Polugaevsky Explains Tal's Worst Chess Defeat - Best Of The 60's - Polugaevsky vs. Tal, 1960
Lev Polgaevsky and Mikhail Tal had an incredible chess rivalry featuring numerous brilliant battles.Tal's last victory (He only won two and lost eight.) was a prize-winning game in the Informant magazine.
The most famous and brilliant of their contests was almost certainly the following game featuring deep preparation from Polugaevsky. His classic bishop sacrifice in this game is an all-time classic and demonstrates some brilliant themes. Even with reduced forces, the attack is quite potent.
Top 10 Games of the 1960s
- #1: ???
- #2: ???
- #3: ???
- #4: ???
- #5: Polugaevsky vs. Tal, 1969
- #6: Petrosian vs. Spassky, 1966
- #7: Veresov vs. Bronstein, 1960
- #8: Spassky vs. Bronstein, 1960
- #9: Gufeld vs. Kavalek, 1962
- #10: Korchnoi vs. Udovcic, 1967
- See also: Top 10 of the 1970s, Top 10 of the 1980s, Top 10 of the 1990s, Top 10 of the 2000s, and Top 10 of the 2010s
Polugaevsky's brilliant conception begins with 16.d5! and a positional pawn sacrifice, but it is 19.Bxh7+!!, 21.h4!!, and 25.e6!! that makes the game famous. This sequence creates an incredible and irresistible attack that Tal is not able to truly fend off despite possessing a host of pieces.
My annotations with substantial comments and an incredible story from Polugaevsky from his classic work "Grandmaster Preparation" [Amazon affiliate link supports the content.] are available below.
If you like the content and want to support it, subscribe and follow on YouTube and Twitch!
I'm the VP of Chess and Community for Chess.com. I earned the National Master title in 2012, and in 2014, I returned to my home state of South Carolina to start Strategery: Chess and Games. In late 2014, I began working for Chess.com and haven't looked back since.
You can find my personal content on Twitch , Twitter , and YouTube where I further indulge my love of chess.
