Mikhail Tal’s Best Games 1 - The Magic of Youth [1 ed.] 1907982779, 9781907982774

Table of contents :
The Magic of Youth 1949-1959 (Mikhail Tal's Best Games 1)
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Key to symbols used & Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Preface
Tal's Early Life
1949
1950
1951
1952
1953
1954
1955
1956
1957
1958
1959
Summary of Results
Tournament Successes
Classification
Game Index by Page Number
Game Index by Opponent
Alphabetic Game Index - Non-Tal games
Name Index
Back Cover

Citation preview

Mikhail Tals Best Games 1

The Magic of Youth By

Tibor Karolyi

Quality Chess www. qualitychess. co. uk

First edition 20 1 4 by Quality Chess UK Ltd Copyright© 20 1 4 Tibor Karolyi

The Magic of Youth All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher. Paperback ISBN 978- 1 -907982-77-4 Hardcover ISBN 978- 1 -907982-78- 1 All sales or enquiries should be directed to Quality Chess UK Ltd, 20 Balvie Road, Milngavie, Glasgow G62 7TA, United Kingdom Phone +44 1 4 1 204 2073 e-mail: [email protected] website: www. qualitychess.co.uk Distributed in North America by Globe Pequot Press, PO. Box 480, 246 Goose Lane, Guilford, CT 06437-0480, US www. globepequot.com Distributed in Rest of the World by Quality Chess UK Ltd through Sunrise Handicrafts, ul. Skromna 3, 20-704 Lublin, Poland Typeset by Jacob Aagaard Proofreading by John Shaw and Danny McGowan Edited by Andrew Greet Cover design by www. adamsondesign.com Cover photo kindly provided by Richard Forster Special thanks to Oleg Pervakov and 64 magazine for providing the photos for Volume 2 and 3 in this series Estimated World Ratings by Jeff Sonas at www.chessmetrics.com Printed in Estonia by Tallinna Raamatutriikikoja LLC

Contents Key to symbols used & Bibliography

Acknowledgements Introduction Preface Tal's Early Life

1949

1950 1951

4 5

7 10 11

15 47 83

1952

125

1955

197 235

1957

305

1953 1954 1956 1958

1959

Summary of Results Tournament Successes Classification Game Index by Page Number Game Index by Opponent Alphabetic Game Index - Non-Tal games Name Index

157 269

335

379 432 433 434 435 439

441 442

Key to symbols used ± +

+-

-+

iii

?

00

?? !! !? ?! #

White is slightly better Black is slightly better White is better Black is better White has a decisive advantage Black has a decisive advantage equality with compensation with counterplay unclear a weak move a blunder a good move an excellent move a move worth considering a move of doubtful value mate

Bibliography The following books were especially useful in my research for the first volume. Cafferty & Taimanov: 7he Soviet Championships, Cadogan Chess 2008 Hatjun: Selected Games ofMikhail Tal, Pitman 1961 Kasparov: My Great Predecessors Part 2, Everyman Chess 2003 Khalifman (ed.) : Mikhail Tal games 1949-1962, Chess Stars 1994 Koblencs: Vospomenanie Shakhmatista, Fizkultura i Sport 1986 Landau: Love and Chess, Russian Chess House 1998 Sosonko: Russian Silhouettes, New In Chess 2001 Stolze & Muller: Zaubern Wie Schachweltmeister Michail Tal, 0 !ms 2010 Tai: Life and Games ofMikhail Tal, Everyman Chess 1997 Vasilev: Zagadka Talia, Fizkultuta i Sport 1973

Aclrnowledgements First I would like to thank Georgy Tai, the son of the legend, who supplied some photographs and other information that I would otherwise never have been able to obtain. I am also especially grateful to my former trainer Peter Szilagyi, who offered support, encouragement and many helpful suggestions along the way. Natalia Edzgveradze helped to raise my motivation when it was needed, as well as explaining certain things written in Russian. Michail Vrona provided some material in Russian, and explained some of the subtle details of his mother tongue when I did not understand them. John Marble helped me to express certain things in better English. Yacov Konoval was kind enough to provide endgame analysis using a seven-piece tablebase. I am also grateful to Dennis Monokroussos, whose love for Tal's magic reminded me that it was worth the effort to complete the project. I am also grateful to the following people who faced Tai over the board, and/or knew him personally, who kindly shared their memories about him. Here are their names in alphabetical order: Jon Amason, Yuri Averbakh, Zurab Azmaiparashvili, Laszlo Barczay, Pal Benko, Istvan Csom, Henryk Dobosz, Josif Dorfman, Jeno Dory, Gyozo Forintos, Shlomo Giterman, Dmitry Gurevich, Mikhail Gurevich, Attila Groszpeter, Ervin Haag, Julian Hodgson, Franz Hoelzl, Vlastimil Hort, Borislav Ivkov, Lasha Janjgava, Vlastimil Jansa, Albert Kapengut, Dieter Keller, Edvins Kengis, Kalle Kiik, Michal Konopka, Viktor Korchnoi, Nikolay Krogius, Bojan Kurajica, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, Iivo Nei, Oscar Panno, Jack Peters, Amador Rodriguez, Oleg Romanishin, Anthony Saidy, James Sherwin, Yasser Seirawan, Gennady Sosonko, John van der Wiel, Herman van Riemdijk, Imre Varasdy and Jouni Yrj ola.

Various other people helped, either by providing snippets of useful information, or by putting me in touch with other contacts. Once again, I list them in alphabetical order: Jimmy Adams, Yochanan Afek, Radislav Atanasov, Alexander Bakh, Gunnar Bjornsson, Jure Borisek, Ivan Borlik, Marc Bourzutschky, Andrea Bracci, 0ystein Brekke, Jurgen Brustkern, Ivan Bottlik, Alberts Cimins, Tristan Cox, Tomas Delega, John Donaldson, Karlheinz Eisenbeiser, Richard Forster, Attila Gr6szpeter, Llanos Guillermo, Peter Gyarmati, Dale Haessel, Robert Hubner, Michael Khodarkhovsky, Giorgi Khomeriki, Iakov Konoval, Tomasz Lissowski, Gad Markovich, Anna Milankov, Marco Nickel, Ashot Nadanian, Dmitry Oleinikov, Urcan Olimpiu, Rene Olthof, Slavisa Perie, Oleg Pervakov, Ian Rogers, 1horbj0rn Rosenlund, John Roycroft, Harry Schaack, Tamas Schenker, Gerhard Schroeder, Niklas Sidmar, Jeremy Silman, Petter Stigar, Peter Szakolczay, Martin Weteschnik and Laszlo Zsinka.

Introduction Tigran Petrosian once stated: ''A genius in chess is someone who is ahead of his time, but this can be seen only later, by looking back� From this point of view, very few can be called geniuses. Morphy, Steinitz . . . perhaps Tai. The Riga grandmaster introduced into chess something that was not fully understood by his contemporaries. Unfortunately, all too soon we gained the opportunity to look back with admiration at the peak ofTal's remarkable play." I dare to contradict the ninth world champion - not for the positive sentiments expressed in the above passage, but for his use of the word "perhaps" before Tal's name. I would argue that Tai was unquestionably a genius, who was far ahead of his time.

Tal's Chess Career The Tai phenomenon is unique in the history of chess. He became World Champion in 1960 at the age of twenty-three, the youngest ever at the time, beating Mikhail Botvinnik by a resounding I2Y2-8Yi margin. Further details can be found in the second volume lhe World Champion. Tai stunned the chess world, not only with his amazing playing strength and competitive results, but with his uniquely imaginative and risky style of play. Tal's spectacular games and charming personality endeared him to chess fans in a way that had never occurred before and may never be seen again. All world chess champions are exceptional individuals whose games helped to enhance the wider

understanding of chess. This is especially true of Tai, the eighth World Champion. Before his ascent of the world rankings, nobody imagined that such success could be achieved by playing as sharply as Tai did. I cannot think of another player in chess history who taught his rivals as much about the power of attack and, indirectly, the value of good defence. Despite his reputation for sharp, wildly risky play, in 1972-73 Tai set a record for the longest unbeaten streak among top players in modern chess history. Even more amazingly, in 1973-7 4 he broke his own record. Neither streak has been broken by any player since. This period ofTal's career will be examined in the third volume, entitled lhe Invincible. Among Tal's other achievements, we may note a massive haul of sixty-one tournament victories (including shared first places) . He was also an amazing blitz player, winning the second World Blitz Championship and many other events. Tai was superb at simuls and an engaging presenter at chess workshops. He was a revered chess author; many consider his Life and Games ofMikhail Tal to be the best chess book ever written. He even had success as a second, helping Karpov to win the world championship.

8

The Magic of Youth

The People's Champion All world champions and other elite players are respected for their achievements, but not all of them are loved by the chess public. I was lucky enough to play in two of the same tournaments as Ta!, in Tallinn and Tbilisi, and I saw how much the people in both cities admired and loved him. In my conversations with Russian players, from strong grandmasters to amateurs, when Tal's name was mentioned, their first reaction was often to exclaim that he was a genius. Many chess rivalries involve some degree of personal animosity, but inTal's case, it was rare to hear a bad word spoken about him, even from his competitors. Even though Ta! was not a Russian national, one of the strongest tournaments on the Russian calendar is the Tal Memorial in Moscow. In Latvia, there are even plans to produce an opera about him. Most world champions are known and referred to by their official names; for instance, if we take the example ofTal's world championship rival, he was always known as "Mikhail" Botvinnik. Ta!, on the other hand, had exactly the same first name, but was addressed and referred to as "Misha" by almost everyone who knew him.

About this Project Tal's games have always attracted attention. The Magician himself has analysed and commented upon them, and many other excellent authors and annotators have done the same. It raises the question: why produce a three-volume work on Tal's career? My objective in writing this series has been to document Tal's career and best games with a level of attention and thoroughness that has never previously been attempted. Apart from consulting the obvious databases and reading a lot of books, I also contacted dozens of great players who shared their memories of Ta!, both as a person and as an opponent. The resulting collection of Tal's remarkable games, mixed with documentation of his career and life events, with shared memories from people who were there at the time, makes this a project unlike any other devoted to Tal. Ir is always interesting to re-examine the games and analyses of old masters using modern computer engines. This is especially true when dealing with Tal's games, many of which featured wild, irrational positions and almost unfathomable complications. By combining human reasoning with modern technology, I was able to shed new light on many such games. Obviously Tal's spectacular attacking games feature heavily in the three books, but I have also included a few games to highlight his skill in quieter positions and endgames. I also paid attention to broader trends such as Tal's opening choices and style of play, which varied from tournament to tournament and over the years. Although the games are a big part of the project, I believe the readers will also be interested to find out about Tal the man. While the chess takes centre stage, I have also included details ofTal's family background, life events, his relationship with his trainer, and other relevant information that frames his career in a more meaningful way than merely presenting his games and results.

Introduction

9

Final Thoughts Although I have had the privilege of authoring books on such outstanding players as Kasparov, Karpov and Judit Polgar, writing about Tal was a unique experience. To begin with, it was incredibly hard to decide which ofTal's games to include, as so many of them featured wonderful ideas. I also had a different feeling when I was approaching the end of the project. While I enjoyed writing my previous books, I always had the feeling towards the end that I would be glad to finish them. In Tal's case, the closer I got to the end, the more strongly I felt that I would miss working on his games. There are many people who helped me along the way, and I have mentioned them separately in the Acknowledgements section. Most of all, I would like to thank Tal himself, for his magical games which have inspired and brought joy to countless chess fans.

Preface to Volume 1 In this, the first of three volumes, we will cover Tal's early life and career up to the end of 1959. In the earliest available games in 1949, he was a talented twelve-year-old. We will follow his rise from strong Latvian junior, to Latvian Champion, to Soviet Champion, to the most formidable player in the world who earned the right to challenge Botvinnik for the highest title in chess. At the end of 1959, Tai has only j ust turned twenty-three. At that time, no other player in chess history had achieved so much at such a young age. Being Tai, it was not just his results that were stunning, but also his astonishing creativity and the incredible risks he took. Along the way, I will shed light on Tal's family background and some of the events in his life, both positive and negative, which may have affected his chess. The early chapters feature several little-known games: unpolished gems displaying the raw talent of a future champion. Some of the games from later years are well known, but in virtually all cases I managed to improve upon existing analyses and offer new insights. I also found plenty of magical games that did not become especially famous. The most exciting part of the writing process was working on those games which had not been heavily analysed anywhere else. Even using a powerful computer, at times it was hard to make sense of the complications, such was Tal's ability to conj ure chaos. Dear Reader, I invite you to turn the page and immerse yourself in the magic ofTal's games and career. I can assure you, you will not be disappointed. Tibor Karolyi Budapest, March 2014

Tal's Early Life Mikhail Nehemievich Tal was born on the 9th of November 1 936 in Riga, the Latvian capital. His mother, Ida Grigorievna, originally came from a middle-class family and worked in a library. Misha's father, Nehemia Tal, was a doctor. Misha had one older brother. There are various stories and rumours surrounding Tal's family, including speculation that Tal's uncle, Robert, was really his father. This was vigorously denied by Tal's third wife, Angelina, in an interview seventeen years after her husband's death. Such rumours do not particularly interest me and, other than briefly mentioning their existence, this book will not be concerned with such matters. It is far more rewarding to learn about Mikhail Tai the man, who not only became World Champion and a legend of the game, but was also regarded as one of the most likeable people in the chess world. It is well known that Tal suffered from health problems for much of his life. He did not have the best start as a baby, as he was born with two fingers missing on his right hand. Angelina Tal explains that when Ida Grigorievna was pregnant, she gave herself an injection in slightly the wrong place, which led to complications eventually resulting in the missing fingers. In his early years Tal became seriously ill with meningitis and had to stay in bed for six months. Despite these difficulties, the young Misha was a gifted child. He learned to read at the age of three. Even more impressively, at five he was able to multiply three-digit numbers in his head. The absence of two fingers did not stop Tal from learning to play the piano well, or from playing as goalkeeper in a football team. Ta! was born into a Jewish family and, like many others, they were affected by the German invasion. Just before it happened, they were evacuated to the Russian city of Perm, near the Ural Mountains, where they stayed for three years. Although it must have been an ordeal, Tal can be considered more fortunate than some of his chess rivals from the same generation. For instance, Korchnoi had to endure the siege of Leningrad and the loss of dose family members, and both of Petrosian's parents died while he was a teenager. The young Misha may have had some problems with his health, but he did at least benefit from a warm and stable life with his immediate family. The Ta! family returned to Riga when it became safe to do so. By the way, the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are generally regarded to have provided a higher standard of living for their inhabitants than the rest of the Soviet Union. Riga is a large city with a strong chess heritage. Tal's father Nehemia was a first category player, meaning a very good amateur player, and he surely played a significant role in teaching the game to Misha at a young age. Ta! writes that he does not remember exactly when he became devoted to chess. He joined the chess section of the local Pioneer Palace in 1 947. According to Alexander Koblencs - Tal's future trainer, who will feature prominently in the story that lies ahead - Tai obtained the fourth category at the age of eleven. (The 'category' system counted downwards, so Tal's fourth category status was still well below the level of his father.) The Soviet Union provided an environment

The Magic of Youth

12

for chess like no other. Chess books were readily available, there were chess columns in newspapers and magazines, and the game was often featured on television. There were many chess clubs in Riga, providing Tai with plenty of opponents to develop his talent. Tal's parents must also have been supportive.

Janis Kruzkops Tai writes that he was fortunate to have an excellent trainer at the Pioneer Palace named Janis Kruzkops (this is the Latvian spelling; I will use the English equivalent from now on) . I was unable to find any of Kruzkops' games on the database, but I managed to find out a bit more about him with the help of Gennady Sosonko, Alexander Bakh and especially Alberts Cimins. Kruzkops was born in Burtnieki on the 8th of March 1 9 1 2 . He was a strong Candidate Master, whose best tournament result saw him obtain the silver medal at the 1 945 Latvian Championship. (Curiously, the winner that year was Alexander Koblencs, who would later become Tal's long-term trainer.) Kruzkops trained several other talented Latvian players, including Aivars Gipslis and Janis Klovans, both of whom we will encounter later. While researching and writing my previous books, I often noticed similarities in the playing styles of great players and their respective childhood trainers. For instance, Karpov's style appears to have been influenced by Leonid Gratvol, while Kasparov's play is reminiscent of Alexander Shakarov's. In the case ofTal and Kruzkops it is hard to draw conclusions with any certainty, as the latter has no games on the database. However, thanks to Alberts Cimins, I am able to share one game played by Tal's j unior trainer.

