| Mikhail Tal | |
| Full name | Russian: Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal Latvian: Mihails Tāls |
|---|---|
| Country |  Soviet Union |
| Born | November 9, 1936 Riga, Latvia |
| Died | June 28, 1992[1] (aged 55) Moscow, Russia |
| Title | Grandmaster (1957) |
| World Champion | 1960–1961 |
He was often called "Misha" (a diminutive for Mikhail) and also "The magician from Riga" for his daring combinational style. Both The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games (Burgess, Nunn & Emms 2004) and Modern Chess Brilliancies (Evans 1970) include more games by Tal than any other player.
Tal was also a highly-regarded chess writer. Many authorities consider him to have been the greatest attacking player of all time.
Career 1
Early years
Tal was born in Riga, Latvia. At the age of eight, Tal learned to play chess while watching his father, a doctor. Shortly thereafter he joined the Riga Palace of Young Pioneers chess club. His play was not exceptional at first but he worked hard to improve. Alexander Koblents began tutoring Tal in 1949. Tal's game improved rapidly thereafter, and by 1951 he had qualified for the Latvian Championship. In the 1952 Latvian Championship Tal finished ahead of his trainer, and also drawing 1 game against Alfred Acaling and winning the rest. Tal won his first Latvian title in 1953, and was awarded the title of candidate master. He became a Soviet master in 1954 by defeating Vladimir Saigin in a qualifying match. That same year he also scored his first win over a grandmaster when Yuri Averbakh lost on time in a drawn position. Tal graduated in Literature from the University of Riga, writing a thesis on the satirical works of Ilf and Petrov, and taught school in Riga for a time in his early 20s. He was a member of the Daugava Sports Society, and represented Latvia in internal Soviet team competitions.Soviet champion
Tal qualified for the USSR Chess Championship final in 1956, finishing joint fifth, and became the youngest player to win it the following year, at the age of 20. He had not played in enough international tournaments to qualify for the title of Grandmaster, but FIDE decided to waive the normal restrictions and award him the title anyway because of his achievement in winning the Soviet Championship.[2]Tal made three appearances for the USSR at Student Olympiads, from 1956–1958, winning three team gold medals and three board gold medals. He won nineteen games, drew eight, and lost none, for 85.2 percent.[3]
He retained the Soviet Championship title the following year, and competed in the World Chess Championship for the first time. He won the 1958 Interzonal tournament at Portorož, then helped the Soviet Union retain the Chess Olympiad.
World champion
In 1960, at the age of 23, Tal thoroughly defeated the relatively staid and strategic Mikhail Botvinnik in a World Championship match, held in Moscow, by 12.5–8.5 (six wins, two losses, and thirteen draws), making him the youngest-ever world champion (a record later broken by Garry Kasparov, who earned the title at 22). Botvinnik won the return match against Tal in 1961, also held in Moscow, 13–8 (ten wins to five, with six draws). In the period between the matches Botvinnik had thoroughly analyzed Tal's style, and turned most of the return match's games into slow wars of maneuver or endgames, rather than the complicated tactical melees which were Tal's happy hunting ground.[6] Tal's chronic kidney problems contributed to his defeat, and his doctors in Riga advised that he should postpone the match for health reasons. Yuri Averbakh claimed that Botvinnik would agree to a postponement only if Tal was certified unfit by Moscow doctors, and that Tal then decided to play.[7] His short reign atop the chess world made him one of the two so-called "winter kings" who interrupted Botvinnik's long reign from 1948 to 1963 (the other was Smyslov, world champion 1957–1958).
His highest Elo rating was 2705, achieved in 1980. His highest Historical Chessmetrics Rating was 2799, in September 1960. This capped his torrid stretch which had begun in early 1957.
