The Magician From Riga

The 8th World Champion GM Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal was the most colorful chess player of the second part of the 20th century. He was known for his amazing tactical vision and beautiful sacrifices. He was able to find moves that nobody else would think about. Although these moves weren't always correct, in a practical game it was impossible for his opponents to find the best continuation.

When we sacrifice a piece we expect a mating attack or winning more material, but many times when Tal sacrificed, he got long-term compensation and this is one of the hardest things in chess.

With his sharp style, we could expect that his games were finished in the middle game, but this is not the truth. Most of the time he ended up with a pawn up or with some positional advantage in the endgame which he converted very accurately.

Sacrificing a queen and then playing as nothing happened is not a common thing in chess, but Tal has not only 1 or 2, but several examples where he did that. We can see this in the following game.

Once after his game, Tal was asked why had he sacrificed his pawn, and he answered that it had been in the way. According to documents, he was a friendly and funny person.

The next one is my favourite game from Tal. Against the 7th World Champion GM Vasily Smyslov, he sacrifices his queen according to incredible calculation and after Smyslov declines the sacrifice Tal gets a minimal positional advantage in the endgame which he converts to a full point perfectly.

What a fantastic game!

Tal even set the record for the youngest World Champion at the age of 23 which was only broken by GM Garry Kasparov. They both had a similar style and played the sharp positions extremely strongly, like in this game:

Tal had never stopped amazing the viewers and he had always been a difficult opponent to face at the board.

There is no other player like him. His calculation skill and tactical vision are on another level. It's incredible how accurately he was able to play in the unclear position. After the middlegame, he played the endgame with fantastic technical skills. His games are always entertaining.

I hope you enjoyed these games from this brilliant player!