Janis Kruzkops - Rheinholds Balins Riga

1 945

1 . e4 Tai began the majority of his white games with the same opening move. The same is also true of Gipslis and Klovans.

1 ...d6 2.d4 tiJ f6 3.tlJc3 g6 4.tlJ f3 ig7 5.h3 0-0 6.ie3 Kruzkops plays a system which was virtually unknown at the time, but which became highly fashionable in later decades. s ... ttJhd7?? Nowadays 6 . . . c6 and 6 . . . a6 are known to be better.

7.eS! Kruzkops pushes his opponent back. 7 ... ttJ e8 8.ic4 ttJ b6 9.ih3 dS 10.'l.Wd2 Kruzkops plans an attack against Black's king. 1 0 ... c6 1 0 . . . ttJ c4 forces the exchange of one of White's bishops, but after l I .ixc4 dxc4 1 2.d5 White has a huge space advantage and good attacking chances.

Tal's Early Life

13

1I..ih6! f5?

Black fatally weakens the g5-square. Other moves would have given somewhat better defensive chances, in an admittedly worse position: l l ... Cllc7 1 2 .0-0-0 lll e6 1 3 .h4 White's attack is dangerous. l l . ..f6 is a better try, although even here after 12.0-0-0 fxe5 1 3. dxe5 lll c7 ( 1 3 . . . e6 14.h4) l 4.h4! ilg4 l 5 .h5 iixh5 l 6. iixg7 'tti xg7 17. t/J e2 Black is in trouble.

1 9 ... igs Balins tries to set a trap. 20.h6! Kruzkops finds a hole in his opponent's idea. 20 .. J�g6 2 1 .'®xfS ! e6 Unfortunately the game score ends abruptly here. 1-0

14..ixgS

White is a pawn up and still has a huge attack. 14... Qic7 15.'®f4 ilxd7 40.�d3t!

White has to play actively to secure a draw. 40 ... \t>c6 40 ... lt> cs 4 1 .�d6= 4 1 .Wd6t Wb5 42.�d7t Wb6 43 .�xfl �xa2 44.Wxh7 Wf2 45 .�fl 45.Wxg6 �xf3t 46.�g3 also holds. 45 ... Wxf3t 46.Wh4 White's active pieces sho uld make it easy for him to draw.

38.W'xel gxel

B•D B

D

r 7.r.·.:. f.·•.f·f· ··· · 111! 65 ·· s

. . ���� �� � �� � 3 � � ,, �� � . Y B � �f!Y 2 8�m � 1 _ � '.:/,�� ,,,Y '.:/. � .. � ... D 4

ftD . /,� , , �� � /, , . ..

,

,,,

,

,/,

.

. .

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

�

39.�g5! Having survived a difficult middlegame, Tai immediately capitalizes on his opponent's mistakes and uses his king to invade. 39,.,gdl Giving up the fl-pawn would be hopeless: 39 . afl? 40.E\b3 (40.Wf6 E1xf3 4 1 .\tixfl E\xf4t 42.�xe6 E\xc4 43.Ei:d2 also does the trick.) 40 . . . af2 4 1 .�f6 E1xh2 42.'>ilxfl White's e-pawn will decide the contest.

..

26

The Magic of Youth

40.�f6! Of course Tal goes after the vital f7-pawn rather than the one on h7. 40 ... Ei:d7 41 .Ei:b6! Threatening to break up Black's pawn chain by advancing the c-pawn to c6.

49.f5!! With this pawn sacrifice White blocks the b l -h7 diagonal, ensuring that the enemy b-pawn will not promote with check. 49 . . . exf5 5 0 .h5 a4 5 l .h6 b3 52.axb3t axb3 53.h7 b2 54.h8=1Mi' b l =iW 5 5 .1Mi'c8t d4 56.1Mi'xf5 +-1he tablebase shows mate in a further 57 moves. b) Tal would surely have preferred 42.c5! which wins much more easily. 42 . . . Ei:d4 Otherwise Ei:d6 wins. 43.'>i;>xf7 Ei:xf4t 44.'>i;>xe6 Ei:xf3 45 .'>i;>e7 Ei:f5 46.e6 Ei:xc5 47.Ei:b2+-

a) 42.Ei:d6!? would make no sense in a practical game, as the second winning line is much simpler. Nevertheless, the pawn ending makes for an interesting analytical exercise, and White can indeed win rather instructively. Here is the main line of my analysis: 42 . . . Ei:xd6 43.exd6t '>i;>xd6 44.'>i;>xf7 '>i;>c5 ! 45.'>i;>g7! xc4 46. '>i;>xh7 b5 47.'>i;>xg6 b4 48.h4! a5

42 . . . Ei:d7 Black tries to free the rook, but White's e-pawn gets far too strong. 43.c5 '>i;>c7 44.Ei:b6 Ei:d4 45.'>i;>xf7 Ei:xf4t 46.'>i;>xe6 Ei:xf3 (46 . . . Ei:f5 47.Ei:d6) 47.'>i;>e7 White wins. 42 . . . '>i;>ds Transferring the king to defend the f7-pawn is too passive. 43.c5 '>i;>e8 44.Ei:b6 d8 45.a4 Rook endings often turn into a race, so with Black tied up, White takes the opportunity to advance all his pawns as far as possible before taking direct action. 45 . . . '>i;>es 46.a5 '>i;>d8 47.h4! Preparing to break through. 47 . . . '>i;>es

Mikhail Tal

1 949

After 47 . . . h5 48.c6! bxc6 49.Elb8t ©d7 50.�xf7 White wins too many pawns on the kingside.

-

Weldrou

27

44. . �xf3 45.�d2? Tal cuts off Black's king but allows a remarkable saving resource. Instead 45.©e7! was winning easily. .

48.h5! A lovely way to crack Black's pawn chain. 48 .. gxh 5 .

Black cannot allow the pawn to reach the

sixth rank. 49 .c6! bxc6 49 ... E:1xc6 5 0.Elxb7 Elc4 52.E:1xf7 also wins. 50.E:1bSt �d7 5 1 .©xf7 h4

" 5 1 .Ele7t m ds

45 ... b5? Black misses his golden chance: 45 . . . Elf5 ! Hampering the advance of White's king. a) 46.Eld5 b5 (46 . . . Elf2 47.©e7 Elxa2 also looks good enough) 47. ©e7 b4 is good enough to hold. b) 46.©d6 ©d8 47.a4 a5 (47 . .. b 5 ? 48.axb5 axb5 49.Ela2 wins.) 48 .Elb2 Elf7 Black should draw with careful defence. 46.'it>e7! Tai immediately gets back on the winning track. 46 ... b4 47.e6 a5 48.'it>e8 a4

52.f5!

Now we see the importance of diverting the g-pawn. 52. . . exf5 53.e6t ©d6t 54.©f6 The e-pawn is unstoppable.

43.©xf7 �hf4t 44.'it>xe6

Taking this pawn is a big achievement.

The Magic of Youth

28

49.:gd4! By now there is no stopping the e-pawn, so Tai correctly stops to take care of the enemy pawns.

49.e7? would spoil the win. 49 . . . b3 50.axb3 axb3 5 1 .El:d4 rjjc7 52J'k4 t rjjb 6 53. rjjd 7 l"l:d3t 54.�e6 l"l:e3t 5 5 .rjjd 6 l"l:d3t 56.rjje 5 l"l:e3t= Unfortunately for White, blocking on e4 with the rook would allow the b-pawn to promote with a vital check. 49 ... b3 49 . . . l"l:a3 5 0.El:c4t picks up the b-pawn with check. 50.:gc4t @b7 5 1 .gxa4 bxa2 52.gxa2 g5 53.:gcz g4 54.:gc5 :gh3 55.gg5 gxhz After 5 5 . . . h5 56.e7 l"l:xh2 57,rjjd7 l"l:d2t (57 . . . l"l:e2 5 8 .e8=�) 5 8 .rjje 6 l"l:e2t 59.l"l:e5 the e-pawn will promote.

In some phases of this game Tai played really well; in others, not so much. In the endgame the quality of his play was fluctuating. In any case, the organizers rewarded Tai with the prize for the most interesting game of the event. He received a luxurious edition of Aleksey Tolstoy's Peter the First. Tai mentioned that it was so heavy it caused him problems carrying it home. By the way, Tai was not a large man, standing roughly 5 ' 3 " ( 1 .6 metres) as an adult. The next game was the first of Tal's ever to be published; it appeared in the Soviet youth magazine Zatyeynik. It was played in the semi­ final of the Soviet Youth Team Championship. There is not a single game from his opponent, Leonov, in the database, and his first name remains a mystery.

Mikhail Tal Leonov -

Vilnius 1949

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

56.gxg4 Both sides have a pawn but White is way ahead in the race. 56 ... gf2 57.gh4 gf6 58.gxh7t @cs 59.e7 gn 60.:gf7 :gh1 6 1 .@fs :ghst 62.@g7 ges 63.gfg @d7 64.gxe8 @xe8 65.@f6 1-0

l . e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.i,d3 ctJ f6?! Black neglects to develop his light-squared bishop. When Tai faced this line with Black, he showed how to equalize: 4 . . . tll c6 5 .c3 tll f6 6.iJ4 i,g4! Tai brings his bishop into play. 7.�b3 �d7 8 .tll d 2 e6 9.tll gf3 i,xf3 1 0.tll xf3 i,d6 1 l .i,xd6 �xd6 1 2. 0-0 0-0 1 3 . El:fe l El:ab8 1 4.a4 a6 1 5 .tll e5 b5 1 6.axb5 axb5 1 7.tll xc6 �xc6 Y2-Vz Lutikov - Tai, Moscow 1 983. 5.h3! Preparing to develop the knight on f3 without allowing the bishop to come to g4. 5 ... h6?! Black takes away the possibility of pinning the knight, but his choice is slow and weakens the kingside.

1 949 Black can still try to solve the problem of his bishop with 5 . . . g6!? 6.ttJf3 ii.ES 7.ilxf5 gxf5 when he should be able to live with the

doubled pawns. 6.if4 e6 With the c8-bishop buried for the foreseeable future, White can be satisfied with the opening. To an early bishop move like White's last, Black often answers 6 . . . 1Mi°b6 to attack the b2-p awn. My guess is that Tal intended 7.ttJc3 in response.

7.tll f3 id6 8.ixd6 There is no point in trying to avoid this exchange, as after 8 . ttJ e5 ttJ c6 9.c3 1Mi°c7 I 0.1We2 li:l d7 l l .ii.b5 0-0 Black undermines the e5-knight. 8 . ..'Wxd6 9.c3 ttJ c6 1 0.0-0 0-0

l l . .E1e8?!

Mikhail Tal - Leonov

29

l 1 . . .ttJ d7! guards the e5-square, while preparing several other ideas. For one thing, Black will have the option of exchanging on e5 with the c6-knight in the future, as the reply dxe5 will not win a piece. The knight on d7 has a few good squares it may move to: from f8 it could defend the h7-square safely, and from c5 it could help the bishop to get to a6. The continuation might be: 1 2.Be l b6 1 3 .ttJeS lli cxe5 1 4.dxeS 1Mi°e7 l 5 .b4 (l 5 . ttJ d2 ttJ c5) 1 5 ... aS 1 6.a3 ii.b7 1 7.ttJd2 3fc8 Black is safe, as White's attack on the b l -h7 diagonal can be easily neutralized with . . . ttJ f8. 12.tll eS! Now it will not be easy for Black to get rid of the powerful knight. 1 2 ... W'c7 1 3.f4! Supporting the e5-strongpoint and preparing to build an attack with ttJ d2, Bf3 and E1g3, or possibly even a pawn onslaught with g2-g4-g5 .

.

Black wants to free his position with . . . e5,

but White can prevent it with a move he wants to play anyway.

Black's position is worse regardless of what he does, but the best chance was to bring the second knight into the defence: 13 . . . lli e7

The Magic of Youth

30

l 4.lll d2 (After l 4.g4 lll d7 l 5.lll d2 f6! Black has realistic hopes to stay in the game.) l 4 . .. lll f5 1 5 .E'if2 lt'l d6 1 6.g4 lt'l d7 1 7.E'ie l White's pieces have taken up menacing positions in front of Black's king, but the second player has better survival chances than in the game. 14.fxe5 ttJ h7 1 5.'!Wh5! By bringing the queen into the attack first, the young Tal delays revealing what he is going to do with his knight until as late as possible.

There was another way to increase White's advantage: 1 5 .lll a3 a6 1 6.c4! This move changes the structure in a somewhat surprising way. ( 1 6 .1Mi'h5 ! is also powerful, as per the game.) 1 6 . . . E'ie7 ( 1 6... E'if8 1 7.1Mi'c2!) 1 7.1Mi'c2 lll f8 1 8 .!'iac l White dominates on both sides of the board.

The prosaic l 6.lll d2 b6 l 7.E'if3 was strong as well, but the young Tal already had the vision to appreciate where the knight would stand best. 1 6 ... a6 Obviously Black does not want to see the knight arrive on d6.

16 . .. id7 is met by: 1 7.E'ixf7! ( 1 7.ixh7t xd8 20. ttJ g5 He8 2 1 .tll xh3 f1xe4 22.lt>g2 White reaches the haven of an equal endgame.

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17 ... ctJ d4! To achieve a winning posmon so quickly with the black pieces is a fine achievement, but to do it by exploiting the first rank is almost unheard of. 1 8.ctJxd4? Klovans blunders into a checkmate.

1 8 . 'l.We l was the only way to continue the

game, but Black has several routes to victory. The most convincing is 1 8 . . . f5! 1 9 .tt:lxd4 fxe4 20.tll e2 0-0 when White is helpless against the numerous threats. 1 8 ...'Wxclt 0-1 White resigned in view of mate on the next move. This game shows us a lot about the style and playing strength of the young Tal. His decision to open the centre was a clear mistake. However, when Klovans failed to capitalize and Tai reached the open, tactical position he desired, he seemed much more at home and was quick to pounce on his opponent's mistake.

1 949 was the year in which Tai first worked with Alexander Koblencs, who would go on to become his trainer in the 1 9 50s, as described in the 1 9 56 Chapter - see page 2 8 5 . Koblencs, who was thirty-three years old at the time, later wrote about his memory of giving a lecture in a secondary school, when he noticed a thin boy with piercing black eyes, who solved chess problems with remarkable speed and became ultra serious whenever he sat down to play a game of chess. The next game was played at the Soviet Youth Championship. I was unable to find out Tal's final score or placement. His opp � nent's first name is unknown, and this was his only game against a famous player.

Mikhail Tal Ripatti -

Riga 1949

l .e4 c5 2.ctJf3 ctJ c6 3.d4 Looking at the way Tal's career developed, we can say that his j unior trainer, Kruzkops,

Mikhail Tal - Ripatti

1 949 was correct to encourage Misha to play main­ line Sicilians right from the start. Perhaps in the short term he could have won more games playing sidelines, but his understanding of Sicilian middlegames would not have

developed in the same way. Kruzkops also favoured main lines against the Sicilian in his own games.

3... cxd4 4.tll xd4 tll f6 s. tll c3 d6 6.�e2

Later Tai had great success with 6.�g5, scoring a total of twenty-nine wins, twelve draws and only four losses over his career.

6. . g6!? .

It i s smart to switch to a Dragon now that White is denied the option of a Yugoslav Attack.