[edit] Later achievements
Subsequently Tal played in several Candidates' Tournaments. In 1962 at Curaçao, he had serious health problems, having undergone a major operation shortly before the tournament, and had to withdraw three-quarters of the way through, scoring just 7 out of 21. In 1965, he lost the final match against Boris Spassky, after defeating Lajos Portisch and Bent Larsen. He lost a 1968 semi-final match against Viktor Korchnoi, after defeating Gligoric. Health worries caused a slump in his play from late 1968 to late 1969, but he recovered his form after having a kidney removed. He won the 1979 Riga Interzonal with a dominant score of 14/17, but the next year he lost a quarter-final match against Lev Polugaevsky, one of the players to hold a positive score against him. He also played in the 1985 Montpellier Candidates' Tournament, a round-robin of 16 qualifiers, finishing in a tie for fourth and fifth places, and narrowly missing further advancement after drawing a playoff match with Jan Timman. He later defeated Timman in a 1988 exhibition match.
From July 1972 to April 1973, Tal played a record 86 consecutive games without a loss (47 wins and 39 draws). Between October 23, 1973 and October 16, 1974, he played 95 consecutive games without a loss (46 wins and 49 draws), shattering his previous record. These are the two longest unbeaten streaks in modern chess history.[8]
A measure of Tal's strength also in his later years is given by his excellent score against Karpov in tournament games: one loss and nineteen draws out of 20 games they played, arguably the best score of any player against Karpov apart of course from Kasparov. One of Tal's greatest achievements during his later career was an equal first place with Anatoly Karpov (whom he seconded in a number of tournaments and world championships) in the 1979 Montreal "Tournament of Stars", one of the strongest events held in the 1960-1970s.
Tal played in 21 Soviet Championships[9], winning it a record six times (1957, 1958, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1978), a number only equalled by Botvinnik. He was also a five-time winner of the International Chess Tournament in Tallinn, Estonia, with victories in 1971, 1973, 1977, 1981, and 1983.
Tal was also a formidable blitz chess player. In 1970 he took second place to Bobby Fischer (who scored a sensational 19/22) in a super-strong blitz tournament at Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia. In 1988, aged 51, he won the second official World Blitz Championship (the first was won by Kasparov the previous year in Brussels) at Saint John, ahead of such players as Garry Kasparov, the reigning world champion, and ex-champion Anatoly Karpov. In the last decisive match he defeated Rafael Vaganian by 4-0.
Team competitions
In Olympiad play, Mikhail Tal was a member of eight gold medal winning Soviet teams (1958, 1960, 1962, 1966, 1972, 1974, 1980, and 1982), won sixty-five games, drew thirty-four, and lost only two games (81.2 percent). This percentage makes him the player with the best score among those participating in at least four Olympiads. Individually, Tal won seven Olympiad board medals, including five gold (1958, 1962, 1966, 1972, 1974), and two silver (1960, 1982).[3]Tal also represented the Soviet Union at six European Team Championships (1957, 1961, 1970, 1973, 1977, 1980), winning team gold medals each time, and three board gold medals (1957, 1970, and 1977). He scored 14 wins, 20 draws, and three losses, for 64.9 percent.[3] Tal played board nine for the USSR in the first match against the Rest of the World team at Belgrade 1970, scoring 2 out of 4. He was on board seven for the USSR in the second match against the Rest of the World team at London 1984, scoring 2 out of 3. The USSR won both team matches. He was an Honoured Master of Sport.[10]
From 1950 (when he won the Latvian junior championship) to 1991 Tal won or tied for first in 68 tournaments (see table below). During his 41-years career he played about 2,700 tournament or match games, scoring over 65 percent.
