Mikhail Tal, genius and figure

Mikhail Tal's Magic revealed

In this course, you will not only learn exactly how you can follow the same techniques to develop crushing attacks in your own games, but also you’ll be able to enjoy the spectacular style of Tal’s games.

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The fascination that the “Misha” Tal games still exert on today all those fans of the game without compromise or fear, leave no doubt that their legacy, in the form of spectacular and surprising sacrifices and variants, is part of the great story of our game Reviewing his plays and delighting in his overflowing inventiveness, we can continue discovering how you can always play on the razor's edge and achieve, with pure talent and genius, the maximum expression of beauty on the board. 

Mikhail Nejemievich Tal was born in Riga, Latvia, on November 9, 1936. Already during his first years of life, parents observed that the child was not just any child: already with little more than three years he knew how to read and write perfectly He read voraciously how much literary material was at his disposal and solved mathematical problems without much effort. They were in the presence of a genius. Chess came to his life from the hand of his father and at thirteen he competed successfully in his hometown, winning the Latvian Championship at seventeen. But at twenty he would achieve, to the general astonishment, the feat of conquering the 1957 Soviet Championship, over the consecrated Keres and Bronstein. And the following year he will repeat the feat in the same tournament (considered at that time the strongest in the world, a separate world championship), definitely confirming his status as an elite player.

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To fully understand the surprise of the chess world, you have to put yourself in the context: in the 50s the average age of the best players in the world was around thirty years or more, unlike what is happening today, where Ages are noticeably lower and several of the most prominent are only twenty. Therefore, Tal's performance stood out even more in view of his "short" age at that time. Curiously, on the other side of the world and at the same time, another little genius, a few years younger than him, was advancing with his feats on the board: Bobby Fischer.

Mikhail Tal, genius and figure (Wikipedia)

Another factor, apart from his youth, contributed to the beginning of the construction of the aura of legend that still reached in life and that still involves his memory: his spectacular style. The brilliant game, not speculative, risky and overwhelming of this genius of the board, did not recognize antecedents in the master arena of such a high level (exception probably made of his compatriot Nezhmetdinov, an exceptional attacking player, who however did not achieve great sporting achievements ). In almost all of Tal's games, the combinatorial tension and the spectacular sacrifices, some of them were true and objectively incorrect, but that infused his game, beyond the results, a unique vivacity and that made him a true idol of the chess community.

After having imposed with authority in the Interzonal of Portoroz 1959 and in the Candidates Tournament in Yugoslavia that same year, reaching the top after a series of wins and outstanding positions in every tournament in which he participated, it was time to challenge the champion of the world, the father of the Soviet chess school, the revered Mikhail Botvinnik.

Despite Tal's triumphs and the overwhelming thrust of his game, Botvinnik appeared, a priori, as the great favorite of the match, which took place in Moscow in March 1960. But the Riguense did not get upset against his so encumbrado rival, led the champion to positions that were not to his liking, took the lead from the beginning and finally obtained a clear victory by 12.5 to 8.5. Before the general uproar, a new world champion, the youngest in history until that moment, had been crowned very deservedly.

Mikhail Tal, genius and figure (Wikimedia Commons)

However, beyond the board, Misha harassed extra chess issues, which he had to deal with all his life. His health, fragile by nature (he suffered from a chronic kidney problem), worsened at times and even repeatedly forced him to leave a tournament, or play from a hospital bed. Add to this his uncontrolled addictions, such as smoking (he smoked more than two packs of cigarettes daily) and his excessive fondness for drinking. The loss of the title in the rematch match against Botvinnik, only one year after having achieved it, had to do with these health problems and excesses, as well as with the enormous resilience of the "Patriarch of Soviet chess", who, as he commented later, he prepared in detail for the second match and managed to adapt his game to successfully face the devilish style of his rival.

Life & Games of Mikhail Tal - Read opinions

Such, despite having lost the title he held so ephemerally, was in fullness and, overcoming his constant kidney problems, his successes continued "in crescendo." He won, among other very outstanding performances, the strong tournaments of Bled 1961, Reykjavik 1964, Palma de Mallorca 1966, Soviet Championship 1972, Tallinn 1973 and the Interzonal de Riga 1979. With the permanent intention of trying to reach the world crown again, he continued to compete in the cycles of Candidacy, being a finalist in 1965, semifinalist in 1968 and reaching the quarterfinals in 1979. However, he failed to re-establish himself as a challenger, despite having been very close to achieving it.

Extraordinary fast-paced player (blitz), he was champion of the first World Championship of the modality in 1988. In the last years of his life his chess star declined, but still remained active before the board until shortly before his death.

Tal-Botvinnik 1960: Match for the World Chess Championship

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Recognized as a “fan” of our game, one of Misha's best known phrases is the answer to a question that, jokingly, a journalist asked him, asking him what he would do if chess were forbidden, to which Latvian replied "It would be smuggler."

Mikhail Tal made time in the history of chess. His game and his creative ideas set his entire generation and many of his games on fire, and especially their combinations, are still reproduced (and also, why not, discussed) by hundreds and hundreds of chess players from all over the world . The originality of his chess conception may be summed up in the following sentence, in which he refers to the frequent deliveries of material recorded by his items: “There are three kinds of sacrifices. The good, the bad and mine ”

Like his game, he was a jovial and cheerful man, who knew how to win the friendship of many people in his travels around the world and, with justice, achieved a privileged seat in the gallery of the great chess of all the times.

He died in Moscow on June 28, 1992.