7.ie3 Tai would later switch to a set-up with the bishop on g5, as in the following game, which took place nearly three decades later: 7.0-0 �g7 8.lll b3 0-0 9.�g5 a6 1 0 .f4 b5 l l .�f3 �b7 12.'tti h l ct'id7 1 3 .�e l

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13 ... a5 !? l 4.lll xb5 a4 l 5 . lll d2 h6 l 6.�h4 lll c5 17.lll c4 ia6 1 8 .lll ba3 Black had sufficient compensation for the sacrificed pawn, although Tai eventually got the better of the struggle and won in Tai - Gufeld, Soviet Union 1 977. Interestingly, Gufeld played the Dragon four times against Tai, who never opted for the

37

sharp main lines, but still managed to score two wins and two draws in these games. 7 ... �g7 8.0-0 0-0 9.tll b3 A player of Tal's style might be expected to favour 9.f4, but 9 . . . �b6! is a strong counter­ punch. Tal's more restrained choice indicates that he knew some theory on this line. 9 . . .�e6 9 . . . b6!? is an interesting intending . . . �b7 and . . . ct'i d7-c5 .

alternative,

1 0.f4 lll a5 1 0 . . .1'k 8 is the main line, based on the fact that Black has no need to fear 1 l .f5 �d7, as the loss of time with the bishop is more than compensated by the availability of the ideal e5square for the knight. 1 1 .tll d4 l l .f5 �c4 1 2.id3 �xd3 1 3 .cxd3 lll x b3 l 4.axb3 is more popular. 1 1 . . .�c4 12.�d3 A natural move, preventing the black knight from occupying the c4-square.

38

The Magic of Youth

13.h3 Tal takes the g4-square away from the knight.

1 6 ... hxg6 17.e5 After 1 7.exd5 xgl exd3 3 1 .� f4 Ei:e8 when it may take a long time to convert the endgame, although there is no doubt that Black is winning. ..

28 ... g6?! This allows White to force a draw. Maybe Pasman was short of time and Tai replied too quickly.

2 8 . . . !g4! Returning with the bishop would provide a safe retreat for the queen. The continuation might be: 29.!fl \Wh5 30.!g2 Ei:ff8 (or 30 . . . Ei:e7) 3 1 . � d3 \Wf7 Black may be able to claim a small edge, but if he wants the full point he will have to win the game all over again.

27.ltel

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29.°IWgS? White could have forced a simple draw with 29 .!fl ! 1Wg4 30.!e2 1Wh3 3 1 .!fl when Black has no choice but to settle for the repetition.

The Magic of Youth

1 48

Did Pasman overlook this, or did he get carried away and think he could play for a win? 29... hs 29 . . .\Wg4 also gives Black a big advantage, but it is obvious by now that Tai was not looking to exchange queens in this game. Instead he prepares to bring his queen's rook to the g-file. 30.g4? White should have forced the queens off with 30.\Wh4! °1Wxh4 3 1 .gxh4 . True, after 3 l . . . gxf5 32.exf5 .ig4 White faces a tough endgame, but he would be able to offer some resistance. 30 ... tll xg4! 30 . . . 8'.g8! wins as well, but Tal's plan is good enough, as well as visually striking. 3 1 .:r:l:ag2

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32.8'.xh2 \Wxh2 3 3 . lZ'l e2 .ixe2 34 . .ixe2 'i/9f4 35 .°1Wg2 gxf5 and Black wins. 32 ...il.xe2 33.xe2 lll f3 34.°1We3 lll xglt 35.°IWxgl gxfS 0-1

It is a pity that Tal's final score from the Latvian Championship is not known, but in the available games he certainly proved himself to be a capable player, especially takin g into account his age; he did not turn sixteen until November 1 9 52. Tai writes that he was concerned not only about his chess development, but also with his education, as 1 952 was the year in which he finished at high school. Initially he appli ed for the Law Faculty at university, but then switched to the Philological Faculty as he loved literature.

Latvian Youth Championship Tal's overall score and placing in the Latvian Youth Championship is unknown. His next opponent has no other game in the database, and his first name remains a mystery.

-

Mikhail Tal Zwaigzne Latvian Youth Championship

1952

3 1 ...tll h2! A knight move to the edge of the board rarely has such a devastating effect. Here it not only wins an exchange, but forces a total collapse of White's position.

1 .d4 lll f6 2.c4 e6 3.tll c3 il.h4 4.a3 Tai only played this line three times from White's side of the board, achieving a p erfe ct score. Two of those games are from 1 952, and in both of them Tai was in serious trouble before he was able to turn the game around.

32.il.e2 White has no good defence, for instance

4 ...il.xc3t S.bxc3 0-0

a

1 9 52

Nine years later, Tai won a nice game against anoth er main line: 5 . . d6 6.f3 e5 7.e4 0-0 8.ig5 E!:e8 9 . C/J e2 h6 IO.ie3 c5 1 1 .d5 ttJ h5 1 2.g4 ttJ f4 1 2 . . . �f6! solves Black's problems. In the game Tai quickly takes over. 13.1Wd2 g5 14.C/Jg3 �f6 1 5 .h4! ttJ a6

.

1 49

Mikhail Tai - Zwaigzne

25 . . . ttJ xh5 26.8xg6 �xg6 27.ixg5 t wins. 26.C/Jxf6 8xf6 27.8g7 White went on to win in Tai - Matanovic, Bled 1 96 1 .

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Tai prepares to transfer the rook to the h-file, where it will decide the outcome of the game. 16 .. Ms 1 7.hxg5 hxg5 1 8 .�c l ! We7 1 9 . C/J h5 Wg6 20.!!ah2 Tai has gained control over the h-file. Now he prepares to invade. 20 . . . 1'1g8 2 1 . ttJ g3 C/J c7 22.E!:h7 �f6 23 .�d2 �d7

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6.f3 lll e8 ; According to the database, this move was / first played by Taimanov to defeat Szabo in 1 9 5 0 . Perhaps Zwaigzne knew the game and was inspired by Black's success. The knight retreats in order to slow White's play on the kingside and focus on the c4-pawn.

Tai played differently when he faced Botvinnik in his first world championship final match: 6 . . . d5 7.cxd5 exd5 8 . e3 if5 9 . ttJ e2 ttJ bd7 1 0 . C/J g3 ig6 1 1 .id3 c5 1 2.0-0 E!:e8 1 3 . .1:'\e l �c7 1 4 .ixg6 hxg6 1 5 .e4 cxd4 1 6.cxd4 8ac8 Here there are two relevant games:

24.1'1 I h6!

Winning material. 24...1'1g6 25.C/Jh5 8xh6

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The Magic of Youth

1 50

a) 1 7.�g5 Vff c2 1 8 .�xf6 Vffxd l 1 9 .Bexd l tt:lxf6 Black equalized and the game ended in a draw, Botvinnik - Tal, Moscow (4) 1 960. b) Interestingly, the next year Tai had a

correspondence game where he deviated from Botvinnik's play with White and went on to demolish his opponent. l 7.Ba2 Be6 l 8 . e5 tll b6 1 9 .Bae2 tt:l h7 20.f4 Bc6 2 1 .�d2 tt:l c4 22.f5 a5 23 .e6 fxe6 24.Bxe6 Bxe6 2 5 . fxe6 b5 26.�c l Vff c6 27.Vff g4 Vff e 8 28.Vfif3 ads 29.h4 ad6 30.e7 1"1d7 3 l .h5 gxh5 32. tt:l f5 tt:l f6 33.1"1e6 tt:l g4

9 ... lli c6 1 0.Wi'e2 lll a5 1 1 .�b l ?! The rook is too p owerful a piece to be assigned the trivial task of guarding the b3square. The last move also leaves the a4-pawn unprotected.

l l . f4 intending ctJ f3 was more to the point.

l l ...d6 12.llih3 Wi'd7 1 3.eS f5 Black takes early countermeasures against White's play on the kingside.

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34.tt:lxg7! �xg7 35 .�h6t tt:l xh6 36.Vfff6t 1-0 It is remarkable that, even in a correspondence game, Tal's opponent was unable to withstand his ferocious attack. I checked the correspondence database and found that Tai played seven games of this type, the first in 1 95 5 and the last in 1 989. He won three games, drew three and lost one. Interestingly, he drew with Max Euwe in 1 96 1 . Unfortunately, these two great players never met over the board. 7.e4 b6 8.a4 �a6 9.�d3 White can consider inserting 9 .�a3, forcing Black to make a decision affecting the future of the knight on e8 . Tai may have been concerned about his bishop being shut out of play after a subsequent . . . d6 and . . . c5 .

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1 4.exf6 1 4. 0-0 can be met by 1 4 . . . Vffxa4 when both 1 5 .Bb4 Vfid7 and 1 5 .exd6 tt:lxd6 are okay for Black. 14 ... lll xf6 1 5.0-0 E!ae8 Black keeps developing and playing safe. His position is already more pleasant thanks to his superior pawn structure and well-placed pieces. 1 6.E!al? Tai defends one pawn, but loses a more important one.

1 6.�a3! was better, for instance 16 . . . �xa4 ( l 6 . . . e5!? is a better try for an advantage) 1 7.�b4! Vfic6 1 8.�xa5 bxa5 1 9.Bal and White is fine.

Mikhail Tai

1 9 52

16... �c6! Black wins the c4-pawn for no compensation at all. 17.igS ixc4 18.ixf6 ixd3?! Why hurry to exchange? After the simple

18.Jl:xf6! 1 9.t2lg5 h6 20. t2l e4 l"\ff8 White is just a pawn down. 19.�xd3 E!xf6 20.f4 eS Black opens the position, but he would have done better to prepare it.

20 . . li:l c4!! allows White to create chances: 21.ill g 5 g6 (2 1 . . .l"1g6 22.h4) 22.�h3 h5 23.lfae l White has some pressure to compensate for the missing pawn. .

20 . h6! would have eliminated White's play on the kingside, leaving Black in complete control. According to circumstances, he could then proceed either with . . . e5, or with . '1¥c4 followed by . . . c5, with every chance of converting his extra pawn.

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Zwaigzne

151

2 1 ...dxeS 22.fxeS �xfl t This does not throw away the advantage, but it seems strange to hand White the f-file. Instead after 22 . . . �c5 t! 23.ltih 1 �xe5 Black is in full control and should win. 23.�xfl 1.WcSt 24.�hl \WxeS 25.\Wf3 White does not have full compensation for the pawn, but Black still has to be careful. 25 ...\We7 Black could have forced an endgame with: 25 . . . �f6! 26.�xf6 (26.�d3 �d6 27.�f3 l"\f8 28 .�e2 l"\xfl t 29.�xfl h6 gives Black a winning endgame.) 26 . . . gxf6 27.ltigl \tif7 2 8 . !2l f4 l"1e5 Black should win this as, as apart from being a pawn up, White's queenside pawns are weak.

..

..

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•. "• • "• ll »� ;- �ft """� �� 3 11 �ovm· "gq) II. % r� l t� �:d6 3S.'Wxf8t �c7 36.l!Nxg7 cS 37.f6

1-0 In the later rounds Koblencs was unable to keep up the pace, and Tai went on to win the

Leonid Listengarten - Mikhail Tai Kharkov

1953

1 .e4 cS 2.Cll f3 d6 3.�bSt Tai faced this relatively safe variation fifteen times in his career. He scored well against it, winning eight games, drawing six and losing just once.

The Magic of Youth

1 10

3 ... 'Li c6 Tal blocked the check this way on six occasions; he drew them all with the exception of the present game.

3 . . . iidl was Tal's usual choice. It brought him many fine wins, including over such strong players as Larsen and Szabo. We will briefly look at a few of his best games. After the usual 4.ii.xdlt Tal tried two moves: a) 4 . . . lli xdl 5 . 0-0 lli gf6 6.Viif e2 e6 l.c3 ii.el 8 . d4 0-0 9.!i.g5 h6 1 0.ii.h4 cxd4 1 1 .ctJxd4 Wifb6 1 2.a4 lli c5 1 3 .a5 Viif a6 1 4 .Viif xa6 llixa6 1 5 .f3 8fc8 1 6.Bdl g5 l l .ii.f2 d5 1 8.exd5 llixd5 1 9. ctJ d2 lli c5 20. ctJ 2b3 a6 2 1 .g3 ii.f8 22.f2 ctJ cS 27.1::\ b 1 ctJ a7 28.l'::l b 2 �d3 (or 28 . . . lll c6 29.l'::l c2) 29.lll xd3 i::lxd3 30.lll f3 White is likely to hold. 25 . . . �e2 26.f3 l'::l c3 27.c;t>f2 �d3 28.l'::l a2 �g6 29.c;t>e2 f6 30.f4 Stubborn defence from White should yield a draw.

26.h3 .ie2! Tai makes a nuisance of the bishop and threatens to damage White's pawns.

1 953

Leonid Listengarten - Mikhail Tal

White underestimates the impact of the exchange.

coming

The only

saving chance was to rescue the

1 75

White seems to have everything under control, so he brings his king towards the centre.

knight:

27. xf3 gfS t 34. 'lt>e2 and the attack fails. 3 l . . .tif2? 32. \ti h2 should win for White, as pointed out by Tai. (32.tic3 ! ? is also strong. Tai then gives 32 . . . 'Li g3t 33 .'lt>h2 gh5 as good for Black, but misses 34.tif6 which thwarts the attack.) 32.'lt>h2 32 .tid tixg2t 33.\Wxg2 f3 gives Black compensation according to Tai. Psakhis gives the further continuation 34.'Wh3 f2 3 5 .tixd4 cxd4 36.gal 'Ll f4 37.'Wg3 'Lih5 38 .'Wg4 'Li f4 and evaluates it as unclear.

Now Psakhis suggests: 34 . . . 'Li f6 34 . . .f2? 3 5 .gal wins for White. 3 5 :tif4 35 .gal gh5 36.'lt>h3 tif2 37.tig5 �xh4 38.tixh4 g5 is unclear.

I found another strong continuation which is not mentioned by Tai or Psakhis: 30.ga3! The rook has a powerful effect along the third rank, enabling White to consolidate his position.

1 953

Isaak Birbrager - Mikhail Tal

3 1 . . .b5 32.axb5 axb5 33.©h2 �xg2 34.iixg2 White wins. 32.iih2 ixg2 33.©xg2 f3t 34. h3 C/J f6 34 .. .f2 35.ifl wins. After

1 79

should be winning) 32 . . . �xg2t 33.'Wxg2 f3 34.'Wh3 and White wins. 3 1 ...C/Jg3t! 32.h2 i.xg2 33.xg2 C/Jxe2 Thanks to his opponent's oversight, Ta! has recovered more than enough material for the queen and is completely winning.

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34.'Wxe2 Tal points out that other moves do not help White: 34.f3 Cli g l t! removes the blockade of the f-pawn, while 34.!"la3 is met by 34 . . . f3t! 3 5 .!"lxf3 El:xf3 36.xf3 ms t 37.©g4 h 5 t (or 3 7 . . . Ei:f2) 38. g5 ©h7 39.e5 ms t and Black wins. 34 ... f3t Ta! wins back the queen. 35.°Wxf3 ll:xf3 36.xf3 ll:fSt 37.g3 i.eSt 38.gz i.f4 Birbrager resigned before falling two pawns down in a hopeless endgame. 0-1

White h as

several superior moves, but the

strongest is 3 1 .b3! Ei:be8 32.ib2 (or 32. ©h2 �xg2 33.1l:!!'xg2 f3 34.'Wg4 f2 3 5 .ifl and White

In many ways the end of this game was typical for Ta!: the queen sacrifice was amazingly bold and not fully correct, but it was too much for his opponent to handle over the board.

The Magic of Youth

1 80

Riga Championship Tai participated in the Riga Championship as well. In the first of his available games, he got a positional advantage and was close to winning against Krasops, but then carelessly allowed a rook sacrifice leading to perpetual checks. He then defeated Darsniek on the white side of a Sicilian, but then lost to Klasups on the black side of a Fianchetto King's Indian.