Tournament and match wins (or equal first)
1950-1966
| Year | Tournament | Match / Team competition |
|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Riga - Latvia Junior championship, 1st | |
| 1953 | Riga - 10th Latvian championship, 1st (14,5/19) | |
| 1955 | Riga - 23rd Soviet Championship Semifinal, 1st (12,5/18) | |
| 1956 | Uppsala - World students team championship, board 3 (6/7) | |
| 1957 | Moscow - 24th URS-ch, 1st (14/21) | Reykjavik - Wch-team students, board 1 (8,5/10) Baden/Vienna - European Team Championship, board 4, 1st-2nd (3/5) |
| 1958 | Riga - 25th URS-ch, 1st (12/19) Portorož - Interzonal, 1st (13,5/20) | Varna- Wch-team students, board 1 (8,5/10) Munich Olympiad, board 5 (13,5/15) |
| 1959 | Riga - Latvian Olympiad, 1st (7/7) Zürich tournament, 1st (11,5/15) Bled-Zagreb-Belgrade - Candidates tournament, 1st (20/28) | |
| 1960 | Hamburg - Match Germany vs USSR, 1st (7,5/8) Moscow - Match for the World title with Mikhail Botvinnik: (+6 -2 =13) | |
| 1960/61 | Stockholm tournament, 1st (9,5/11) | |
| 1961 | Bled tournament, 1st (14,5/19) | |
| 1962 | Varna Olympiad, board 6 (10/13) | |
| 1963 | Miskolc tournament, 1st (12,5/15) | |
| 1963/64 | Hastings Premier tournament, 1st (7/9) | |
| 1964 | Reykjavik tournament, 1st (12,5/13) Amsterdam Interzonal, 1st-4th (17/23) Kislovodsk tournament, 1st (7,5/10) | |
| 1965 | Riga, Latvian championship, 1st (10/13) | Match with Lajos Portisch: (+4 -1 =3) Match with Bent Larsen: (+3 -2 =5) |
| 1966 | Sarajevo tournament, 1st-2nd (11/15) Palma de Mallorca tournament, 1st (12/15) | La Habana Olympiad, board 3 (12/13) |
1967-1979
| Year | Tournament | Match / Team competition |
|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Kharkov 35th URS-ch, = 1st (12/15) | |
| 1968 | Gori tournament, 1st (7,5/10) | Belgrade, Match with Svetozar Gligoric: (+3 -1 =5) |
| 1969/70 | Tbilisi, Goglidze memorial tournament, 1st-2nd (10,5/15) | |
| 1970 | Poti - Georgian Open championship (hors concours), 1st (11/14) Sochi - Grandmasters vs Young Masters, 1st (10,5/14) | Kapfenberg, European Team Championship, board 6 (5/6) |
| 1971 | Tallinn tournament, 1st-2nd (11,5/15) | |
| 1972 | Sukhumi tournament, 1st (11/15) Baku 40th URS-ch, 1st (15/21) | Skopje Olympiad, board 4 (14/16) |
| 1973 | Wijk aan Zee tournament, 1st (10,5/15) Tallinn tournament, 1st (12/15) Sochi - Chigorin memorial, 1st (11/15) Dubna tournament, 1st-2nd (10/15) | |
| 1973/74 | Hastings tournament, 1st-4th (10/15) | |
| 1974 | Lublin tournament, 1st (12,5/15) Halle tournament, 1st (11,5/15) Novi Sad tournament, 1st (11,5/15) Leningrad 42nd URS-ch, = 1st (9,5/15) | Nice Olympiad, board 5 (11,5/15) Moscow, USSR Club Team Championship, board 1, 1st (6,5/9) |
| 1977 | Tallin - Keres memorial, 1st (11,5/17) Leningrad 60th October Rev., 1st-2nd (11,5/17) Sochi - Chigorin memorial, 1st (11/15) | |
| 1978 | Tbilisi 46th URS-ch, 1st (11/17) | |
| 1979 | Montreal tournament, 1st-2nd (12/18) Riga Interzonal, 1st (14/17) |
[edit] 1981-1991
| Year | Tournament |
|---|---|
| 1981 | Tallinn - Keres memorial, 1st Malaga tournament, 1st Riga tournament, 1st (11/15) Porz tournament, 1st Lviv tournament, 1st-2nd |
| 1982 | Moscow - Alekhine memorial, 1st (9/13) Erevan tournament, 1st (10/15) Sochi - Chigorin memorial, 1st (10/15) Pforzheim tournament, 1st (9/11) |
| 1983 | Tallinn - Keres memorial, 1st (10/15) |
| 1984 | Albena tournament, 1st-2nd (7/11) |
| 1985 | Jurmala tournament, 1st (9/13) |
| 1986 | West Berlin open, 1st-2nd (7,5/9) Tbilisi - Goglidze memorial, 1st-2nd (9/13) |
| 1987 | Termas de Rio Hondo (Brazil), 1st (8/11) Jurmala tournament, 1st-4th (7,5/13) |
| 1988 | Chicago open, 1st 2nd World blitz Championship at Saint John: 1st |
| 1991 | Buenos Aires - Najdorf memorial, 1st-3rd (8,5/13) Porz open, =4th (7/9) |
Score with some major Grandmasters
Only official tournament or match games have been taken into account. The sign "+" means that Tal won those games.
