chess-The Oxford Companion to Chess - First Edition by David Hooper & Kenneth Whyld

Sbo ly alter losi.g the title Tal nade lhe second
of his grear tounamenl perfo.mances, taking tust
prize (+11:7 1) one poinl ahead ol EscsER and
two poinh ahead of GLrGoRf, (ERr5 and PmRosYAN
at Bled 1961. Tal commenced play i. rhe neit
Candidates tou.nament, Curaqao 1962, but with
d.es before he completed his ganes 10 undergo
hospnd treirnenl for his kidney t'ouble. In thc
USSR championship at Yerevan laler that year he
camc sc@nd (+11=5 3) equal Mth r{lNov
alte. xoR.(Nor. and al Miskolc 1963 he toot lilst
prize (+10=5) two poinh ahead oI BRoNsrE N.
Afier scoring +11:12 to share fiEt place in ihe
Amsterdam intcrzonal oI1964Tal a8ain becane a
candidatei then he defeated rcRrscs (+4=3-1)
dd urslN (+3=5 2) but lost the fi.al matcb to
sr ssn. At lftarkov in 196? the Soviet chan
pionship was organized on the Ssiss system Ior the
Ii.st and only iine. and Tal ried wilh mLUGAyEvsxv
for fi6r p.ize i they shared the title. Tal won thc frBr
oI hn candidates malches in 1968, delearing
Gligoria(+3=5 l),andthe.losttoKorchnoi. In
1969 hc had an operalionto remove a lddney and
declared hefelrbeiterasaconsequen.ei bnthewas
never tree from bouis oI iU heakh.
Tal's best victones in lhe nert Iew yeds were:
Tallinn 1971 (+9 =5 1), shared with Keres; USSR
chanpionship Ba*u 1972(+9=12)iwijk aan zee
1973 (+6=9)i Tallin. 1973 (+9=6)i Halle 19?4
(+8=7)i UssR chanpionship Leninerad 1974
(+6=7 2),equ.l withBELyAvsn: Leninsradl9TT
(+7=9 1); USSR championsbip Tbilisi 1978
(+5=12), cqual with rs6H(ovsr. In 1979 Tal
seemed to have legained iI his Iorner proNe$ and
he nade two ol his best tourname.l sins:
Monheal, category 15 (+6=12), equal wiih uRrcvi
and Riga inreuonal (+11=6). A Candidale
yel again, he was loocked out by Polugayevsky in
1he quarrer Ilnal nalch. Subscq ucntly 'ra I won o.
shared scveral 6.st amongthem Riga 1981
(+?:8), Poz 1981 ')rizes, 2 (+7-4), Mosow -1982
(+5:8). so.Ii 1982 (+5=10), and Tallinn 1983
(+6=8 1).
Apa.l from world chanpionship cvcnk Tal
conPeted in aboul 40 slrong allplay'all inle!.ational
lournanents lron 1949 to 1981, vinning or
sha.ing 2,1 li6t and 6 sccond prizcs; hc took first
ptace in six Soviet championships, a rc.ord
equ.lled only by Botvinnik, and played i. seven
Olympiads from 1958 to 1980naking a roul score
ol +59:31-2.
Full of nenous energy. chain{moking at lhe
board. pacing resllessly betNeen noves, Tal n
obscsscd wilh chess. These characleristics are
ihoseol^LtrKqrNEwho, however,srudiedthc game
more msiduously. Tal pretes lo play, and between
gamcs ola tournanenr or on any ocasion he will
indulg€ in fast chess until the early houn. when
bavinS an ope.ation he talked chess until the mask
{a placed on his lacer on nore than one oeasiod
when recuperating hc madc his escape lo a chess
club lo be recaptured and iaken back to hospital. A
great improviser, he has a Senius ior bold and
TAL VARIA]ION ]43
atracking niddle game play that has rarely been
equalled, and he is widcly liked for both his
scintilla ting styl e a. d b is i nlectious enlhusiasm lor
the game. Although probably 1he most proliic
Soviet che$ joumalist, he has writtcn only onc
book. This,publishedin bothLatvianandRNsian.
is an ac@untolhis successlul chaopionshipmatch
against Borvinnikin 1960. A. English lranslarion.
TaLBotrinnik 1960 Mat.h for ke wo d chMpio"srip
was published in 1970. (see LIGETNING
P. H. clatke, Mikhail Tal\ Best Ganet af Chess
(1961) onlains50 ganesplayedlron 1951 to 1960i
B- Caffert!. Tal\ 10a ResrGM€s (19?5) conrains
100 games and 21 parts oI ganes played fron I960
to 1973: Hilary Tbonas, lre Cohplete Gahes af
Mikhail Tal, thrce volumes. /9Jd J9 (1980),
19\ n6 0979). 1%7 73 1t919).
Tal Bo.vinni* lst ga6e wortd championship malch
winawervaiarion
I e4 e6 2 d,l d5 I N.3 Bb4 1 e5 c5 5 ar Bxc3+ 6 bxc3
Qc7 7Qg4r5 3Qg:lNe7 9oxg7Rs3 10oxh7.xd4 1l
Kdr Bd7 12Oh5+ NE6 13 Nc2 d3 11.xd3 B + r5
Kel Orc5 16895 Ndi 17d4Qc7 13h4e5 19Rn3Qfi
20 dxc5 N{e5 2l Re3 xd7 22 RhL b6
t t
'&ffi.ruw
w& %,dw^
wqw waw
w
2l Nl4 Raes 24 Rb4B.6 -QdtNxl4 26lLrf4Ns6 27
Rd4 Rrc3+ 23 ho3 Kc7 29 c4 dx.4 30 Bxc4 QA7 3l
Bx33 QieS 32 h5 Alack esig's. An unusual learnre of
rhis aane is the deploymenr ot both *hne ooks on rhc
TALIA, an unorlhodox piece used for sonc foros
ofcREArcqEss. A l.[a n 6oved iite a bishop bur it
cannol be moved to rhc nearesl diagonal square,
over which it leaps. Thispiece. halfrilhalfhishop,
may have represented a stage in lhe developmeni
of the modern 6ove ol the bishopr there is,
howeve.. .o evide.ce rhat the lalia was invented
before lhe eame of.ouRrER i. shich the bishop
already hasits modern poaeB. Tbe ided ola piece
thal junps andglidej has led to the invention oI
olher tki-pieces'lor Dse in F
TAMRIATION, 134, line played by Hromadka
in lhe 1930s, favoured by rAL in the 1950s, and now
slandard play leading to the M