Tai played the other main line 7.Elel in a few later games. 7 . . . 0-0 8.e5 '2l e8 (Miles chose 8 . . . lll d5 against Tai in 1 990 and held a draw, although he had to work for it.) 9.�f4 d6 1 0.�xc6 bxc6 l 1 .lll xd4 �d7 1 2 .�f3 dxe5! 1 3 .ixe5 �f6 1 4 .lll d2 Ei:b8 1 5 .lll 2b3 :gb6 1 6.Elad l ixe5 1 7.Elxe5 lll d6 1 8 .�c3 �f6 1 9.lll c5 �xe5 20.lll xd7 �h5 2 1 .lll f3 :gds 22.lll x b6 cxb6

We will look at the next available game. Tal's opponent has no other game in the database, and his first name is not known.

Mikhail Tal Straume 1 953 -

Riga

1 . e4 e 5 2.tlJf3 tD c6 3.�b5 a6 4.�a4 tlJ f6 5.0-0 �e7 6.d4 Tai rarely played anything other than the main lines of the Ruy Lopez. He occasionally opted for this sideline, even though it has never been considered theoretically dangerous. 6 ... exd4

7 ... tt:J ds The other main line is 7 . . . lll e4 8.lll xd4 now:

and

a) 8 . . . 0-0 Tai had faced this move the previous year. The game continued: 9.c3 lll c5

7.e5

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Mikhail Tal

1 9 53

10.�c2!? lll xe5 l l .f4 1 1 .�h5! was stronger, intending to meet

l l ...li'lg6 with 1 2.f4!. l l . . li'l c6 12.f5 d6 l 3.Wfh5 � f6 l 4.lll xc6 bxc6 .

1 5.E1f3 �e7?! 15 ... g6!? was a better defence, and 15 ... :E:i:eS! was stronger still. 16.E1e3

a b c

16 . .. � d8 ?

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Straume

181

Tal reveals that he was hoping Straume would allow l l . . .:E:i:e8 1 2.lll c3 tt'lxa4 1 3.lll d5 ! with a strong attack for White, as mentioned in an article by G. Geiler. Tai states that he was also aware that 1 1 . . .dS! was correct, based on the line 1 2 .lll x e7t Wfxe7 1 3.�xf8 ? �xf8 when the bishop on a4 is lost.

g h

1 6 . . . g6! would have kept Black in the game. 17 .E1h3 El'.e8 1 7 . .. h6 1 8.�xh6 wins easily. 18.'l*'xh7t �f8 1 9.�e3 lll d7 20.tt'ld2 tt'l e5 21 .�e4 Tal's attack was irresistible and he soon won

in Tal - Zhdanov, USSR 1 9 52.

b) Tal mentions that he regularly read chess periodicals, and that he had used one to

prepare for Black's other main option: 8 . . . tt'l c5 9.liJf5 0-0 1 0.�g4 g6 l 1 .�h6

9.Wfxd4 tli b6 1 0.Wfg4? The simple 1 O.�b3! 0-0 l l .�f4 gives White a clear advantage, as Black has no easy way to fight back in the centre. 1 0 ... tlixa4

1 82

The Magic of Youth

1 1 .�xg7?! This was Tal's idea. It leads to complications, but objectively it is unsound.

king soon escapes. 1 8 .ibxf8 ibxf8 Whi te has no real attack to compensate for his material disadvantage.

1 1 ...�fs 12.�h6 dS! Black makes room to develop his queenside.

14.� d2 �b5? Straume must have missed or underestimated Tal's answer; there is no other way to explain his decision to move the bishop away from the kingside.

1 3.�xh7

1 4 . . . Wc8 This looks like a logical way to follow Black's previous move, but it runs into a strong reply. 1 5 .e6!! White must play energetically to get closer to Black's king. 1 5 . . :ibxe6 After 1 5 . . . fXe6 1 6 .ibxf8 ibxf8 1 7.l:he 1 c5 1 8 .b3 ct:lb6 1 9.Cll f3 Black does not have enough time to organize his defence. 1 9 . . . �d8 20.Cll g5 ibd6 2 1 .Cll xe6t �xe6 22.Wh6 Black is in trouble. 1 6.ibxf8 ibxf8 1 7.f4 f5 1 8 .2'.ae l �d8

1 3 . . . ibe6 is more natural. Here Tal suggests: 1 4.ibxf8 ( 1 4.f4? ibc5t 1 5 .�h l �h4 is mentioned by Tal as winning for Black; 1 4.b3 Cll c5 does not help White a great deal.) 14 . . . ibxf8 1 5 .f4 Tal stops here and says the position is unpleasant for Black, but after 1 5 . . . d4 the opposite is more likely to be true. 1 3 . . . �d7!? has the idea of exchanging queens on f5 . 1 4.b3 ( 1 4.ibxf8 ibxf8 1 5 .b3 lll b6 1 6.Cll d 2 Wf5 Black takes over.) 14 . . . ct:l b6 l 5 .Cll c3 Wf5 White's attack has gone and Black has the upper hand. Black even has time to grab a pawn with 1 3 . . . Cll xb2!?, for instance: 1 4 .Cll c3 c6 1 5 .Cll e2 ( 1 5 . f4 ibc5t 1 6.�h l Wh4 Black wins.) 1 5 . . . Wd7 1 6.Cll g3 Cll c4 1 7.2'.ae l �d8! The

1 9 .Cll b3! 1 9.Cll f3 Cll c5 20.Cll g 5 Cll e4 2 1 .Wg6 cll e7 White is somewhat better after 22.2'.f3 (or 22.g4) 22 . . . �d6 23.2'.d3, but Black is still in the game. 1 9 . . . c5 19 . . . c6 20.Wh8 �d7 2 1 .Cll d4 lll c5 22.Wh7t �d6 23 .2'.e5 also leaves Black under serious pressure.

1 953

20.W/hs Wd7 2 1 .Ei:f3 !d6 2 1 . . .d4 22.Ei:h3 wins. 22.W/h7t Wc6 23.Lll a5t �b6 24.Lll x b7

Black's position falls apart. The best defence is: 14 ... ie 6 !

Mikhail Tai - Straume

1 83

20.\Wh4 20.\Wxf7t?! �xf7 2 1 .fx:e6t �xe6 22.Ei:ae l t �d6 23.Ei:f6t �c5 24.Lll b3t �b5 reaches a complex endgame where Black's chances are higher.

Admitting the error on the previous move. Obviously White's free developing move help s him considerably, but Black is still in the game.

20 . . . !e7 20 . . . e5?! 2 1 .Ei:ae l is only dangerous for Black. 2 i .1Whst Wfs 22.IWhSt=

1 5.ixf8 1 5 .f4 ic5t 1 6.�h l \Wh4 is nice for Black. Also after 1 5 .Lll f3 \Wd7 1 6.!xfS !xf8 1 7.b3 lilc5 Black has somewhat better prospects. 15 . .ixfs 16.f4 \We7 l 7.f5 !d7

Let's return to the game, where it looks as though Straume's sense of danger deserted him.

.

1 8 e6 ! White must open the position quickly. 18 .. . fXe6 1 9.°1Wh5t \Wf7 Here White can force a draw with: .

1 5.c4! Tai sacrifices a pawn to open the d-file. 15 ... dxc4?! Black keeps playing too optimistically.

The Magic of Youth

1 84

1 5 . . . j,xc4? was even worse, and after 1 6.tt:lxc4 dxc4 1 7.1'1ad l VJ/c8 1 8 .j,xf8 j,xf8 1 9 .e6 White wins. Black's best defensive attempt involved trying to keep the position closed: 1 5 . . . j,c6! 1 6. tt:l f3 tll c5 After 16 . . . tt:l xb2? 1 7.1'1fe l ! tt:l d3 1 8 .e6 ctJ xe l 1 9.1'1xe l White wins. 1 7.j,xf8 j,xf8 1 8 .e6

1 6.tll e4! White brings the knight into the attack and clears the d-file.

1 6 ... tt.Jxb2 In the event of 1 6 . . . tll c5 1 7.j,xf8 �xf8 1 8 .ctJxc5 j,xc5 1 9. e6 it is all over for Black. Straume's move covers the d l -square an d wins a pawn, but the knight will not be protected.

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1 8 . . . tt:lxe6 1 8 . . . fxe6 1 9 .VJ/g6t �d7 20.b4! drives the knight away from the defence of the e6pawn. 20 . . . tt:l a4 2 1 .ctJe5t �c8 22.VJ/xe6t j,d7 23 .VJ/xd5 Black will not survive the attack. 1 9.1'1ad l VJ/d6 20.1'1fe l 0-0-0 2 1 .VJ/xf7 White has a clear advantage, but Black has avoided being mated and can fight on for a while longer.

1 7.1'1fe l is technically strong, but a less practical choice for a human: 1 7 . . . ® d7 (If 1 7 . . . tt:ld3 1 8 .j,xf8 j,xf8 1 9.tll f6t ®e7 20.8e4 White wins.)

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l 8.a4!! White would need to find this fabulous move to keep the attack going. l 8 . . .�xa4

1 95 3 (18 . �c6 1 9.�f5 t) 1 9 .ixfS ixfS ( 1 9 . . . �xfS 20.�f5t) 20 .Elxa4 lll x a4 2 1 .Eld l t White wins. ..

17 .ixfs 18.tlif6t �e7 ...

Mikhail Tai - Straume

1 85

23.ctJ g4! ? Also after 23 .�g4t �f5 24.�d4 ctJ d3 25 .Elf3 Ci:J f4 26.Elxf4 White has good winning chances. 23 . . . �e4 24.�f6t � d7 25 .�xf7t �c6 26.�f6t White wins. 20.Ele4! Tai diverts the queen from the dominating d4-square. 20 ...'WcS 2 1 .e6! Opening up the king. 2 1 .�h4! �d8 22.�g4 wins as well. 2 1 ...�d6 22.e7 �c6 22 ixe? 23.�xf7 is hopeless for Black. . . .

23.'Wxf7 1J.xe7 24.Elxe7 �b6

19 Wid4 This does not help Black. ...

iid6 22.e7 ixe7 23.�xf7 Black's king will

19 ill d3 20.Ei:e4 c5 (20 . . . c3 2 l .e6 wins) 2 l .e6 ...

perish.

soon

The most resilient defence was: 19 �d3 20.�h4 �e6 20 . . ®f5 2 1 Ci:J d5 t �d7 22.�d4 wins as the b2-knight is hanging. 2 1 .!!e3 ®g6 22.Elg3 �c2 ...

.

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25 ...'Wd4 26.Elxb?t aS White is completely winning. However, it is not always easy to switch from attacking the king to the technical conversion of a material advantage. 27.'WdS?

1 86

The Magic of Youth

Tai admits that he was attracted by 27 . . . 1Wxf6 28 .§:xb5t, and that he thought his opponent might resign as soon as the queens came off. Instead 27.lli d5! §:cS 2 8 . lli c7 is an easier win. 27... gds 28.'1:;Vxd4 gxd4 White is still winning as he is an exchange and two pawns up, but the black rook has become active and the c-pawn is more menacing.

34.i1:'lxc3!? Sacrificing the knight for the dangerous pawn is not the only way to handle this endgame, but it is a sensible practical decision. 34 . . . i1:'l xc3 35.h4 i.xa2 36.h5 a5 37.h6 37.§:b7t! ? Inserting this check would confuse Black's pieces. 37 . . . l/Jb5 38 .h6 i.bl 39.f4 a4 40.h7 �xh7 4 1 .§:xh7 a3

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42.c;t>f2! White opens the first rank for the rook and prepares to use the king to support the pawns. 42 . . . a2 (42 . . . c;t>c3 43.§:hl @b2 44.f5 a2 45.f6+-) 43.§:h l lli c3 44.§:al @b3 45.g4 c;t>b2 46.§:xa2t White wins. 37 ... i.b l

33.gxdl i1:'lxdl

38.h7?! Tai severely criticizes this move, calling it hasty.

Mikhail Tal

1 953

- Straume

1 87

True, it is not the most accurate, but it should not jeopardize the win. Tai gives the following variation: 38 .gb7t lilb5 39 .h7 �xh7 40.gxh7 a4 4 1 .g4 a3 42.�g2 a2 43.gh l ctJ c3 44 .gal c;t>b3 45.g5 l!?b2 46.Elxa2t c;t>xa2 47.g6 tll d5 48.c;t>f3 c;t>b3 49.�e4 c;t>c4 50.c;t>e5 lll e7 5 l .g7 c;t>c5 52.f4 and White wins.

38 ... ixh7 39J'hh7 a4 40.g4?! Another slight inaccuracy. Correct is 40.Elb7t tll b5 4 1 .ge7 and White wins without much of a problem.

...

40 a3 The pawn is getting dangerous.

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4 1 ...tLla4?? Straume returns the favour.

Instead 4 1 . . . a2! threatens . . . tll a4 and thus wins the rook in the most efficient way possible. 42.gxa2 ctJxa2 Black can hold the white pawns at bay, as on 43 .g5 he has 43 . . . tll c3! .

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41.Ela7?? Tal's multitude of small- and medium-sized inaccuracies finally adds up to something meaningful. The last move is a terrible mistake which could have cost him half a point. The intermediate check 4 1 .gb7t! is the only way to win: 4 1 . . . ctJ b5 (4 1 . . .'i!?c4 42.ga7

l!?b3 43.g5 a2 44.g6+-) 42.ge7 a2 43.ge l ill c3 (After 43 . . . tll d4 44.c;t>g2 ctJ c2 45.gcl al =� 46.Elxa l promotes .)

lll xa l 47.g5 the g-pawn

43 ... 'i!?c2 Pushing the pawn at once did not help: 43 . . . a2 44.Elal c;t>b2 45.gxa2t c;t>xa2 46.g5 tt:lb6 47.c;t>g2! The pawns are too strong.

1 88

The Magic of Youth

44.l:'!:el lli c3 45.gS a2 46.g6 46.l"\a l was also good enough, but Tal's move is even more convincing. 46 lli b l 47.g7 al =°IW 48.g8=°1W Black could have resigned here, but he plays on for a few more moves. •••

Soviet Team Championship In the autumn of 1 9 5 3 Tai was selected to play for the Latvian adult team in the Soviet Team Championship in Leningrad. Koblencs played on board one but the other team members were all young; Tal was on the second board. In the first round Tai met Korchnoi for the first time, in a game that had far reachi ng consequences for both of them. Korchnoi was already an established player and a candidate for the grandmaster title. Tai had the white pieces and got an advantage. He went for a forced line, but Korchnoi found a way to keep himself in the game and eventually emerged with a small edge after the fortieth move. A long endgame and adjournment session ensued, and Korchnoi eventually p reva i led I asked him about the game, and he was kind enough to share his memories about it. -

.

53 °1Wxc3 54.l:'!:xc3t cj;1xc3 55.cj;1e2 cj;1d4 56. cj;1f3 cj;1e5 57. cj;1g4 cj;1f6 58. cj;1f4 1-0 This game showed both the good and bad aspects of the young Tal's play. Immediately after the opening Tai took a completely unjustified risk, sacrificing material unsoundly when simple moves would have guaranteed him a big advantage. However, he then exploited his opponent's errors and conducted the attack superbly to achieve a winning position, before misplaying the endgame and giving his opponent a chance to save it. •.•

Tai finished the event strongly, beating Solmanis in good style before winning with a queen sacrifice against Udris.

"The game score of the 'Alekhine defence' game, won by me, unfortunately is forgotten. On the other hand, that game had a very strong negative impact upon Tai. I tell in my autobiography, somewhere in the middlegame, being a pawn down, he offered me a draw. The offer was declined, and after a desperate defence I won the game on move 93. 1hus I managed to break his fighting spirit regarding myself for about the next twenty years." Tai also writes that this game strongly affected their lifetime score. According to the games I am aware of, their personal score from Tal's point of view was five wins, twenty-six draws and fourteen losses. No other player was able to achieve such a lopsided plus score against Tai.

1 89

1 953

It is unfortunate that only one of Tal's games from Leningrad is available and his final score is not known. Nevertheless, we can make a few guesses based on the record of Korchnoi, who has twelve available games from the same event (he scored an impressive ten points) .

