The Greatest Grandmaster Game You've Never Forgottten
Mikhail Tal treated chess like a toxic relationship, but instead of hating it, he secretly enjoyed it. He Enjoyed Pure Chaos.
I wanted to go further in this video because Tal was a mastermind when it came to being the best attacking player of this century. But there was a science to the madness, and I want to dive deeper into 4 concepts that each one of us can appreciate when it comes to his chess.
- He Never Took No for an Answer Over The Chessboard
When Tal was playing a game of chess, he showed no mercy. He did not relent to the opponent’s idea, which is vital. Some players lose this ability as they get older, but Tal never did. You have to be a kind of mercenary in chess — you have to be a bully. You never go along with your opponent’s plan, but instead stick to your own.
Tal was a man who had dreams, and unless those dreams were realized, he didn’t want to play the game. What made him such a creative player was his ability to find ways to get his plan accomplished, even when his opponent tried to stop him by any means necessary.
There was always a sacrifice hidden beyond the normal moves you’d expect. Even when the sacrifice wasn’t fully sound, it made the opponent think. It made them second-guess whether their position was really as good as they thought.
Because when we’re playing a game of chess, there’s no evaluation bar telling us who’s winning or losing. Honestly, if Tal lived in these times, I wonder how people would perceive him. Clearly, I don’t think he would care about the computer evaluation — he only cared about the activity of the position.
He had a great sense of how to use his pieces correctly. Whenever one of his pieces was passive, he would rather be down material than allow inactivity. Activity was always on his mind. If his pieces weren’t active, he forced the position in that direction.
Usually when I’m live streaming, I ask my audience: would you rather be the attacker or the defender, if the position were equal? Most people choose the attack because the attacker is the one forcing the opponent to respond. Being attacked is not pleasant — you have to watch out for every check, every capture, every threat.
That’s why strong players know: never take no for an answer. This isn’t just true in chess — it applies to life as well.
If you’re wronged at your job and lose money, you wouldn’t just accept it — you’d complain and try to get it back.
If you’re in a dispute with a sibling and you feel cheated, you’d fight for fairness.
If a teacher marks your correct answer as wrong, you’d approach them to fix it, and if they refused, you’d go to the principal. Never take no for an answer.
But here’s the disclaimer: there are times when you must give up an idea. Experienced players know when to let go of an attack. Beginners, on the other hand, love premature attacks — rushing forward with one or two pieces, hoping for a quick win.
That works at very low levels, but not against experienced players. The difference between a premature attack and a successful attack is simple: a successful attack uses four or five pieces working together to threaten a checkmate or create a winning position. Not every attack ends with checkmate — but if you build up enough activity, the chances are in your favor.
2. He Enjoyed The Mess He Created
Tal enjoyed the mess he created.
Many chess players dislike gambits or being down material, but Tal thrived in those positions. He was comfortable in chaos — tactics everywhere, forcing moves for both sides. It was his atmosphere, and he loved it.
It’s like a gamer whose room is messy — you might say he should clean it up, but you can’t argue with his skill at the game. Or like a scientist with papers all over the desk — it looks messy, but it’s an organized mess.
That’s how Tal was at the board. He had everything organized in the mess. And in those wild positions, he often got the psychological edge, because his opponents were uncomfortable.
To be that kind of player, you need calculation. Calculation, calculation, calculation. When you combine calculation with instinct, you become unstoppable — especially if you can separate what works from what doesn’t.
In crazy positions, the opponent has to find the best move every single time. That’s hard, even for a grandmaster. If they succeed, you congratulate them. But most of the time, they won’t — and that’s where Tal struck.
3. The Principle of Imagination
Imagination is a wonderful skill, but you have to utilize it. Your imagination has to be on par with a 5-year-old kid who is curious about every single little thing. Just think about the 5-year-old kid who asks questions about everything because there’s a lot they do not know. We have to be curious about the chessboard going beneath the obvious surface, into figuring out things that the opponent doesn’t even know. Or figuring out things before the opponent wraps the full picture, and that’s why I will have to say again, to become a strong chess player, you have to calculate.