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[edit] Health problems
Playing style
Known as "The Magician from Riga", Tal was the archetype of the attacking player, developing an extremely powerful and imaginative style of play. His approach over the board was very pragmatic – in that respect, he is one of the heirs of ex-World Champion Emanuel Lasker. He often sacrificed material in search for the initiative in chess, which is defined by the ability to make threats to which the opponent must respond. With such intuitive sacrifices, he created vast complications, and many masters found it impossible to solve all the problems he created over the board, though deeper post-game analysis found flaws in some of his conceptions. The famous sixth game of his first world championship match with Botvinnik is typical in that regard: Tal sacrificed a knight with little compensation but prevailed when the unsettled Botvinnik failed to find the correct response.
Although his playing style was scorned by ex-World Champion Vasily Smyslov as nothing more than "tricks", Tal convincingly beat virtually every notable grandmaster with his trademark aggression. Viktor Korchnoi and Paul Keres are two of the very few with a significant plus record against him. It is also notable that he adopted a more sedate and positional style in his later years; for many chess lovers, the apex of Tal's style corresponds with the period (approximately from 1971 to 1979) when he was able to integrate the solidity of classic chess with the imagination of his youth.[12]
Of the current top-level players, the Latvian-born Spaniard Alexei Shirov has probably been most influenced or inspired by Tal's sacrificial style. In fact, he studied with Tal as a youth. Many other Latvian grandmasters and masters, for instance Alexander Shabalov and Alvis Vitolins, have played in a similar vein, causing some to speak of a "Latvian School of Chess."[13] Tal contributed little to opening theory, despite a deep knowledge of most systems, the Sicilian and the Ruy Lopez in particular. But his aggressive use of the Modern Benoni defense, particularly in his early years, led to a complete re-evaluation of this variation at the time, though it is seldom seen in tournament play in the 21st century.
Quotations on chess
- "There are two kinds of sacrifices: sound ones, and mine."[14]
- "To play for a draw, at any rate with White, is to some degree a crime against chess."[15]
- "If Black is going for victory, he is practically forced to allow his opponent to get some kind of well-known positional advantage."
- "It is also important to remember that Bobby Fischer was a real chess gentleman during games. He was always very fair and very correct."
- "I drink, I smoke, I gamble, I chase girls – but postal chess is one vice I don't have."[16]
- "They compare me to Lasker, which is an exaggerated honor. He made mistakes in every game and I only in every second one!"
- Nevertheless, when asked about his opinion on who was the greatest player of all time, he answered: "Lasker, for he made miracles on the chessboard."
- Referring to his piece sacrifices: "They can only take them one at a time!"
- "If playing chess were made illegal by law, I would become an outlaw."
- "You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one."
Notable chess games
- Mikhail Tal vs Alexander Tolush, USSR Championship, Moscow 1957, King's Indian Defence, Saemisch Variation (E81), 1–0 In a critical last-round game, Tal spares no fireworks as he scores the win which clinches his first Soviet title.
- Boris Spassky vs Mikhail Tal, USSR Championship, Riga 1958, Nimzo-Indian Defence, Saemisch Variation (E26), 0–1 Spassky plays for a win to avoid a playoff for an Interzonal berth, but Tal hangs on by his fingernails before turning the tables in a complex endgame; with the win, he captures his second straight Soviet title.
- Mikhail Tal vs Vasily Smyslov, Yugoslavia Candidates' Tournament 1959, Caro-Kann Defence (B10), 1–0 A daring piece sacrifice to win a Brilliancy Prize game.