7 �ha3 7 . . . b2t lasts longer, but the endgame is a technical win for White: 8 .1Mixb2t E1xb2 9.E1xb2 a3 1 0.E1b l t �a2 l l .E1b8 � a l 1 2.�c2 a2 1 3 .�b3 � b l 1 4 .!'l:hS al �ctJ t 1 5 .�c3 �a2 1 6.E1b8+...

Korchnoi's opponents included well known players such as Levenfish, Kasparian, Furman, Panov and Cherepkov. Tai was playing on the same board number, so he surely faced at least a few of the same opponents. Ta! achieved a master norm so he must have achieved a good score. Tal's only recorded game is worth looking at, as he managed to save a difficult endgame against a notable opponent. Genrikh

Kasparian is considered by many to be the greatest endgame composer of all time. Before we lo o k at the game, I will show you an extract from one of my favourite studies, a true masterpiece of chess endgame composition.

Kasparian 19 3 9

Apart from his stunning achievements in the field of endgame composition, Kasparian was an extremely strong player who won the Armenian Championship on ten occasions. He played all the world champions from Botvinnik to Spassky, scoring a total of four wins, ten draws and sixteen losses. He had one other game against Ta!, which was won by the latter. We will skip over the opening moves to join the game at a point where Ta! is struggling in a bad position.

The Magic of Youth

1 90

Genrikh Kasparian Mikhail Tal 1 953 -

Leningrad

1 . e4 cS 2.Cll f3 Cll c6 3.d3 d6 4.g3 e6 S .�g2 Cll f6 6.0-0 �e7 7.Elel 0-0 8.Cll bd2 dS 9.eS Cll d7 1 0.Cll fl f6 1 1 .exf6 Cll xf6 1 2.c3 bS 13.a4 b4 14.c4 Elb8 15.�f4 �d6 1 6.�xd6 1Mfxd6 17.Cll l d2 �b7 1 8.Elcl Elbd8 19.Cll b3 dxc4 20.dxc4 1Mf e7 2 1 .1Mfe2

22 . . . tt'l g4! 23 .'.Wxc5 '.Wf6 24.Ele2 tt'l d4 (Also after 24 . . . tt'la5! ? 2 5 . tt'l xa5 fi.xf3 26.fi.xf3 ®xf3 27.Elce l Eldl 28.Elxd l '.Wxe2 29.'.Wd5t \1?h8 Black has more than enough play for the pawn.) 2 5 . tt'l fXd4 fi.xg2 26. \t> xg2 exd4 27.f4 d3 28.Eld2 '.We6 The position is highly unclear. 22 ... Cll xeS

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Bltl ������·� hs 26.'.We3! Exchanging queens here is different from the way it happened in the game. 26 . . . '.Wxe3 26 . . . tt'l e4 27.'.Wxf3 Elxf3 28.tt'la5! li'lxf2 29. ctJ b7 Elc8 30.Elfl wins for White.

1 953

Genrikh Kasparian - Mikhail Tal

191

27.l"1xe3 tll g4 28 .:9:e2 White's rook stands superbly on e2, stopping all counterplay. 23 ...'lMxeS 24.:gxe5 ibxg2 25.@xg2

27... :gxb2 The endgame is a challenging one for both sides. Ir is hard to say if White's winning chances or Black's drawing chances are higher.

26.lll xc5

One can understand why 26. 'Ll a l was not appealing. 26 . . . :9:e8 (26 . . . :9:d2 27.:9:c2 :§fd8 28.l"1e2 :9:xe2 29.:9:xe2 :9:d4 It is hard to tell whether Black can survive.) 27.:9:xe8 t 'Ll xe8 28.l"1el �f7 29.:9:e5 :9:d2 30.:9:xc5 :9:xb2 3 1 .:9:a5 rlJe7 32.:9:xa7t �d6 33 .a5 ctJ c7 34.:9:b7 �c6 White is two pawns up, but it will not be easy to win with the knight on such a poor square. 26 ... gd2 27.:gf5

Kasparian defends the f2-pawn and his king. 27.lt>h3 is also possible: 27 . . .:9:xb2 (27 . . . :9:xf2

28.li:ld3 :9:d2 29. tll x b4 :9:xb2 30. tll c6 :9:a2 3 1 .a5 White has excellent winning chances.) 28.f3 (28 . tll d3 :9:b3 29.:§dl :9:c8 30.c5 :9:d8! Black has counterplay.)

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28.ctJd3?! Kasparian clears the path for his c-pawn, and may also have had the idea to use the knight to attack Black's kingside. However, the knight is well placed on c5 and it would have been better to leave it there and look for other ways to improve the position.

28 .a5 ! is better. A good illustrative line is 28 . . . :9:b8 (28 . . . :9:c8 29.:9:e l :9:a2 30.'Lld3 b3

1 92

The Magic of Youth

does not work due to 3 l .:8b5 :8xc4 32.:8b8t and White wins; Perhaps Black should sit and wait with 28 . . . h6, when White can choose between 29.:8f3, 2 9.a6 and 29.h3, with decent winning chances in each case.) 2 9.:8e l b3 30.:8f3 h6 3 1 .:8e7 :8b l 32.a6! b2 33 .:8b7 The last move highlights the usefulness of advancing the a-pawn. White should win.

3 1 . li:Jxc l fiJ g4! After 3 1 . . .li:J e4 32.:8xf8t e6 holds.

s E • • •••

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4 1 . . .fS! After 4 1 . . . ctJ b5 42.:9'.al Eld8 (42 . . . a3 43. ct/d5 a2 44.c4+-) 43.c6 a3 44. tt'l d7 f7 45.ct/d5 the white king dominates. 42.lll d?t 42.ctJ d3 tt'lb5 43.Bal Eld8 Black is safe. 42 . . . e7 43,tt'l b6 Ela5 44.Elxa4 44.tt'lxa4? tt'l b 5 would leave White fighting for a draw.

1 953

Genrikh Kasparian - Mikhail Tai

1 95

44 . . . Elxc5 Once again, Black holds after liquidating the ueenside pawns. q

43 ... ill c2! 44 . .E!:a2

4I.lll xa4

White cannot play for a win with other moves. 4 1 . ll'l c4 is met by 4 1 . . .Ei:b4, while after 4 1 .Ci:l d l Ei:b4 42.ll'l c3 Cll xc3 43 .Ei:xc3 Ei:b3 44.Elxb3 axb3 45.c6 b2 46.c7 b l ='IW 47.c8='1Wt lflf7 the queen ending is an easy draw. 4I...l:'l a8! The pin solves Black's problems. I am sure that such pins took place in many of Kasp arian's endgame studies. 42.©g4

Obviously the white king cannot approach via e2 or e4, as Black would take on a4 and

deliver a knight fork on c3 . Other moves such as 42.h3 can be met in the same way as the game continuation.

44.Ei:c3 ll'l d4t is an important detail. Tai had to wait for the white king to come to a suitable square for this move to come with check. 44... ill b4

112-112 Tai played remarkably well to draw such a difficult endgame against arguably the greatest endgame composer of all time, and I am sure he gained confidence from it.

1953 Summary Despite playing in stronger tournaments, the number of Tal's recorded games did not grow by much. Of the available games, I found five in which Tal opened with l . d4; he won four of them and drew the other. With l .e4 he scored six wins and two losses with no draws. His opening play was generally good, except against the Sicilian where he had problems in all three of his games; he even lost one of them in j ust nineteen moves. With Black he scored nine wins, two draws and two losses in the thirteen available games. Only two of these games opened with l .e4; on both occasions Tal chose the Sicilian but his opponents avoided main lines. Against the queen's pawn Tal became more versatile, employing the Dutch, King's Indian, Nimzo-Indian and Modern Benoni. The last of these is an indication that he was keen to reach unbalanced and tactically rich positions. Tal's playing strength was obviously improving, as evidenced by his victory in the Latvian Championship. His games show that that he was not only a fine tactician, but also that he possessed some strategic vision and was able to play endgames well.

1954 Estonia - Latvia Team Event Tal started the year playing on top board for the Latvian team against Estonia in Tallinn. He

played two games against the great Paul Keres, a world-class player who, at thirty-eight years of age, was in his prime. Keres finished second in the World Championship Candidates matches on four separate occasions, and he also holds a record for having defeated nine different world champions. Tai also recalls that Keres was an amiable host, who warmly greeted the Latvian team as he met them at the railway station and drove them to their hotel.

Tal had the white pieces in the first game and was surprised when Keres played the King's Indian, as he had hardly ever used it previously. It shows that he was probably using the match for training purposes. Tai writes that he could have exchanged queens and played for a draw, but he did not fancy his chances in a simplified position against a player with such fine technique. Tai got an advantage, but made some mistakes and Keres took over. Tai says he was impressed at the consistently high quality of Keres's moves in a sharp position. After the time control Tai ran out of checks and resigned. In the second game Tai played the Modern Benoni and got a difficult position. He mentions that he defended with surprising moves. I suspect that if Keres had reached the same position against Tai in a major championship he probably would have beaten him, but he was unable to muster all of his powers for this relatively unimportant event and Tai managed to escape with a draw. Despite having a tough time in both games, Tai must have been encouraged by his ability to compete with one of the elite players in the world.

Riga Championship Tal played in the Riga Championship, although he does not mention it in his book and it is

not clear at what point in the year it took place. The Chess Stars book refers to it as Tal's last tournament of the year, but this is contradicted by Tai himself, as he states that he finished the year with an adult team event. My best guess is that the championship of the capital was a qualifying event for the national championship, so I will discuss it here.

Tal started with a short but eventful draw with Black against Gipslis, followed by hard-fought wins over Klasups and Liepins. The next game was noteworthy, as Tai faced his future trainer Koblencs. Tai got a massive advantage as White in the Armenian Variation of the French, but failed to capitalize. Koblencs defended well but then gave away a pawn and Tai punished him. Tai followed this with a convincing win with the Benoni against Mileika, followed by another victory in a back-and-forth game against Semenikhin. Tai then suffered a setback against Aleksandrov, in a game where the advantage shifted sides several times.

The Magic of Youth

1 98

In the next game Tal got a winning position against Klovans, but allowed him to escape with a draw. He won his other two games against Akmentin and Klavins, achieving a total of eight points from the ten available games. He did not play especially well, so to achieve such a score shows what a formidable player he had become in Latvian chess circles.

Latvian Championship In the first round of the Latvian Championship, Tai showed his inexperience. Having beautifully built up a winning position with Black against Skuj a, he unnecessarily simplified to a rook ending which eventually proved drawn. A better idea would have been to make a couple of non-committal moves and use the adjournment analysis to determine the correct winning plan. Tai won his next game against Pasman who blundered horribly in a b alanced position. He followed this with wins over Balinsh and Akmentin, before suffering a disaster against Klavins. Tal played the Dragon and fell into an opening trap in the 6.f4 line, and had to resign on move 22 after his king was caught in the centre. Tal bounced back by demolishing Bannik, who completely mishandled the King's Indian Attack with White. Tal's next opponent Janis Mileika has some games in the database, but he did not play any world champions other than Tal. They played seven games in total, with Tal winning five and drawing the other two. Mileika finished the present tournament with a respectable score of 1 1 / 1 9.

Mikhail Tai - Janis Mileika Latvian Championship, Riga 1 954

1 .e4 c5 2.etJf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.'Lixd4 tt:l f6 s.'Lic3 e5 6.ihst id7 7.ixd7t Wxd7 8.ttlfS 'Li c6 9.0-0 'Lixe4 1 0.etJxe4 Wxf5 1 1 .etJxd6t ixd6 1 2.Wxd6 Wd7 13.WcS We7 14.ie3 WxcS 1 5.!xcS 0-0-0 1 6.:Sfdl b6 17.ie3 :Sd7 1 8. cii fl fS 1 9.f3 :Shd8 20. cii e2 'Li d4t 2 1 .ixd4 :Sxd4 22.:Sxd4 :Sxd4 23.:Sdl !i:xdl 24.cii xdl cii c7 25.cii d2 cii c6 26.c4 'iflcS 27.cii c3 aS 28.h3 g6 29.a3 cii d6 30.b4 axb4t 3 1 .axb4 cii c6 32.�b3 The early part of the game was fairly uneventful: Mileika was content to trade pieces and play for a draw, and in the present position he is close to achieving it. Let us see how Tal tries to use the imbalance in the pawn majorities to conjure up winning chances.

8

7

6

• n 11

•

����,� ������ ��� :

�· - � ·� in 5 W""�. ��� ��,% ����,�,�� 4 f� ci - -

-

� ��� �� lii\li i\ lii\lii\ �Iii\ �H ,

1 11 R �R �� -£' "" �

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

32 ... cii d6 Mileika is content to sit and wait. He could also have gone for 32 . . . g5!?, but only because 33.g4 can be met by 33 . . . e4! leading to an eventual draw.

1 9 54

Mikhail Tai - Janis Mileika

1 99

33.c.ta3! Tal starts a triangulation so that the king will

arrive on a4 at a more favourable moment. It does not lead to anything special, but it gives Black something to think about.

33 ... ci>c6

Mileika is not worried about zugzwang. 33 . . . ltid7!?

Black could try a similar policy of delaying the king's arrival on c6. This move also sets a trap , as White could even lose if he tries too hard: 34.c5 ??

Correct is 34. g4

E1xa3 3 5 . h4 ga4 Black has good drawing chances .) 34 . . . a5 3 5 . ri> f5 d6 36.gd l t c;t>cs

37.gd2 b5 Black should be able to hold.

•

4

33 . . . cS

Sooner or later Black has to push one of his

pawns.

a

c

b

d

e

f

g

3 8 .c;t>d3 (3 8 . c;t> f4 ? is pointless as after 38 . . . c4

the king will have to go back to stop the pawns .) 38 . . . a4 3 9 .Jte8 b4= Black exchanges

White's a-pawn and his king will get to h 8 .

35 ... �b6 36.�b7t �a6

34.a4!? looks better, for instance: 34 . . . ri>b6 35. @ f4 ri>a5 (35 . . . gh4t 36. c;t>g5 gxa4 37.h4 © c7 3 8 . h 5 b5 3 9 . g e l Black is in trouble.) 36.,txb7 lt>xa4 37.Jtc8 :8h6 3 8 .Jtf5 and White has good winning chances . Tal's suggestion is also promising: 34.l::l b l b6 35.gb2 and White can start improving his

king.

�

� �

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�'s ,J� �� � � � �� � � � a

37.�b8?

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

Tal commits a serious mistake not keeping

an

eye on the a7-pawn.

3 7 .l::l c7! b4 (Black can also opt for 37 . . . l::l xh2

3 8 .l::l xc5 ri>a5, or 37 . . . c4 3 8 . a4; in both cases

a draw is likely.) 3 8 . l::l x c5 bxa3 3 9 . l::l c2 a5 4 0 . ri> f4

The Magic

232

of Youth

78 •�m'•�ll·�ll·'� 6•B· �n%n%� n ll ll. '• •llll

38.�e2

5 4

8

� � n

�m

ll ll ��ll��1•%llll 6� .� �� B � �� ll � � • . %� n//;� 7

s 4

-· ,,Y,� �� �� f � �

� �· � �-w0� �� 3 /fj%% -%-�� �i. . ,,%_ ..

_ % � � �� � %· %� % � � � � %

2 1

..

..

..

,

.....

a

37 .. J'hh 2 ?

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

Averbakh reduces the number of white pawns, but misses a golden opportunity to turn the tables with 37, , . lti a5 ! . Now it is White who

� /% 3 %�L£!1;, : n;;;,�� . %_;;;,·;� �2 � ... %� �� �1 � � � � n a

38 ... :8'.h3t?

g

h

to a

on

to

39.�e4 c4 40.a4 :8'.h4t

At this point the arbiter intervened to

announce that Averbakh had overstepped the time limit.

Tai recalls that he was reaching out

king to play: 4 1 .�d5

for his

Black's king is slightly uncomfortable, but he

has several ways to draw.

