Top 10 facts about Mikhail Tal

#agadmator This video is about the greatest attacking player in chess history.
He was know by many names: The Magician from Riga, The pirate of Latvia, Fortune's Favorite, The Hypnotist... and so on..
This is the moment you've all been waiting for:

Top 10 facts about Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal

Enjoy!

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[rohanp]

No wonder "THE TAL MOVE" is considered to be the best compliment a move can get in chess..

[MarkPaulJacobs]

I played Tal in a simul in 1988 four years before he died. I was a 1600 rated player at that time and at move 19 I actually saw a piece sacrifice for some space and movement. With my heart in my chest I thought this would be a once in a lifetime opportunity so I chopped the pawn with my bishop and Tal took the bait in about 2 milliseconds. Needless to say, I felt I was in a losing situation about 5 moves later... I made it to about move 35 in a seemingly losing endgame, and Tal actually paused for a whole two seconds, looked at me (he was scary) and said in broken English (Latvian) "Interesting..." He did not speak to anyone else from what I saw. I resigned a few moves later. I never found out what he saw or meant... perhaps it was "Why haven't you already resigned?" LOL. I believe Tal went 33-0-2 in the simul. [Event "Simo Demonstration"]

[Site "Toms River New Jersey"]
[Date "1988.03.11"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Mikhail Tal (IGM)"]
[Black "M. Jacobs (1660)"]
[Result "1-0"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Bb7 5. Nc3 d5 6. cxd5 exd5 7. g3 Be7 8.
Qa4+ c6 9. Bg2 O-O 10. O-O h6 11. Bf4 Re8 12. Rad1 Nbd7 13. Rfe1 Bf8 14.
Ne5 Nxe5 15. Bxe5 Bd6 16. f4 Ng4 17. e4 Nxe5 18. fxe5 b5 19. Qb3 Bxe5 20.
dxe5 Qb6+ 21. Kh1 d4 22. Ne2 c5 23. Qd3 Rxe5 24. b4 c4 25. Qxd4 Qxd4 26.
Rxd4 Rae8 27. Nc3 a6 28. Rf1 g6 29. Kg1 f5 30. exf5 Bxg2 31. Kxg2 gxf5 32.
Rd5 Re3 33. Rf3 Rxf3 34. Kxf3 Re6
{
Tal pauses, says position 'Interesting'?
}
35. Rxf5 Kg7 36. Ne4 Rc6 37. Rc5 Re6 38. g4 Kg6 39. h4 Kg7 40. Kf4 Kg6 41.
h5+ Kg7 42. Rc7+ Kf8 43. Kf5 Rb6 44. Nf6 Rd6 45. Kg6 Rd3 46. Rf7#
1-0

[fscii]

Tal in his prime would do well today as then. His unpredictable style takes bookworms out of their element into that deep dark forest where 2+2=5 and the path leading out is only big enough for one.

[colloredbrothers]

"He was a man in who's presence others sensed their mediocrity"

Thats a compliment reserved for legends

[xyon]

*"There are two types of sacrifices, good ones and mine"*
LOL

[rohanpaul]

Harry Houdini : I am the greatest magician.
Mikhail Tal: HOLD MY QUEEN.

[arnobahmed]

"We have to calculate but Tal just sees it on the board." I remember this line of Kasparov. This is one of the best lines that describes Tal very well.

[gillrowley]

I have the book "Tal's 100 best games".  Brilliant book.  And there is a scene in this video where Fischer is visiting Tal in the hospital.  He was the only tournament player to do so when that occurred.  Fischer didn't hate the Soviet players so much, he hated the Soviet chess system.  Tal was truly an attacking genius.

[smcracraft]

Tal was my favorite. Still is. Met him at the American Open in 1988 in Long Beach. I ran Deep Thought II. He came over to look at it raven-eyed, journalistically, briefly. If I could rewind time, I would have offered GM Tal a two blitz games against DT and one regular timed game, all off the record, he as White. I suspect he would have demolished DT II and had a grand time. Now, the later descendent Deep Blue -- that's another story but no way to tell. Just my suspicions for one alternate past history. Would that we all could play as non-materialistically as GM Tal. Long live Misha! --Stuart

[xyon]

*"Little did they know little Hippo needed to drown for Tal to win the game."*

[ize]

Tal is a breath of fresh air amid the morass of analasys

[andynaka]

There's a psychological factor in chess that engines doesn't take in account during their analysis... like one consolidated grandmaster stated one day (Ivanchuk i think) computer moves are the "right" ones, but not always the most practical... Tal used to play for the initiative since the beginning, by sacrificing pieces and then not letting his opponents breath, thus requiring them to play the best move every time in order to react... in my opinion Tal would do really well today even against those boring computadorized players due to his dominance in this psychologic factor, since we're still playing against humans and not machines...

[tommonk]

Love Tal. So much fun to play through his games, wondering what crazy sacrifice will come next. Interestingly, he and Fischer were good friends. During one of the many times Tal was hospitalized due to his illnesses, Fischer came to see him and brought a chess board so they could play. I believe there was a short clip in the video showing that.

[pallav]

Fact 11 - Tal had the congenital deformity of ectrodactyly in his right hand (visible in some photographs). Despite this, he was a skilled piano player.

[paullacourse]

0:57 shows the type of person Bobby Fischer really was. When Tal came up sick during a tournament he had to be hospitalized. None of the tournament players visited him in the hospital with the exception of Fischer, shown here playing blitz with Tal. A very classy gesture by Bobby. Tal and Bobby remained very good friends.

[danialpark]

Although my favorite is Fisher. I wouldn't for a second consider Tal to be inferior to anyone. The guy will take u on a ride of your life and when the dust settles u will remember the name "Mikhail Tal" and would consider yourself honoured to have played the legend. Thank u Tal for your beauty over the board.

[ratxek]

"Despite the help from the police the game was still lost .. " .. nice segment-ending bitter-sweet line.

[skkoloa]

The type of player Tal was, NO computer has ever emulated. He would absolutely be a top tier chess player today, he played in the golden era of chess.

[duncankuhns]

I don't know how well Tal himself would do today, but his exciting attacking style is alive and well- AlphaZero plays very much like Tal.

[NikhileshGautamNITkkr]

"He was the man in whose presence other sense their mediocracy."