To create the kinds of games Tal played, you have to be a dreamer.
All the products we use today started as someone’s imagination. The same was true of Tal’s chess. His sacrifices, his combinations — they were all born from creativity and vision.
One of the most important lessons for beginners is this: don’t expect your opponent to be perfect. Even if you’re playing Magnus Carlsen, you still have to look for mistakes. If you don’t, you’ll never get the chance to take the edge.
Tal always searched for those moments. Like a lion waiting for the gazelle, he was ready to pounce on every opportunity.
4. Thinking Outside the Box
Tal broke the rules. He bent principles. HE DREAMED BIG! If you’re not dreaming in chess, there’s no way you’re going to play moves outside the box. For you to be a successful chess player, you have to imagine success.
Putting yourself in a position where you’re imagining what could happen, for example, if you’re asking questions such as, If my opponent does this, then I will do that, or If these prerequisites are met, then I can finally do this. Going to the chess match already thinking the opponent is better than you, will make it hard for you to imagine. Basically, already meeting your fate.
Many things would not be here if we hadn’t imagined them first. For example, do you know how hard it would have been to come up with the idea of a phone? It took time to get to an era where some jobs even require you to have a phone with you. Instead of primarily depending on letters, human messengers, or birds, every one of your friends and family members is one phone call away.
Thinking outside the box is IMPORTANT.
Going outside the regular mold. Play moves the opponent wouldn’t expect. This doesn’t mean to play intentionally bad moves, but to every good move found, there’s a better one awaiting. If your opponent can guess what move you’re going to make before you do it, that’s ALWAYS bad. You want your opponent to THINK when they’re playing chess. To become a stronger player, you have to force them to make decisions.
Now, of course, this advice is for players who want to improve at the game pass 2000. Casual players can stay casual players, and there is nothing wrong with that. But if you want to become stronger, it’s time to force your opponent to think, and if your opponent is winning matches while you’re spending all your time, and they’re spending about 30 seconds of their clock, that is not a good sign.
So, get in the lab and start training this thought process of thinking outside of the box.
For example, let’s consider pawns attacking each other and all the options. Let’s say a game started, first moves,1. e4, d5. Now the black pawn is attacking our white pawn on e4. We have a few options: we can push the pawn, we can take the pawn on d5, and most people would forget about this, but we can leave the pawn there. Do another move, like protect the piece. As long as we’re considering each choice is a STRAIGHT W like the young kids say.
In this opening, I presented to you each option that leads into a different variation, and they’re all pretty much good, but in the middle game, you still have to go through the same thought process of acknowledging moves that aren’t obvious, and Mikhail Tal was great at doing this.
For you to create games like he did, you have to think outside the box, and the way you process a game determines what type of game you’re getting into. Chess is so beautiful because each player has their own style of playing, and you have to see what fits you.
We all can ascertain that Mikhail Tal was a man who wanted to cause chaos. Honestly, we should have started calling him Chaos Tal, but sadly, I didn’t live in the air where he was dominating the chest field.
Thinking outside the box involves finding the right candidate moves. At the moment, I know we live in a time where blitz chess is more entertaining to watch, but when you have 90 minutes on the clock, you can actually look at a different variety of moves that can lead to either a crazy game or a more solid game. (This is why chess players argue about the purity of the game being ruined by shorter time control, but that’s for a different day.)
Titled players check for candidate moves ALL THE TIME, and their sole job is to make the other opponent as uncomfortable as possible. This is how to cause the opponent to make a mistake and eventually win the game. So, chess players have to get into the habit of overloading the opponent’s mind, and Mikhail Tal was clearly one of the best at doing this.
Keep on fighting til the end, focusing on chess and real life too.
THANKS FOR READING
Join the free Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/Chessknowledgewithh1 for more chess improvement and get the chess class curriculum, too.