Tai mentions in his comments that Averbakh was in time tro uble, and this seems like the only explanation for how one of the world's

could

f

his b-pawn.

White has to draw.

experts

e

draw with 38 . . . c4! 3 9 . a4 �a5 4 0 . axb5 mb4

chances.) 38 . . . :8'.xh2 3 9 . :8'.f5 c4 40 .�e2 :8'.h4 I think Black has better chances to win than

endgame

d

when White has no chance of hanging

:8'.xh2 4 1 .�c8 :8'.h6 Black has good winning

renowned

c

This needlessly drives the white king

(38.:8'.b7 a6; 3 8 .�e4 c4 3 9 .:8'.a8 a6 4 0 .�g4

most

b

,Y,

.

more active square. Black could reach a clear

must fight hard for a draw, for instance: 3 8 .:8'.f8

commit such an error.

�%'.'0/, �� �

%

4 1 . . . bxa4

233

Mikhail Tai - Yuri Averbakh

1 954 Also after 4 1 . . .'tti aS 42.axb S 'tti b4 43.:gcs

Despite the excellent result in the first round,

the rest of the event proved tough for Tai . He

@xb5 44.:g b s t 'tti a4 45 .�xc4 :gh5t Black holds. 42.@c5 In the event of 42 .�xc4t 'tti a5 43 . :g b 5 t @a6= White has n o way t o exploit the

the next couple of games Tai was able to stir up

42 ... a3 43.:gb3

Lisitsin respectively, but both of them showed

discovered check.

faced several strong players; for instance, in

the third round he drew with White against

another future world champion, Petrosian. In

interesting complications against Aronin and

their class and eventually defeated him. Things

got even tougher in the next round, as Tai

found himself outplayed by Taimanov in a

long battle in the Winawer French. Tai

managed

to

stabilize

after

three

consecutive losses . He firmly held the black side of a Closed Catalan against Korchnoi,

then narrowly avoided defeats in two endgames against Vasiukov and Suetin respectively.

a

b

c

d

e

f

43 . . . Elh5t! 44 . 'tti xc4 :ge5 46.Elxa3t 'tti b6 Black is safe here as well. This was Tal's

first

g

h

4 5 .�d3

'tti a5

ever victory over

Tai finished the event with 4/ 1 0, and it could easily have been less. Losing three games in a row must have shaken his confidence, but he was able to maintain his fighting spirit and keep his concentration in long endgames .

a

grandmaster. Although it was not the most

In terms of Tal's chess education, facing a succession of formidable Soviet players was exactly what he needed, as they managed to do

convincing win, it is still impressive that Tal was able to get the better of an endgame specialist in that phase of the game.

what few of Tal's rivals in Latvia were capable

1-0

talent was a raw diamond, then the harsh

of: withstanding his attacks and matching him in complications, then outplaying him in technical positions. If Tal's exceptional chess

lessons learned here gave him the means to cut and polish it.

1954 Summary

This is the first year ofTal's career where the record of his games is substantial enough to make a statistical summary worthwhile. With White, he went for king's pawn and queen's pawn games

with roughly equal frequency. With Black, he almost abandoned the Nimzo-Indian in favour of aggressive openings such as the King's Indian, Griinfeld, Modern Benoni and Tarrasch Defence.

Against 1 . e4 he played both l . . . c5 and 1 . . . e 5 , with a few different variations of each. Interestingly, Tai scored slightly higher with Black than with White. In 1 9 54, Tal cemented his reputation as one of the stars of Latvian chess. His weaknesses were uncovered at the end of the year when he faced a gauntlet of strong Soviet masters, but

he

survived several difficult situations and there is no doubt that this tough experience helped him to become a stronger player.

1 954 Results

Estonia - Latvia match, Board 1 versus Keres: Lost 1 Y2-Y2 ( +O Latvian Championship (2nd-3rd place) : 1 5 / 1 9 (+ 1 2 =6 - 1 ) Master title match versus Saigin: Won

8-6 (+4 =8 -2) (+6 =2 - 1 )

Soviet Youth Team Champ ionship : 719

Soviet Team Cup : 4/ 1 0

Total

(+ l = 6 -3)

63.9% (+23 =23 -8)

ILli!l Wins

Ill Draws

• Losses

=

1 -1)

1955 Latvian Championship Tal's fi rst tournament of the year was the national championship in January. In the first round Tal drew from a worse position against Gipslis, and in the second he faced Roberts Skuj a, who faced no other world champions. He played Tal in a total of five games, scoring two draws and three losses. Skuja ended the present competition with a respectable 1 0 V2/ 1 9 .

Mikhail Tal Roberts Skuja -

Latvian Championship, Riga 195 5

1.d4 'll f6 2.c4 d6 3.tlic3 g6 4.tli f3 i.g7 5.g3 0-0 6.i.g2 tli bd7 7.0-0 e5 8.'Wc2

Previously Tai had played 8 . e4 twice, including one earlier game against Skuj a. After 8 . . . c6 Tal tried two different moves:

a) 9.h3 l'l:e8 1 O .§le3 exd4 l 1 . lll xd4 lll b6 l 2.b3 d5 1 3 . exd5 cxd5 l 4.c5 lb bd7 l 5 . lll db5 a6 1 6 . lll d6 !he3 l 7.fxe3 lll x c5

b) A year after the above game, Tal played differently when he faced Skuj a: 9 .Ei:e 1 E':e8 1 O . h3 b6? Too passive. l 1 .§le3 §lb7 1 2 .'Wc2 exd4 1 3 . lll xd4 lll c5 1 4 .Ei:ad l Wfc7 1 5 . b4 White was clearly

better; later the evaluation swung back and forth, but Tal eventually prevailed in Tai - Skuj a,

Latvia 1 9 5 2 .

The Magic

23 6

8 :ge8

One of Tal's later opponents went for a direct attack on the c-pawn: 8 . . . exd4 9 . tll xd4 tll b6 1 0 .:ll'. d l tll xc4 l l . tll cb 5 a6 1 2 .1Mi'xc4 axb 5 •••

1 3 . tll xb5 tll e8

of Youth 1 1 .e4 a6

8 .i U.t.U .i D�D .� � �;/.' "'; ���,,�� 7 � �• � ��! A J �}t � &D • w� .. . ...� . . .. .� � �� llllll ll �;"/�. . . ��llll � � ·::;� . 3 R b ��j R�wci% rt� � . . . . %/, '/:!-,,,,% �Yii �� .��� /k0 � 1 �� � M R = 6

4 2

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

1 4 . tll c3 c6 1 5 .�e3 1Mi'a5 1 6.1Mi'b3 1Mi'a6 1 7.�g5

�e6

1 8 .1Mi'c2 f6

1 9 .�f4 :ll'. d 8 2 0 . tll e4 Tal

obtained an edge and went on to win in Tal

Lehmann, Palma de Mallorca 1 9 66.

-

9.:ll'. d l c6 1 0.b3 1Mi'c7

Here is a final reference to another of Tal's

games:

1 0 . . . 1Mi'e7 l l . e3 tll f8 1 2 . dxe5 dxe5

1 3 .a4 e4 1 4 .�a3 c5 1 5 . tll d2 �g4

/:

%'""

12.ia3!?

Black is pretty solid here; nevertheless after

%�

�

a

%

!�tllll .

5

b

c

d

e

f

g

h

The database shows that this move had been

played once before in the game Frydman -

Naj do rf, Buenos Aires 1 9 3 9 .

I wonder if Tal

was aware of this or if he improvised it over the board.

1 2 ... cS?!

Black would do better to insert l 2 . . . exd4!

before deciding whether to post his knight on c5 or pqsh the c-pawn.

Naj dorf played

1 2 . . . �fS, which is slightly

passive but less weakening than Skuj a's move.

13.dxc5

1 3 . dxe 5 ! is slightly more accurate. 1 3 . . . lll xeS

1 4 . tll xe5 dxe5 and now both 1 5 . tll dS and 1 5 .�cl !? leave White better.

1 3 ... tll xc5

.

Skuj a activates the knight. Instead 1 3 . . dxcS?!

1 4 .tll d5 tll xd5 1 5 . cxd5 would be tough for

Black.

1 4.b4

After l 4 .tll d5 tll x d5 l 5 . cxd5 a5 Black would

stabilize the queenside with a decent position.

1 95 5

Mikhail Tal - Roberts Skuj a 2 3 . 8 ad l

14 ... lll e6

strong.

237

I prefer White a s the d6-pawn i s

1 8 . . . iliif d 7 1 9 .iliif xd7 ( 1 9 .iliifx b4 ! ? lll d4 2 0 . lll xd4 exd4 2 l . 8ac l White has good compensation

for

the

pawn . )

1 9 . . . ilxd7

20 . dxe6 ilxe6

2 1 .ilxb4 (2 1 .ilb2 e4 22. 'll d4 ilc4 is not worse

for Black. ) 2 1 . . .ilg4 22. lll g5 The position is

ro ughly equal, despite the unbalanced material on the board.

1 9.\Wxb4 a5

Black again chooses a good move over an equally acceptable alternative. After 1 9 . . . lll d4

15.cS! Tai forces matters with an imaginative idea. Black has enough resources to deal with it, but th e path to safety is not easy to find.

2 0 . lll xd4 exd4 2 1 .Bac l iliif d S 22.d6 White has good compensation for the pawn but Black

should be okay.

Black does okay against patient improving moves, for instance: 1 5 .8ac l ilh6; 1 5 . iliif b 2 b 5 1 6.cxb5 Wb6; or 1 5 .iliif d3 'll d4 1 6 . lll xd4 exd4 1 7.12le2 lll g4, and in all three cases Black has reasonable play.

15 ... dxcS 1 6 .Cll d5!

Tal 's idea is to obtains a strong passed pawn in the centre. 16 . .. lll xdS

17.exd5 cxb4

Skuja's choice is okay. He might also have

considered 1 7 . . . lll d4 1 8 . lll xd4 exd4 1 9 . bxc5 d3 20 .Wxd3 ilxa l 2 1 .Bxa l iliif a 5 when White's compensation for the exchange would balance

th e p os it i on.

18.�a4 ild7 The position is sharp and several pieces are un d er fire, but it remains roughly balanced. Black had a few other options to consider:

18 b5 1 9 .iliifx b4 lll d4 2 0 . lll xd4 exd4 2 1 . d6 11:\lbS 22.8xd4 (22.ilxaS? iliifxaS) 22 . . . ild7 ...

20 ... axb4

Black has no choice.

2 1 .Elxd7

Tai takes a second piece and gets his rook to

the seventh rank with a tempo.

2 1 . . .iliif c3?

Finally Skuj a goes wrong under pressure.

The Magic of Youth

238

Black could simplify to an endgame by giving

back the queen: 2 1 . . .Wxd7! 22.exd7 8ed8 2 3 .i.xb4 e4

2 5 .8cc7

White's rooks are tremendous on the seventh. 2 5 . . . e4 If 25 . . . b3 26.axb3 Wal t 27.i.fl e4

28.lll g5

e3 2 9 . fXe3 h6 3 0 . lt:J f7t a7 Wtc7t 44. 'it> a6 Al so afiter 44 c,ilas Was t 45.c,ilbs lL'lb5 46.c,ilb7 Vlia7t 47.c,ilc6 lt:J d4t the queen fall s. ·

if

44 . Wi°c6t 45.Wi°b6 4 5 .@a5 l2i b7t 46.c,ilb4 allows 46 . . . Vfic5t with mate next move.

R� �

45 ...Wi'c4t 0ite resigned as he is about to lose both of his queenside pawns with check.

38.'Wd3 VfihSt 39.'ii>xa7 Arulaid increases his number of extra p�wns to two. There was nothing better: 39. 'cYaS? lilb6t wins the queen, while 39. c,ti c7 V!ib6 t 40. W cS 1Wc6t 4 1 .@bs l2i d6 42.Vfib3 l2i b5 43_W/b4t c,t?f7 also wins comfortably.

During my research on Tal, I asked my friend Yochanan Afek, a superb endgame com� s r, hether Tal ever composed a study. He sa1 e nly knew of a single one, which he pro d ced _ ere with a co-author Pogosyants. I include lt _ because it involves a remarkable coop � ratlo � b etween a queen and knight, which is reminiscent ofTal's play in the above game.

The knight is useful both fo� attacki ng an d r guard"mg the black king agamst checks. wr

�

�� �

:

39...'Wb6t 40.'ii> as Wi°c6t 41 .'it>bs

�/,

Tai & Pogosyants

� u� � " ,/,� u rt� i ; illil! �- "ill . �iii s m iiiu �� ';; ill /,� IA\� �[!fd � , ,,/,� " ,:: �}ffI1 -ml�-, � WM 8 � U, �" �� 1 m,, /,u u • � �

/C: '�

8

,_

"

43

2

a

b

c

d

%,, ,

�� e

f

�� g

h

41...tll d6 After so many checks in the en d ga� e, 'IaI makes a calm move with the knight to nghten the n oo se around White's king. 42.'Wb3 VficSt! Tai continues to Play with admirable p reci s io n

.

1969

,/,/"//.' /,

a

White has an extra piece, but there is hardly any maten"al l eft and the e-pawn is not far . . from promotion. However the black queen is ' . passive an d the king is close to the edge o f th. e . board, enabling White to weave a matmg net.

The Magic of Youth

250

I .tll d4t! White starts by forcing the king to the edge of the board. 1 . .. @el By the way, if there was no pawn on e3 , the king would move there and draw. 2.'l!Nh2! White swings the queen to the other side and threatens a knight check on c2. Instead 2.1Wb2? allows Black to draw with either 2 . . . 1Wa6 or 2 . . . e2.

Black runs out of checks. 4 . . . 1Wd2 4 . . . \Wf2 gives White a choice: 5 .'W'b l t This is the fastest win. (5 .\Wh 1 t!? is the prettiest: 5 . . . \Wel 6.\Wh5 t e2 7.'ll f3! The black queen is virtually trapped.) 5 . . . \t>d2 6.\Wc2t ii>el 7.\Wc1 # 5 .\Wh l t! 5 .\We4? e2 draws. 5 . . . \We l 6.\We4 1Wd2

2 ... @dl ! The most resilient defence.

Pushing the pawn leads to a faster finish: 2 . . . e2 3 .'ll c2t ltidl

8 /,

� � � � · � � �� : ·�� -� -� 5 � �- �-�� .� �� �� �� �� � �f�0/,�� �� � �� �.t. • � ��/'��,,, 23 �� •4-J• 4

1 . �.:.:w ·� f a

b

c

d

e

g

h

4.\Wd6t! White uses the full mobility of the queen; after switching back to the queenside she will deliver a quick mate. (4.'ll e3 t ? would spoil the win due to 4 . . . lticl 5 .'ll xfl e l =IWt! and Black crucially promotes with check.) 4 . . . lticl 5 .1Wa3 t ltidl 6.IWa l # 3.'l!Nh7! White threatens to checkmate on b 1 . 3 .1Wh5 t? is met by 3 . . . e2 and Black holds. 3 ... @el The queen check loses more quickly: 3 . . . IWe l t 4.ltib3!

7.'ll f3!! White wins as the black queen is overloaded. The existence of the e3-pawn is again benefici� for White, as without it the reply 7 . . . �b2t would draw thanks to the stalemate motif.

25 1

1 95 5 4 e2 are also drawing.) 5 .1Mff3t ltigl 6.'Lle2t ...

©h2 7.iMfxfl Stalemate.

4. . 'Wf2 .

4 . lii d l 5 .1Mf e4! iMie l t 6. lti b3 transposes to 3...'We l t above. ..

s.liJc2t! ©e2 6.WfhSt! The only way to win. 6.1Mf g4t ? lti fl would spoil the win. 6.. . @fl 6 . 1Wf3 is met by 7.'Lld4t of course. ..

7.1/Nhl t to

White's winning moves are no longer hard find, but they still make a nice impression.

