Mikhail Tal --- 1936-1992
World Champion 1960-61
A personal appreciation by Bill Marshall
The story of Mikhail Tal is a one that would hardly be believed if it were written as a fictional tale. Too fanciful, couldn't happen in real life; and yet in some ways it is a sad tale for those who love the game of chess, for, having been granted the impossible, Tal was denied the natural development of his style that, even more than he achieved, would have delighted the fans and admirers who watched for his every game.
Chess players the world over will always argue about who was the greatest player who ever lived, who the finest attacker, who the best all rounder, who the most imaginative, with each putting forward his own favourite. Books have been and will be written, comparing Alekhine and Kasparov, Capablanca and Fischer. Whatever the answer, there will always be a place in the hearts of anyone who loves the game for this Latvian genius who blazed across the chess world in the late 50's, sweeping aside the solid, safe, "correct" players of the time and captured the highest prize itself at the age of 23: until Kasparov, the youngest ever world champion.
Perhaps not everyone will be so conversant with his later career when although
continually dogged by ill-health he remained a fearsome opponent and a challenger
for the top honours until relatively recently. Many otherwise excellent
books on the history of the modern game, speak as if his career finished
after the 1962 Candidates tournament when he had to be hospitalised with
the kidney trouble that was to dog him for the rest of his life. Yet he
was only beaten by Spassky for the right to challenge Petrosian in 1966,
losing the final of the Candidates to his life long friend and opponent
in a match that his doctors had tried to persuade him to play in a sanatorium.
Later he lost in the semi-finals to Korchnoi in '68 or we might have seen
a return final with Spassky & who knows... a Tal-Fischer match in Reykjavik!!
Fantasy you say, and yet how much of his life already seems fantastic. It
is surely only a small "what if" to wonder what such a match would have
been like. They were after all good friends, and there are few who can say
that they were friends with that enigmatic American genius.
As late as 1979 Tal took 1st= with Karpov in Montreal in what was then reckoned to be one of the strongest tournaments ever staged, then went on to win the Riga Interzonal by a clear 2½ points. In the 80's he surprised many by playing quite sucessfully in the Grand Prix tournaments after a period which had seen rumours of his death. He was 3rd in the 1985 Interzonal thus qualifying for Candidates at the age of 49. The strength sapping grind of match play was perhaps too much for him by now against the very best however, but tournament play was a different matter and even when he wasn't coming in first he could still enliven a tournament with sparkling sacrifices to demolish a Candidate or a fancied youngster. Indeed in 1988 he astonished everyone by not only coming third in the Reykjavik World Cup but also winning the World Blitz Championship.
He was still playing right to the end. His last tournament game was a fine win against GM Akopyan in Barcelona. A few weeks later he played in a quickplay in Moscow and defeated a certain Garry Kasparov in their game. To universal regret he died in hospital a few days later.
The list of famous Tal victories is a long one. When in good health he seemed to be able to win any tournament he entered. In 1972 he went 86 games without loss. Unfortunately this finished just before the Interzonal, largely due to the after effects of another operation. Near the end of 1973 he embarked on another run which was even longer. His record in Olympiads is incredible. Out of 8 tournaments he scored Best Board on 5 occasions and 3 times recorded the absolute best score! His record in the USSR championship is just as remarkable: 6 times champion of the strongest nation in chess history - a feat matched only by Botvinnik.
