Tal himself said he beat Fischer when he was Tal but Fischer was not yet Fischer ! Tal's 4 wins came in 1959 and he won the world championship in 1960 , clearly a 15 year old Bobby was not playing chess at Tal's level yet. They met again only 2 years later in 61 and again in 62 and Fischer won both games, even though he was still just a teen. Surely Tal had not lost much strength from 1960 to 1961 ? It would seem to me that an "overall record" would include all tournament games they had played with each other. If you mean only classic games then perhaps you should specify only classic games. Yes, in classic games alone Tal is +2 against Fischer. In classic games alone both Spassky and Petrosian have 50% score with Kasparov.
Yeah and Gulko has +2 (3-1) But some will say Kasparov lost the first two games when he was young and blahblahblah...
Anyway,Gulko was a extremely strong Grandmaster in the 70's.Korchnoi once said he could have achieved much more if he had defected like him instead of asking for permission.And Gulko was one of the guys who did not sign the anti-Korchnoi collective letter,alongside with Botvinnik,Bronstein and Spassky.They dared not bother the Patriarch but the three other ones did not have an easy life after that.
Tal had 4-2 against Fischer.
Fischer fans say 4-4 but they have to include 2 blitz games from Herceg Novi 1970.Not very serious......
Tal won all 4 of his games against Fischer when Fischer was 15 and Tal was in his prime. After those 4 games Tal never beat Fischer again. The blitz games were played when both were adults and yes they should count since Tal even won a world blitz championship in the 80s in Canada with even Kasparov playing ! Fischer won both blitz games against Tal and if you are gonna count the wins against a 15 yr old Fischer then certainly the blitz games should count when both were adults.
He was 15,but still he was a Candidate,so what's the fuss ? This 4-0 surely has its value.After all,I don't remember Tal scoring 28/28 in that tourney.Then Fischer scored two wins in serious chess and these two wins in Herceg Novi.I'm not saying Tal was globally stronger,since he certainly was not.But come on....you can't compare 5 minutes games to 2.30/40 moves.Having no news from Hell-Heaven matches,I'll stick to my 4-2 in Tal's favor