7...'Wgl 7 . . lti e2 8.'Lld4 is mate.

inspiration for this study. It would be nice to know how Tai and Pogosyants shared the composition. The Armenian who lived in Moscow was known as a fine and imaginative composer. Yochanan informed me that John Raycroft wrote a book on Pogosyants, so I contacted the author and asked if he could provide any more details about the study. Here is his answer: "Apart from that, the two chess wizards knew each other quite well, and since Pogosyants' studies are well known to be analytically suspect (because he was so prolific with ideas that soundness was never a top priority) , it is likely that Pogosyants showed Tai an idea and Tai demolished it, and then they got together to produce and publish a sound version."

.

8.�'f3t Wlf2

Tai drew against Vistanetsky and Gurgenidze,

then defeated Vasiukov. The last game is referenced in the notes to the Tai - Paehtz game from 1 974 game in the third volume.

The 1 95 5 Soviet Team Championship was a landmark event, as it was Tal's first serious competition in which he remained undefeated. Tai writes that he was indifferent to this.

Soviet Championship Semi-final

a

b

c

d

e

9.liJxe3t ©gl 9 . . lii e l 1 0.iMid l is mate.

f

g

h

.

10.'Wdlt ©h2 I I .lll g4t The queen falls. I checked Tal's games from 1 969, but did not

find

a

single one that could have given the

Tal's next tournament began a few days after Tal's 1 8th birthday, and his performance was definitely at the level of an adult. Conveniently for him, the event was held in his home city of Riga. In the first round Tai met a tough opponent in Iivo Nei, who had previously tied for first in the Soviet Junior Championship. Nei played a total of twenty-eight games against all of the Soviet world champions from Smyslov to Spassky. He scored three wins against three different champions, plus fifteen draws and eleven defeats. Earlier in

The Magic of Youth

252

the year they met in the quarter-final, and Tal had to work hard to hold a draw. According to the database, their lifetime score was five wins to Tal, with seven draws and one defeat. Amongst Nei's other achievements, he won the Estonian Championship eight times, and in 1 964 he tied for first with Paul Keres in the extremely strong Beverwijk tournament, fin ishing ahead of Portisch, Ivkov, Larsen and several other strong players. Nei was also one of Spassky's seconds in the historic Spassky Fischer world championship match of 1 972. I contacted Nei in the course of my research for this book. He told me that, since he and Tal were from neighbouring republics, they knew each other well. Iivo also mentioned that Tai from time to time travelled to the Estonian city of Tartu, where they would play blitz matches and analyse together.

livo Nei - Mikhail Tai Soviet Championship Semi-final, Riga 1955

1.e4 c5 2.ctJf3 ctJc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.llixd4 ctJ f6 5.ctJc3 d6 Tai makes no attempt to surprise his opponent; he used the Rauzer throughout his career. 6.fg5 Nei chooses the main line, which was also Tal's favourite when he played the white side of this variation. With White he achieved an extremely impressive score of twenty-nine wins, twelve draws and four losses. As Black he won seven, drew thirteen and lost four. 6 ... e6 7.'Wd2

a) 8 . . . �d7 9.f4 From here Tai had games with a l ) 9 . . . Bc8, a2) 9 . . . �e7 and a3) 9 . . . b5:

al) 9 ... Bc8 1 0.lll f3 1Wa5 1 1 .'iii b l b5 1 2.ixf6 gxf6 1 3 .f5 lll b 4? 1 4.a3 lll c6 1 5 .lll d4 tt:lxd4 1 6 .1Wxd4 �e7 1 7.�e2 'iii d 8 1 8 .i"lhfl l':1b8 19 .fxe6 fxe6

1 955

Iivo Nei - Mikhail Tal

a2) 9 . . .ie7 1 0.ttJf3 b5 1 I .ixf6 gxf6 1 2.fS '1¥b6 13.©b l 0-0-0 1 4.g3 ©b8 1 5 .fxe6 fxe6

16.�h3 ic8 1 7.�h6 �c5 1 8.Ei:hfl a5 1 9. ttJ e2 d5 20.exdS lll b4

253

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winning position, but made one mistake later and allowed the reigning World Champion at the time to escape with a draw in Karpov - Tal, Moscow 1 976. b) 8 ... h6 is another important move. Tal faced both b l ) 9 .if4 and b2) 9 .ie3 in his career:

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{;'. 'e3 :ll: d 7 37.Cll d6=) 35 .c6 i±>e6 36.ibS :ll: g 8 37 . .txa7 md5 38.Cll a5 White can probably hold. .

33 ..th5! The alternative is 33.c6 g4 34.md l g3 35. ih3 :ll: c4! when, after long analysis, I even t ually found that Black was winning. It would hardly have been possible to determine the final evaluation of either move over the board, but I have awarded the exclamation mark for the practical effectiveness of Tal's choice, which immediately induced an inaccuracy from his opponent. Tai must have known his countryman Gipslis well, both personally and as a chess player, and may well have sensed that he would become too worried about the passed c-pawn.

Mikhail Ta! - Aivars Gipslis

263

33 ... tll xc5?! Gipslis may well have been short of time and wanted to avoid any traps involving the c-pawn once and for all. However, he is still giving the knight away a bit too cheaply. I found two winning lines for Black:

Black can initiate a race with: 33 . . . g4! 34.lll dS (34 . .txa6 g3 3 5 .c6 g2-+) 34 . . . :1%f3 35 . .te2 (35 . .tc6 m2 36 . .te4 g3 37.c6 g2 38 ..txg2 :ll: xg2-+) 35 . . . :ll: c3t 36. md2 g3 37 ..txa6 (37 . .tfl :1%f3 38 . .th3 g2-+) 37 . . . g2 38.i±>xc3 g l =iW Black should eventually win, although there is clearly a lot of play remaining. 33 . . . lll b4! was decisive as well. 34.�d2 (34.c6? Cll xc6) 34 ... g4 3 5 . c6 (3 5 .Cll dS :ll: f2t 36.i±>e l g3 37.Cll e6t i±>f7-+) 35 . . . lll d5 36.Cll c5 (36. c7 Cll xc7 37 . .txc7 g3-+) 36 . . . mzt 37.i±>e l g3 38 . .te2 (3 8.c7 Cll xc7 39 . .txc7 :ll: b 2-+) 38 . . . :ll: h2 39 . .tf3 g2 40.i±>f2 CL\ f4 Black is winning. 34.tll xc5 Black's passed pawns should give him enough counterplay to draw this endgame. It is worth adding that the endgame with two bishops and a knight versus a lone rook would be winning for White, whereas two knights and a bishop can only draw against a rook. Kasparov once held the latter endgame against Karpov in a world championship match.

264

The Magic of Youth

34 ... �fl?! Gipslis wants to cut the king off, but the plan proves ineffective. He was certainly right to avoid 34 . . . g4? ? 3 5 .tll e6t, but a better alternative was 34 . . . Wf7! followed by pushing the pawns, when Black should be fine. 35.llie4 �f3 Gipslis decides to do nothing and wait. Technically this is not a losing plan, but it makes his task practically more difficult.

35 . . . i::l h 2! gives up a pawn, but this could be beneficial for Black as it gives his king some air while keeping White's king cut off. 36.ie7 (After 36.tll g3 g4! the pawn could become dangerous.) 36 .. .f5 (Also after 36 . . . Wf7!? 37.ixf6 We6 38.ixg5 Wd5 Black's king should be able to remain safe around the e5pawn.) 37. tll xg5 a5 It is hard for the white king to approach, and the game should end in a draw.

Black keeps defending. I would prefer 4 1 . . .g4!? 42.ixf6 g3 43.ixe5 g2 44.ih2 a5 45.tll c3 Wg5 when White's pieces are good enough to hold the pawns, but not to wi n them. 42. lli d6 a5 Gipslis hopes to cause problems with his passed pawn, but he does not smell the dan ger with his king being caged.

42 . . . g4! makes room for the king, and after 43 .ie6 Wg5 Black should be safe. 43.i.d3t lt> g7 43 . . . Wh5 44.tll e4 also gives Black some problems to solve.

36.lt>d2 \t>g6 37.lt>e2 �b3 38.i.d3 �b2t After 38 . . . f5 !? 39. tll d2 i::l b 7 40.ixe5 a5 White cannot win. 39.lt>e3 @f7 40.i.c4t \t>g6 4 I .i.e7

44 ... a4? This was Black's last chance to save the game. Once again the key was to push on e of the kingside pawns with: 44 . . . g4! 4 5 .Wf5 g3 46.ie4 i::l b 2 47.ixf6t Wf8 48.tll c4 g2 Black holds easily as White must give up a bishop. 45. lt> fs a3 45 . . . g4 is too late, as after 46.Wxg4 gb2 47.li>f5 a3 (47 . . . i::l f2t 48.We6 a3 49. tll eSt) 48.ixf6t Wh6 49.ixe5 I am pretty sure

Mikhail Tal - Aivars Gipslis

1 95 5 White is winning, although i t would take a seven-p iece tablebase to find out for sure.

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46.�c4! Tai tightens his grip around the black kingside. I suspect that Gipslis was anticipating and hoping for 46.ilxf6t �[8 47.ilxe5 a2 48.�c4 a l =iW 49.ilxal Elxd6 when Black

draws. 46 ... g4 Finally Gipslis moves the g-pawn, but it is

too late. Other moves were also insufficient, for instance: 46 l"\c6 47.ild5 Ela6 48.lll e8t ...

48.�a2 e4 49.lll e8t 'it> h7 50.lll xf6t 'it> g7 5 1 .ttJxe4 Ela5t 52.lll c5 also wins.

47 �h6 ...

266

The Magic of Youth

Unsurprisingly, moving to the corner loses more quickly: 47 . . . lt>hS 48.lt>g6 a2 49.�xa2 g3 50.�fS Elb7 5 1 .�f7 Elxf7 52.\t>xf7 g2 53 .�g7t l±>h7 54.CLJxf6# 47 . . . l±>h? is also not an improvement: 48.�fS g3 49.CLJxf6t Elxf6t 50.l±>xf6 g2 5 1 .�d3t l±>h8 (5 1 . . .lt>gS 52.�c5) 52.�g7t lt>g8 53.�c4t l±>h7 54.\t>f7 Checkmate will follow soon. 48.Cll xf6 Tal takes the first pawn, and the rest will fall in no time.

Another option was 48.�f7!?, ignoring the pawns and setting up a mating net. 48 . . . l±>h? (48 . . . g3 49.�g6 and 48 . . . a2 49.�g6 both lead to a quick mate.) 49.�fS e4 50.CLJxf6t Elxf6t 5 l . \t> xf6 The two bishops will soon devour the black pawns and force a quick mate.

49.Cll xg4 :Bc6 50.Cll xeS Gipslis resigned, as the a3-pawn falls as well. Tal was able to use the threat of a mating net to win all four of the black pawns, leading to a winning endgame with two bishops and a knight against a rook. There were no tablebases

at the time of the game, and it would be interesting to know if the outcome of this unusual material balance had been established with any certainty. I find it slightly surprising that Gipslis did not play on, at least until the next sealed move. 1-0 Tal writes that in the next round against Lebedev he intentionally played dubiously to stir up matters. The plan worked, and he survived a bad position to catch his opponent's king. Two more wins put him in a commanding position with 81h/ l 1 . Tal slowed slightly in the next few games, with draws against Ilvitsky and Poliak, followed by a loss to Korchnoi. He rebounded with wins over Chukaev and Furman, Karpov's future trainer. The latter game can be foun d on page 252, variation al in the note to Black's 7th move in the Nei - Tal game. Tai scored another convincing win over Rovner, then in the last round he lost with White against Gurgenidze. His score of 1 2V2/ 1 9 was enough to win the tournament; he probably struggled to concentrate properly in the final round because of it. The distribution ofTal's results is quite striking: against the ten players at the bottom of the crosstable he was absolutely lethal, scoring eight wins and two draws; however, agai nst the players finishing from second to ninth places, he made a 'minus one' score. As usual, Tai was at his best in complications, but he showed his maturity by playing solidly against some of his top rivals. He also had some remarkable endgames. To win such an event at the age of j ust eighteen showed that he had the potenti� to become one of the best in the world. The final of the Soviet Championship was scheduled for early in 1 9 56, and you can read about it in the next chapter.

1955 Summary Tal showed a clear preference for 1 .e4, using it in twenty of the twenty-nine available games. He only achieved a modest 'plus two' score with other first moves. With the king's pawn he

performed well, scoring nine wins, ten draws and just one defeat. With the black pieces Tai did brilliantly against l .e4, winning ten out of nineteen games, with seven draws and only two defeats. He mostly played the Sicilian but mixed up his repertoire with other defences from time to time. Tai also scored well against l .d4 and other first moves, with six wins, four draws and just one defeat. He abandoned the Nimzo-Indian completely in favour of the Modern Benoni and King's Indian, both of which worked well for him. The end of 1 95 5 is the cut-off point where Tai ends the first chapter of his book. This seems appropriate, as winning the semi-final of the Soviet Championship was a significant milestone that must have established Tai as a world-class player, or at least something close to that status. He had not fully caught up with Spassky, but he certainly narrowed the gap, as well as the virtual gap between himself and other legendary players such as Fischer, Karpov and Kasparov when they were of the same age.

1 955 Results Latvian Championship (2nd place) : 1 4/ 1 9* USS R Ch. Quarter-final (3rd-4th place) : 1 1 1 1 7 ( + 7 =8 -2) Latvia Russian Republic team tournament (2nd best Latvian) : 6Vi/ 1 1 ( +4 =5 -2) USSR Team Championship: 5 Y2/9 (+2 =7 -0) USSR Ch. Semi-final ( 1 st place) : 1 2V2/ 1 8 (+ 1 0 =5 -3) -

Total 66.9% (+23 =25 -7) **

CJ Wins

ii Draws • Losses

* Tal's exact win/ draw/loss record at this event is not known. ** These totals do not include games from the Latvian Championship.

19 56 Soviet Championship Final Tal's first event of 1 95 6 was his first ever Soviet Championship Final, which took place in Leningrad. Despite the absence of such notable players as Botvinnik, Smyslov, Keres, Petrosian and Bronstein, the event was still extremely strong. Tai started by venturing a risky Modern Benoni against Antoshin and got away with a draw. The game score of his second game is confusing: after beautifully outplaying Khasin in a Sicilian, he apparently made two blunders within a short time. Perhaps the moves were not entered correctly, but I was unable to work out what the correct moves should have been. Whatever the true story, Tai eventually won the game. In the third round, Tal produced the type of game for which he is famous . His opponent was

Vladimir Simagin, who played forty-four games against the world champions. He won two, drew twenty-two and lost twenty. He played two subsequent games against Tal, losing the first and drawing the second of them.

Mikhail Tai - Vladimir Simagin Soviet Championship Final, Leningrad 195 6

l.e4 c6 2.d4 d6 Simagin had never played this opening before; perhaps he underestimated Tal's playing strength. 3.lll c3 lll f6 4.f4 Wfb6?! A strange choice. Nowadays 4 . . . '\Mi'a5 is a well-known system, but it was not played until 1 967

according to the database. s.lll f3 ig4 6.�e2 tll bd7 7.e5! Tal plays the opening forcefully, gaining space with tempo. 7 �d5 8.0-0 ...

8.ltle4 is strong as well, but Tal's move works out perfectly.

The Magic of Youth

270

The exchange of bishops leaves Black's kingside bare, but there was no choice as 1 0 . . . ibf5 ? 1 l .g4 wins. 1 1 .°!Wxe2 h6 1 1 . . .g6 1 2.f5! cracks the kingside open.

1 1 . . .ibe? 1 2.exd6! ibxd6 ( 1 2 . . . ibxg5 1 3.fxg5) 1 3 .f5 also puts Black in a hopeless situation.