The games of course are the stuff of fairytales. Tal was variously described as a Sorcerer, a Calculating Machine, the Magician of Riga. He could conjure up fantastic combinations in the most placid of positions, find a sacrifice where none seemed possible, produce activity in the most threadbare collection of pieces. Give him a complex position, the initiative, and the attack would seemingly flow of its own accord, the pieces apparently endowed with extra capabilities. His imagination (he himself used the word fantasy) was unparalleled, even in an era that had marvelled at David Bronstein. The diehards criticised his play as too risky and said his sacrifices were unsound (having usually taken 3 months of analysis worldwide to prove them so!). Yet especially in the early years, no-one could withstand his ferocious assaults. I well remember, at the age of about 13, the first time I read Peter Clarke's excellent book of Tals best games up to 1960. I had read about the great romantic period, seen games of Anderssen and Morphy, a few of Alekhine and Frank Marshall. But that was in the past - you couldn't do that now. By the time I got past the first few games I was already mesmerised, and then I came upon the 1959 Candidates game with Smyslov. Vassily Smyslov - a name to strike fear and respect into any chess player. He had been involved in three World Title matches with Botvinnik: drawing in 1954, winning in 1957, and losing the return in 1958. The pair had dominated chess during that period. He was the very epitome of logic, secure in defence, stylish in technique, a giant of the game. I remember reading Clarkes introduction to the game;
"It was scarcely credible; here was the mighty, impassive Smyslov, ex-Champion of the World, torn to pieces in just 26 moves".26 moves! How could this be? Was it some wild gambit? Had Smyslov blundered? No, it was that most solid of openings, a Caro-Kann defence and some of Smyslov's moves had exclamation marks as well!
The game is stunning, magnificent, full of the most incredible complications and sacrifices. Grandmasters argued and analysed for months over it. It is one of the finest games I know. Yet 3 years earlier Tal was unknown outside the Soviet Union, not even an I.M. (in fact he never was - he was one of the very few people ever to be directly awarded a GM title.) He went on to win that Candidates Tournament ahead of Keres, Smyslov, Petrosian, Fischer, Gligoric. A year later having never met him over the board before, he had beaten Botvinnik and was World Champion. Even Jeffrey Archer would not dare produce such a story.
Some Interesting Facts
- Youngest World Champion until Kasparov.
- Played in 8 Olympiads, 5 Best board Results, 3 times absolute best score.
- 6 times USSR Champion.
- Lost only once to Kasparov & once to Karpov.
- A countback of ELO ratings revealed that Tal's rating during his peak around 1960 would be 7th in the all time rankings with 2700 behind Fischer, Kasparov, Capablanca, Botvinnik, Lasker, & Karpov. In fact in 1979 following his wins in Montreal & Riga he went up to 2710.
- 3rd in 1985 Interzonal thus qualifying for Candidates at 49
- Only 3 men played in both USSR-Rest of the World matches - Tal, Larsen, & Polugaevsky.
Quotes about Tal
- If Tal had really studied Chess in the late fifties and early sixties he would have been impossible to play against - Botvinnik
- How does Tal win? - He develops all his pieces in the centre and then sacrifices them somewhere - Bronstein
- If Tal has an open file it will be mate - an onlooker at a Tal post mortem analysis session.
Tal quotes
- "If you wait for luck to turn up, life becomes very boring."
- "There are two types of sacrifices - sound ones and mine."
Bibliography
Clarke, P,H, - Tal's Best Games of Chess
Bell 1960
later reissued as Tal: Master of Sacrifice
Tal, M - Life & Games of Mikhail Tal
Cadogan Books 1997
a reissue of a book originally published by RHM Press 1976. A must for every
chess fans library. It regularly comes in the top two choices of the best
chess book of all time.
Tal & Khenkin - Tal's Winning Chess Combinations
Routledge 1980
Out of Print
Tal, M - Montreal 1979
Pergamon 1980
ISBN
Tahl: 222 Partidas
Ediciones Eseuve (Madrid) 1990
ISBN 848 7301134
Soltis - Tal the Magnificent
Chess Digest 1990
ISBN 0875681832
A fine tribute by an obvious admirer. With a diagram every 5 moves it can
be read well even without a board.
Tal & Damsky - Attack with Mikail Tal
Cadogen 1995
ISBN 1857440439
A small volume but packed with superbly chosen positions and combinations.
Deserves repeated study.
