the age of only twenty-three. His gaze was so strong and powerful that it was said he could will his opponents into making mistakes. One Grandmaster even wore sunglasses to 'protect' himself. It is true that Tal's concentration at the board was particularly intense but, unlike others, he would never have done it on purpose and in any case he was capable of such strong moves that he did not need to resort to such behaviour. Be warned and try not to let anyone distract you from your game." Nigel Short, "Chess Basics." Sterling Publishing CO, INC, New York, 1994 Short and Tal have a nine game series in the database, but I am unaware of any specific incident between them. Yet the above snippet is from a beginner's book and comes across as unusually snarky, even for Short. Did they have bad blood? Aug-20-11    I play the Fred: <Staring at your opponent is an unpleasant - though regrettably fairly common - dirty tactic. One of the most celebrated offenders was Mikhail Tal, who was World Champion in 1963 at the age of only twenty-three.> 1) If Mikhail Tal was 23 years old in 1963, that would place his year of birth in 1939 or 1940, birthday depending. But Tal was born in 1960 2) In 1963, Tal was an <ex>-World Champion. He defeated Botvinnik in 1960 and lost the return match in 1961. Beside the point, but those inaccuracies are too big to ignore. Aug-20-11    OhioChessFan: <But Tal was born in 1960> Huh? The fact there's no period at the end of that sentence tells me you were doing some editing and missed part of it. Still sort of amusing. Aug-20-11    I play the Fred: My point still stands. There's no way Tal was 23 in 1963 if he was born in 1960. :p It <is> funny to make a gross blunder when pointing out inaccuracies. Physician, heal thyself, and all that. <Obviously> I meant Tal was born in 1936. Aug-22-11    talisman: New Picture!! and one i've never seen before...anyone know the year and/or place? Aug-22-11    HeMateMe: Young, happy....at home? maybe in Riga? He seems to have some sort of wreath or boquet around him--congrats for winning the world championship, a reception getting off the airplane in Latvia, 1960? Aug-26-11    stanleys: Tal and Petrosian playing table tennis: http://i25.fastpic.ru/big/2011/0822... Aug-26-11    Petrosianic: I've seen that picture before, and never understood how anyone would play ping pong in a suit (with jacket on, no less). The best I can figure is that it was the 50's, and the male equivalent of June Cleaver doing housework in a dress and pearls. Aug-27-11    chessgames.com: <talisman: New Picture!! and one i've never seen before...anyone know the year and/or place?> In the new Bobby Fischer documentary by HBO Films, "Bobby Fischer Against the World", there is a lot of priceless chess footage. One of the clips showed Tal, presumably after winning the world championship. We had never seen such footage before, so we took a screen snapshot for this page. We'd like to offer photo credits, a location, a year, but we have no more information except what can be inferred by the clip itself. Incidentally, it's generally agreed that photos and videos formerly property of the Soviet Union are now in the public domain. Aug-30-11    libertyjack: Nice photo, never saw it before. Still, to me, the real Tal is this one: http://www.teteghem-chess.com/share... Aug-31-11    Mr. Bojangles: <libertyjack: Nice photo, never saw it before. Still, to me, the real Tal is this one: http://www.teteghem-chess.com/share... > I agree. Tal would have given me nightmares. I hate being attacked indiscriminately. I hate players who attack me seemingly without any thought or care. U know, the h4, h5 pawn pushers ... damn them ! Sep-01-11    Zugzwangovich: <bartonlaos: A fantastic five minute game that was played between Tal and Spassky!> Many thanks for this, man! For an encore, would you have any way of digging up the two games (both won by Tal) that these two played in the 1983 Novi Sad blitz tournament? This was quite an event; Kasparov won it and other participants included Korchnoi, Larsen and Timman. Sep-04-11    talisman: <chessgames.com> thank you very much for that response. i will look up the documentary and clip. looks like he may be holding his championship wreath. thanks again. Sep-04-11    Wild Bill: <chessgames>: Thank you for the new Tal photo. It is a very good photo (and I never had a good thing to say about that photo of a cigarette being smoked, rather than of a man smoking a cigarette, that it replaces). Sep-24-11    whiteshark: Quote of the Day " Later, I began to succeed in decisive games. Perhaps because I realized a very simple truth: not only was I worried, but also my opponent. " -- Tal Sep-24-11    Ladolcevita: Yes,really thank CG for such a nice new photo! Young and happy and with such a bright smile under the fine weather and amongst the crowd...what's the difference from a prince I could not tell:) Sep-24-11    wordfunph: young smiling Tal photo, wowww! CG rocks! Sep-24-11    ughaibu: This picture has been up for months. If you people dont visit the page often enough to notice, why should your opinion carry much weight? Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 116) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 96 OF 116 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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