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I was at a tournament recently, talking to an older man who had lived in Moscow for some time. He attended a lot of high-level tournaments in the city and got to meet some of the players. He spoke to Mikhail Tal several times and said that he was extremely friendly and would talk to anyone- in contrast to Botvinnik, who he said pretended to not hear him when he tried to speak to him (fair enough, I don't know how annoying this guy was being).
He was also a spectator at the last tournament Mikhail Tal ever played, a blitz tournament in 1992. He would die about a month later. In that tournament, Tal famously defeated Kasparov (partial game score here- the real game apparently continued beyond move 17 and Kasparov lost on time. My acquaintance congratulated Tal after the game, and Tal smiled and said to him "I might be old, but if you put your finger in my mouth, I'll bite."
The same man later told me that Lyme disease is a genetically engineered bioweapon, so feel free to take this story with a grain of salt. But I thought it sounded plausible!
It's been maintained that many of his sacrifices are unsound, but his great wins are often celebrated. I'm looking for the other side of the coin where his opponent defended properly and Tal loses because his tricks were refuted.
He had plenty of ciggies (fags) for both of us to puff on afterward.
I've been playing chess since I was 8 years old, and joined some local tournaments. However, I quit when I got to high school, due to the fact that I've found the game becoming boring. Up until that point, I still believe chess is a game of pure science. You don't let your opponent up even a piece, you must develope your piece and castle quickly right in the opening, don't make sacrifices unless it's a force mate in 5 and below.... And then there's the computer/engine analysis. Basically, 15 year-old me believed chess has been solved, so the game between two grandmasters nowadays just simply who's playing more careful than who. If both of they play equally careful, then a draw is a common thing.
That is until last year, when I discovered agadmator channel on Youtube, and watched the videos on the games of Mikhail Tal.
My first video of Tal's game was "I dared you to sacrifice the Queen, Mr. Tal". And I was blown away by Tal's style of play. I had thought that maybe it was just luck, that Tal's opponent had played badly to let Tal get that win after his Queen sac. But then 2 or 3 more videos, and I was convinced that it's not luck, but it's because Tal had an amazing ability of calculating variants. So I went on Wikipeadia to do some research about him, and for the first time, I learnt of the phrase "attacking player" in general, and "greatest attacking player" in particular. A phrase that used to describe Tal's playing style that I still remember to this day was " With such intuitive sacrifices, he created vast complications, and many masters found it impossible to solve all the problems he created over the board"
Basically, Tal has opened my way of seeing chess. I realized how wrong I was, that I didn't quit chess because I found it boring, but because I wasn't good enough to experince the beauty of it. So I went back to the world of chess. It was around september last year. For the first time in my life, I play chess online. After a few months of getting the hang of chess again, I finally got the chance to play in Tal style.
This game was played in November 9th, 2020. I'm playing with the White pieces. This is move 18. Engine analysing is at depth 35.
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It is Black to move. He played 18...Rxd6
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... keep reading on reddit ➡
Fischer’s games still haunt me. I lost my mind trying to understand Fischer’s games. I played a game after watching videos on Tal and then on Fischer and just told my opponent. You have no idea the madness I have seen to today, the queen sacrifices like you would not believe and just started twitching because I had some Vietnam flashbacks of Tal dragging me into a deep dark forest while Fischer tries to carve swastikas into the trees or something. I don’t even know what I am saying anymore, see the madness.
I still suck wtf
