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64, #18, 1988
In his closing speech after the 55th USSR Championship, Mikhail Moiseevich Botvinnik (the arbiter, and that's quite fascinating in itself!) said that we didn't have such a strong tournament since 1973. We can agree with him. But als... | Read More
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Ogonyok, #34-35, 1992
Vitaly Melik-Karamov
"Against medicine, Tal played only Black"
That's the last interview of Mikhail Tal.
He suffered from a serious illness for a long time and looked horribly for many years. Tal was the second of eig... | Read More
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Mikhail Tal's article commemorating the 75th birthday of Paul Keres. Nedelya, 1991
On a winter evening in 1954 I, then a member of Riga chess team, went to the neighbouring Tallinn. In the train I couldn't get any sleep: two games against K... | Read More
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What do you think about the qualifying system in our country? Do we need any changes, or it's all right already?
The words "all right", it seems to me, are now heard only in the song "It's all right, pretty marquise".
The international tournamen... | Read More
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Do you have a coach? What's your favourite chess piece?
Coaches and seconds are a rare commodity these days. You know, the best ones are already taken. Either by Kasparov or Karpov, there's no room for anybody else on this "market".
And favourit... | Read More
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They say that Karpov and Kasparov are head and shoulders ahead of all other players. Is it actually so, and who else can intervene in their struggle?
Well, first you have to clear this head and shoulders distance. The fact is still a fact. At the... | Read More
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I discovered a fuller version of this interview in an obscure book with Tal's own interviews and articles. So, there are more words from the Wizard!
Have you ever played blindfold games?
I did give a blindfold simultaneous exhibition, it was fil... | Read More
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This article was written by Ilyin-Zhenevsky in 1928, but I think it still has both historical and practical value. I took the liberty to omit the long introduction.
During my long chess career I've studied a lot of games and found several typ... | Read More
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From Mikhail Tal and Yakov Damsky book "For Kaissa's altar".What do you think of chess as a cultural phenomena?Well, there's no exact definition of chess yet. Furthermore, the supporters of all views constantly find new arguments that prove them.... | Read More
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During his long and exceptional career, Paul Keres defeated no less than nine world champions - everyone from Capablanca to Fischer. Here's some sort of "gallery" of those wins.
... | Read More