Khalifman(ed) - Mikhail Tal Games Vol 1 1949-1962
Chess Stars 1994
Khalifman(ed) - Mikhail Tal Games Vol 2 1963-1972
Chess Stars 1995
ISBN 9548782022
Khalifman(ed) - Mikhail Tal Games Vol 3 1973-1981
Chess Stars 1996
ISBN 9548782033
Tournament Record
1956 USSR ch 5-7th +6=9-2 Student Olympiad Bd 3 1st +6=2 1957 USSR ch 1st +9=10-2 Student Olympiad Bd 1 1st +7=3 Europa Cup Bd4 1-2nd 1958 USSR ch 1st +9=7-3 Student Olympiad Bd1 1st +7=3 Interzonal Portoroz 1st +8=11-1 Olympiad Munich 1st Res 1st 13½/15 +12=3 Absolute best score 1959 USSR ch 2nd-3rd +9=7-3 Zurich 1st +10=3-2 Candidates Bled/Belgrade 1st +16=8-4 Riga 4th +7=4-2 1960 Match USSR-W.Germany +7=1 Olympiad Leipzig Bd 1 2nd +8=6-1 World Ch v Botvinnik Won 12½-8½ 1961 World Ch v Botvinnik lost 8-13 Stockholm 1st +8=3 Bled 1st +11=7-1 Ahead of Fischer, Gligoric, Keres, Petrosian, Geller USSR ch 4th-5th +7=11-3 1962 Candidates Curacao withdrawn ill Olympiad Varna 2nd res 1st +7=6 USSR ch 2nd-3rd +11=5-3 1963 Miskolc 1st +10=5 Capablanca Mem Havana 2nd-4th +14=4-3 Moscow 2nd +7=7-1 1964 Hastings 1st +5=4 Reykjavic 1st +12=1 Interzonal Amsterdam 1st-4th +11=12 Kislovodsk 1st +5=5-1 USSR ch 3rd +9=7-3 1965 Latvian Ch 1st +7=6 Candidates Quarter-final v Portisch won 5½-2½ Candidates Semi-final v Larsen won 5½-4½ Candidates Final v Spassky lost 4-71966 Sarajevo 1st-2nd +9=4-2 Kislovodsk 6th-7th +4=3-4 Olympiad Havana Bd 3 1st 12/13 +11=2 Absolute best score Palma de Mallorca 1st +9=6 1967 Moscow 2nd-5th +5=10-2 USSR ch 1st-2nd +7=6 1968 Beverwijk 2nd-4th +5=8-2 Gori 1st +6=5-1 USSR ch 6th-10th +6=9-4 Candidates Quarter-final v Gligoric won 5½-3½ Candidates Semi-final v Korchnoi lost 4½-5½ 1969 Candidates 3rd place playoff v Larsen lost 2½-5½ USSR ch 14th-15th +6=9-7 Tbilisi 1st-2nd +7=7-1 1970 Georgian Ch 1st +9=5-1 USSR-Rest of World bd 9 +1=2-1 Europa Cup Bd 6 1st +4=2 Sochi 1st +9=3-2 1971 Tallin 1st-2nd +9=5-1 Parnu 2nd-3rd +7=5-1 USSR Ch 2nd-3rd +9=9-3 Alekine Memorial Moscow 6th-7th +4=11-2 1972 Vilyandi 2nd +7=3-1 Sukhumi 1st +7=8 Olympiad Skopje Bd 4 1st 14/16 +12=4 Absolute best score USSRch 1st +9=12 1973 Wijk aan Zee 1st +6=9 Tallin 1st +9=6 Interzonal Leningrad 8th-10th +6=5-6 Europa Cup Bd 7 2nd +2=4 Chigorin Memorial Sochi 1st +7=8 USSR ch 9th-12th +3=10-4 Dubna 1st-2nd +7=8 1974 Hastings 1st-4th +5=10 Olympiad 1st reserve 1st +8=7 Lublin 1st +10=5 Halle 1st +8=7 Novi Sad 1st +9=5-1 USSR ch 1st-2nd +6=7-2 1975 Las Palmas 2nd-4th +8=4-2 1976 Interzonal Biel 2nd Tallin 1st 1977 Las Palmas 4th Leningrad 1st Sochi 1st Bugojno 4th 1978 USSR ch 1st Tallin 2nd 1979 Montreal "Tournament of Stars" 1st-2nd (With Karpov) Category 15 +6=12-0
Riga Interzonal 1st +11=6-0 Winner by 2½ points
(Elo 2710) 1981 Riga 1st 1982 Moscow 1st Sochi 1st 1983 Tallin 1st 1984 USSR-Rest of the World +1=2 1985 1986 1987 (ranked 8th on 2625) 1988 Reykjavik World Cup 3rd World Blitz Ch 1st (ranked 2630)