- Robert James Fischer vs Mikhail Tal, Belgrade, Candidates' Tournament 1959, Sicilian Defence, Fischer-Sozin Variation (B87), 0–1 In 1959, Bobby Fischer was too young and inexperienced to meet Tal with success. Still, their games from this time are full of interesting tactics.
- Mikhail Botvinnik vs Mikhail Tal, World Championship Match, Moscow 1960, 6th game, King's Indian Defence, Fianchetto Variation, Classical Main line (E69), 0–1 An excellent sample of Tal's style from the first Botvinnik-Tal match. Tal sacrifices a knight for the attack and Botvinnik is not able to find a good defence in the given time; his 25th move is a mistake spoiling the game for him.
- Istvan Bilek vs Mikhail Tal, Moscow 1967, King's Indian Attack, Spassky Variation (A05), 0–1 A risky counterattack is crowned with success, winning the Brilliancy Prize.
- Boris Spassky vs Mikhail Tal, Tallinn tt 1973, Nimzo-Indian Defence, Leningrad Variation (E30), 0–1 A game fuelled with tactics from its first moves. Black attacks in the centre and then starts a king chase.
- Mikhail Tal vs Tigran Petrosian, Moscow 1974, Pirc Defence (B08), 1–0 Tal destroys perhaps the greatest defensive player of all time in a miniature.
Writings
Although he did not publish much, Tal became also known as an exceptional chess writer who did not provide an abundance of variations but was able to communicate the intuition behind his reasoning to the reader. His account of his successful World Championship match against Botvinnik is very highly regarded: American Grandmaster Andrew Soltis reviewed it as "simply the best book written about a world championship match by a contestant. That shouldn't be a surprise because Tal was the finest writer to become world champion". New Zealand Grandmaster Murray Chandler wrote in the introduction to the 1997 reissued algebraic edition of The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal that the book was possibly the best chess book ever written. Tal also served as editor of the Riga magazine Šahs ("Chess") from 1960 to 1970.One amusing anecdote frequently quoted from Tal's autobiography takes the form of a hypothetical conversation between Tal and a journalist. It offers a modest, self-deprecating view of his reputation for unerring calculation at the board:
Journalist: - "It might be inconvenient to interrupt our profound discussion and change the subject slightly, but I would like to know whether extraneous, abstract thoughts ever enter your head while playing a game?"
Tal: - "Yes. For example, I will never forget my game with GM Vasiukov on a USSR Championship. We reached a very complicated position where I was intending to sacrifice a knight. The sacrifice was not obvious; there was a large number of possible variations; but when I began to study hard and work through them, I found to my horror that nothing would come of it. Ideas piled up one after another. I would transport a subtle reply by my opponent, which worked in one case, to another situation where it would naturally prove to be quite useless. As a result my head became filled with a completely chaotic pile of all sorts of moves, and the infamous "tree of variations", from which the chess trainers recommend that you cut off the small branches, in this case spread with unbelievable rapidity.
And then suddenly, for some reason, I remembered the classic couplet by Korney Ivanovic Chukovsky: "Oh, what a difficult job it was. To drag out of the marsh the hippopotamus".[17]
I do not know from what associations the hippopotamus got into the chess board, but although the spectators were convinced that I was continuing to study the position, I, despite my humanitarian education, was trying at this time to work out: just how WOULD you drag a hippopotamus out of the marsh ? I remember how jacks figured in my thoughts, as well as levers, helicopters, and even a rope ladder.
After a lengthy consideration I admitted defeat as an engineer, and thought spitefully to myself: "Well, just let it drown!" And suddenly the hippopotamus disappeared. Went right off the chessboard just as he had come on ... of his own accord! And straightaway the position did not appear to be so complicated. Now I somehow realized that it was not possible to calculate all the variations, and that the knight sacrifice was, by its very nature, purely intuitive. And since it promised an interesting game, I could not refrain from making it."
Journalist: - "And the following day, it was with pleasure that I read in the paper how Mikhail Tal, after carefully thinking over the position for 40 minutes, made an accurately-calculated piece sacrifice".
– Mikhail Tal, The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal.
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