Stabroek News: Mikhail Tal’s chess: romanticism and sacrifice
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Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Tal was a Soviet Latvian chess grandmaster and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as one of the most influential players in chess history. Tal played in an attacking and combinatorial style. His play was known for improvisation and unpredictability. Vladislav Zubok said of him, "Every game for him was as inimitable and invaluable as a…
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culture · Soviet and Latvian chess grandmaster (1936–1992) · chess player · writer · journalist · chess composer · Grandmaster · also Mikhail Tal, Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal, Mihails Tāls, Tal
Born 9 November 1936 · Died 27 June 1992 · Q102664
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2021· 1 entry
2018· 1 entry
With 100 games, although with far fewer wins than either of Tal's streaks (29 wins, 71 draws)
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1992· 1 entry
Died 1992-06-27.
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1988· 1 entry
At the age of 51, he won the second official World Blitz Championship (the first was won by Kasparov the previous year in Brussels, Belgium) at Saint John, Canada, ahead of such players as Kasparov, the reigning world ch
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1981· 1 entry
Awarded Order of Friendship of Peoples (1981).
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1970· 2 entries
Tal was world number one for 32 months, from October 1958 (after scoring 13½/15 at the 1958 Olympiad in Munich and 13½/20 at the 1958 Interzonal in Portoroz) through April 1961
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Took second place to Fischer, who scored 19/22, in a blitz tournament at Herceg Novi, SFR Yugoslavia, ahead of Korchnoi, Petrosian and Smyslov
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1968· 1 entry
But then lost the semi-final match against Viktor Korchnoi in Moscow
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1965· 1 entry
Lost the final match against Boris Spassky, after defeating Lajos Portisch and Bent Larsen in matches
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1962· 1 entry
At Curaçao, then part of Netherlands Antilles, 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 seven p
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1961· 1 entry
Also held in Moscow, by 13–8 (ten wins to five, with six draws)
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1960· 4 entries
Awarded Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR (1960).
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Awarded Order of the Badge of Honour (1960).
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Awarded world chess champion (1960).
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At the age of 23, Tal defeated the strategically-minded Mikhail Botvinnik in a World Championship match, held in Moscow, by 12½–8½ (six wins, two losses, and thirteen draws), making him the youngest-ever World Champion (
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1959· 1 entry
Tal won a very strong tournament in Zurich, Switzerland
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1958· 1 entry
Studied at University of Latvia, Staatsexamen (1958).
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1949· 1 entry
Played Ratmir Kholmov, a young master who had recently competed in the Chigorin Memorial chess tournament in 1947, in a simultaneous exhibition
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1936· 1 entry
Born 1936-11-09.
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