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8 ... CDxc3?! Simagin cannot resist doubling the enemy pawns, but in return White obtains a solid support for the d4-pawn as well as an open b-file. He should have preferred 8 . . . e6. 9.bxc3 e6? Simagin does not smell the danger. Instead 9 . . . ibxf3 1 0.ibxf3 would have led to a difficult, but probably not yet lost position for Black. It is worth adding that after 1 0 . . . dxe5 l 1 .fXe5 ll'ixe5 1 2 .ibe4 ll'i d7 1 3 .ibf4 White has tremendous compensation for the pawn. 1 2 ... h7 1 6.ibxh6 �a5

1 956

Mikhail Tai

-

27 1

Vladimir Simagin

(16 . . . l:'!e8 1 7.'1Wf7) 1 7.�g5 Wd5 1 8 .�xf6 gxf6 1 9 .d7 l:'!g8 20.g3 White has too many pawns for the piece. 15.'&c4t �h7

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16.ixh6!! exd4 16 . . . '1Wd8 1 7.'1We6 Wf6 1 8.'1Wxd7 �xh6 1 9.dxe5 Wxe5 20.Elae l White wins . 17.'&e6 ttJ f6 1 8.E!ab l Wc5 1 8 . . . Wd8 1 9.�f4+-

1 4.�e3 ! 1 4 . fxe6t �g8 is less convincing. 1 4 . . . Wb5 After 1 4 ... Wa5 1 5 .dxe5 Wxe5 1 6.'1Wd3! �g8 1 7.�d4+- White will get a super-strong pawn on e6. 1 5 .fxe6t 1 5 .'1Wh5 t �g8 1 6.E!ab l ( 1 6.fxe6? g6!) 16 . . . '1Wc4 1 7.dxe5 Wxc3 1 8 .E!f3 '1Wxe5 1 9.l:'!xb7 is also dangerous for Black, although I did not find a forced win for White. 1 5 . . . litg6 After 1 5 . . . �g8 1 6.'1Wxb5 cxb5 1 7.dxe5 Black has almost no chance.

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. lll xe5 This seems to be the best defensive try, although Black is still in trouble.

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1 6.Wf2 �h7 1 7.l:'!ab l ttJ g4 1 8.Wh4 We2 1 9.l:'!be l '1Wxc2 20 .'1Wxg4 '1Wg6 2 1 .'1Wxg6t �xg6 22.E!fl l:'!e8 23.l:'!xb7 l:'!xe6 24.�f2 White wins at least a pawn for nothing. 1 4.fxe6t

The Magic of Youth

272

Another option was 1 4 .1Mfh5t cJle7 1 5 .fice6 cJlxe6 l 6.1Mf f7t d6 1 7.gb 1 1Mfxb 1 1 8 .i,a3t c7 1 9_gxb 1 reaching the same position as in the game. 1 4 ... �xe6 s 7 6

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15.�b l ! ! This i s vintage Tal! He would go o n to become famous for such moves. Before playing it, he would have needed to calculate roughly a dozen moves in advance and judge the ensuing position correctly.

1 5 .i,f4 and 1 5 .i,e3 ! ? both offer White the better chances, but neither option is anywhere near as convincing or as beautiful as Tal's move. 1 5 ... \Wxb l Other moves were no better:

1 5 . . . 1M!a6 1 6.1Mfg4t d6 (After 1 6 . . . e7 1 7.dxe5 b6 1 8 .e6 ltJ f6 1 9.1Mfg6 White's attack breaks through.) 1 7.i,f4! exf4 ( 1 7 . . . b 5 1 8.dxe5t+-) 1 8 .1Mfxf4t e7 1 9 .1Mfc7 White wins. 1 5 . . .1Mfc7 1 6.i,a3! ( 1 6.i,f4 b5 1 7.gbe l ge8 1 8 .1Mfh5 i,d6 1 9 .dxe5 wins j ust as easily, but the text move is more eye-catching.)

1 6 ... �d6 1 6 . . . cJJ e 7 1 7.i,a3t ds puts the black king in relative safety, but it costs him too many pawns. 1 8 .gxb l i,xa3 1 9 .gxb7 gc8 20.�xa7 i,d6 2 1 .1Mff7 gc7 22.gaSt gc8 23.gxcSt �xc8 24.1Mlxg7 ms 25.1Mfxh6 Black has hung on to a rook, bishop and knight against a queen, but White is winning thanks to his passed pawns. 1 7.i!.a3t �c7 1 8.�xb l i!.xa3 Black has a material advantage, with a rook, bishop and knight versus a queen. However,

1 956

Mikhail Tai - Vladimir Simagin

his pieces lack harmony and his king remains under fire.

273

25.:5el t! Tal's move does the trick, although there was an equally good alternative: 25 .'1We6! �c5 t 26.lt7h l Ei:heS 27.Ei:e l t �e3 28.'1Wh3 4:l c4 29.'1Wd7 Black loses the knight. 2s ... @fs

20.Wxb7t @d6 2 1 .dxeSt! Tai opens the position around Black's king. 21. tll xeS 22.:5dl t @e6 The weary king sets off on another mini­ expedition of the central squares. ..

26 ... @f6 Black cannot avoid losing material, for instance 26 . . . lt7g6 27.ffxe5 or 26 . . . 4:l xg4 27.'1We6t . 27.Ei:fl t @g6 28.Wf e6t @h7 The king finally finds safety, but Black has paid a heavy price in giving up his knight.

There was no way of avoiding the material loss, as 28 . . . �f6 would have been met by 29.'1Wf5 t lt7f7 30.'1Wxe5 . 29.WfxeS The position should be a relatively straightforward win for White. The o nly complicating factor is the slightly exposed position of the white king.

The Magic of Youth

274

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3 8 .\Wg l ! The queen temporarily retreats to a passive position to deal with the mating threats. 38 . . . Bee3 38 . . .Bxc3 39.\Wf2 Bee3 (39 . . . Be5 40.a4 Ei:d5 4 1 .\Wf4 Ei:dc5 42.a5 +-) 40.\Wf5 t \t>g7 4 1 .g5! hxg5 t 42.�xg5 Ei:c4 (42 . . . Bf3 43 .IWd?t \t>f8 44.\t>g6 Ei'.ce3 45 .\Wxc6+-) 43.IWd?t @fs 44.\t>g6 Black gets checkmated. 39.1Wg2 White's king and queen are paralysed but the a-pawn is free to run. away the pawn was gloomy for Black as well: 36 . . . B8e7 37.\Wxc6 Ei:f7! Psakhis found this strong move. (37 . . . Be2 38 .h3 Bxc2 39.�d6 Beel 40.c4 White should win without any special problems.) 38 .\Wc8 Be2 (38 . . . Ei:ff3 39.g5 hxg5 t 40.�xg5 Ei:f7 White has good winning chances.) 39.h3 Be3 40.c4 Ei:ff3 41 .�d?t White should win. Giving

Much more challenging was: 36 �f3! Tai mentions that Simagin missed an opportunity to draw. I am not sure if this was correct, but this move would certainly have made White's task a lot more difficult. ...

37.�xa7t

After 37.\Wd4t @f7! 3 8 . c4 Bee3 39.\Wd7t ltig6 40.\Wxc6t \t>g7 White can win the queenside pawns, but afterwards he has no more than a perpetual check. 37 . ltig6 ..

276

The Magic of Youth

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I will break off the analysis here. After checking some lines with a computer, I am still not entirely sure of the final evaluation. The two main paths are 43 .g5 !:'1g6 44.c4 and 43 .iWe2 E1ff3 44.\We?t g6; in both cases White is close to winning but Black may (or may not) be able to hang on.

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37 ... g6 38.®'a8 f6 Simagin tries to create threats against Tal's king, but the plan is too slow.

This game was well publicized. Grandmaster Bondarevsky analysed it in the tournament bulletin in such a way that generated an angry objecting letter from Simagin. Regardless of that controversy, chess fans were starting to get acquainted with the young talent from Riga and the way he could terrorize his opponents.

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37.iMfxa?t Now the passed a-pawn will play a vital role. Black's rooks are overloaded, and will not be able to restrain the pawn while also defending their king.

39.a4 eS 40.aS dS

From playing through Tal's games, it looks as though his tournament strategy was to play

1 956

Mikhail Tal - Alexander Tolush

277

sharply throughout, even with the black pieces. In the fourth round he was slightly worse in the Benoni against Boleslavsky, but managed to draw. In the next game he was slightly better against

Kholmov, but the latter defended well and drew. In the next game Tal lost against Boris Spassky who was in sparkling form in this whole tournament. In the seventh round Tal sacrificed a piece for virtually nothing against Bannik. He was hopelessly lost for most of the game, but eventually his opponent spoiled the win and somehow ended up losing. Tal's luck continued in the next game as Byvshev allowed him to salvage a perpetual check from what should have been a lost position. Koblencs remembers an interesting story about Tal's next game. The day before the game, Tal's

opponent, Mark Taimanov, a long-time friend of Koblencs, asked him "Why do you praise your pupil Misha?" He also told his wife to come and watch the game to see him teach the young pretender a lesson. The game started according to plan for the experienced grandmaster, who started to outplay Tal, but then he blundered a piece for two pawns. At that point, about an hour into the game, Taimanov left the room and telephoned his wife to tell her not to come to the playing hall after all ! He eventually managed to save an unpleasant endgame. In the

tenth round Tal drew a worse position in the Benoni, then he turned around a worse

endgame to defeat Lisitsin. He then held a marathon game against Korchnoi after defending with rook against rook and bishop. Tal followed with hard-fought draws against Polugaevsky and Averbakh, before winning a back-and-forth battle against Ragozin. Then in the penultimate round he lost to Zukharov, who prepared well and converted his advantage. In the final round Tal faced Alexander Tolush, who was not in his best form but was still a fine attacking player. Tolush played thirty-three games against the world champions; he won four of them, drew ten and lost nineteen. In 1 950 he finished equal second in the Soviet Championship, and in 1 9 53 he won a tournament in Bucharest ahead of Petrosian, Smyslov, Spassky, Boleslavsky and Szabo. Tolush was also the trainer of Spassky, one ofTal's biggest rivals at the time. The qualification system of the Soviet Championship meant that, by finishing at a certain level in the final rankings, a player could pre-qualify to one of the later qualification stages, or even straight to next year's final. Ir is quite possible that Tal needed to win to elevate himself into one of the desired qualifying spots.

Mikhail Tal - Alexander Tolush Soviet Championship Final, Leningrad

1 956

l.e4 c5 2.tll f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.tll xd4 tll f6 5.tll c3 a6 6.i.gS e6 7.f4 'Wb6 I found no previous games ofTolush in which he played the Najdorf, so he probably prepared the system and especially the Poisoned Pawn variation to use against Tal (although, as you will see in some of the following notes, he used it in several future outings) .

278

The Magic of Youth

Let me offer some brief background information about the history of Black's opening system. At the time of the game, 7 . . . 1Wb6 was a recent invention, having been introduced in 1 9 54 by Bronstein. According to the database, the present game was only the third in which White proceeded to sacrifice the b2-pawn. Interestingly, some Soviet chess books attached a question mark to the last move and considered the line of play chosen by Tai to be the refutation. 8.'11Nd2 '11Nxb2 9.:gbl White's other option is: 9 . ctJ b3 This had been tried in 1 9 5 5 by Nezhmetdinov, in a game that took place in Riga. It would be interesting to know if Tal was familiar with the game, or if he was present at the post mortem. 9 . . . 1Wa3 1 0.i,xf6 gxf6 l l .i,e2 Tal scored two quick victories from this position in 1 973:

9 '11N a3 •••

a) l l . . . ctJ c6 1 2.0-0 i,d7 1 3 .i,h5 i,g7 1 4 .Ei'.f3 0-0 1 5 .l'l:afl ctJ a5 1 6.l'l:h3 ctJ xb3 1 7.axb3 l'l:ac8 1 8 .r;f;ih l f5 1 9 .exf5 \Wb4

b) l 1 . . .h5 1 2.0-0 ctJ c6 1 3 . ctJ b l 1Wa4 1 4 . c4 1Wb4 1 5 .1We3 i,g7 1 6.a3 1Wa4 1 7.IWg3 r;f;ifs

1 0.eS This move has gone in and out of fashion. Fischer scored some convincing wins against it in the sixties, after which it virtually went dormant, but Radjabov resurrected it in 2006, and at the time of writing it remains a topical choice at the highest levels. Tai had probably done some work on it, but he could not have anticipated it before this game. 1 0.f5 has been the most popular move. One of Tal's subsequent games continued: 1 0 . . . tt:J c6 l l .fxe6 fxe6 1 2.ctJxc6 bxc6 1 3.e5 tt:J d5 1 4.tt:Jxd5 cxd5 1 5 .i,e2 dxe5 1 6.0-0 i,c5 t 1 7.r;f;ihl l'l:f8

1 956

279

Mikhail Tai - Alexander Tolush

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1 7.Wlc3! !d7 1 8.tll c5 !xc5 1 9 .Wlxc5 lll c6 20.:8'.d l :8'.g8 2 1 .!f3 Tai obtained good attacking chances and eventually prevailed in Tai - Szekely, Tallinn 1 983. Tai also played 1 O.!e2 in a few games: IO t/J bd7 1 1 .0-0 !e7 1 2.e5 dxe5 1 3 .fxe5 li'lxe5 l 4. !xf6 and now: ...

\!ids 18.lll xf6 lll d 7 1 9 .lll x d7 !xd7 20.:8'.xb7

a) !4 . . ixf6 l 5 .:8'.xf6 gxf6 1 6 .tll e4 Wle7 l 7.Wlf4 .

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b) 14 . gxf6 1 5 .tll e4 f5 1 6.:8'.b3 Wla4 . .

There was only one existing game before the present encounter took place. It was a blitzkrieg win by Keres: 1 O . . . lll fd7?! l l .f5 tll x e5 l 2.fxe6 fxe6 1 3 .!e2 tll bc6 1 4.lll xc6 bxc6 1 5 . tll e 4 d5 1 6.0-0 Wla4 1 7.ih5t rj;id7 1 8 .:8'.xf8 1-0 Keres - Fuderer, Gothenburg 1 95 5 . It is possible that Tai analysed the line with Keres. 1 1 .fxeS ttJ fd7 12.ttJe4!

280

The Magic of Youth

1 2.�c4 is the other main line, but it is considered inferior to the move chosen by Tal. 1 2 ...Wfxa2 To his credit, Tolush refused to abandon the present line and two years later he introduced the improvement 1 2 . . . h6!, which is still regarded as the main line today. The game continued: 1 3 .�h4 �xa2 1 4.B:b3 (Nowadays 14.B:d l ! is known to be stronger; Nataf was the first to play this move in 2005, and Radjabov's win over Karjakin the following year made it more popular.) 1 4 . . . �a l t 1 5 . f2 �a4 l 6.�b 5 axb5 l 7.tlixb 5 �c5 t l 8.ctJxc5 �xh4t 1 9.g3 �d8 20.�d6 tli xc5 2 1 .ctJ c7t �xc7 22.�xc7 tli ba6 Tolush emerged with a clearly winning position and scored a fine victory in Korchnoi - Tolush, Riga 1 95 8 . 1 3.�b3 Wf al t 1 4.@f2 Wf a4

Several commentators pointed out that 1 5 .ctJxe6! is stronger, when the main line continues: 1 5 . . . fx:e6 1 6. tli d6t �xd6 l 7.�xd6 B:fSt 1 8. g3 tli f6 1 9.exf6 gxf6

1 5 ... axbS Black has no choice but to accept the offer. 1 6.ctJxbS f6 17.exf6 The game has reached a pivotal moment where Black has three main options. To choose between them over the board requires not j ust calculation but also instinct, as it would be virtually impossible for a human player to foresee the exact consequences of each candidate move.

1 956

Mikhail Tal

17 ... cuxf6 Tolush improved with this move a year after his loss to Tai, before finding a way to improve five moves earlier with 12 . . . h6! in his later game against Korchnoi, as referenced in the notes above. 18.lll xf6t After 1 8 . cu bd6t? ii.xd6 1 9 .CU xd6t We7 20.l"le l 1Mfa7t 2 1 . Wg3 1Mlc5 Black had a decisive advantage in Listengarten - Tolush, Yerevan 1 956. 1 s . gxf6 1 9 .lUc7t In the event of l 9.Ji.xf6 ilc5 t 20.We l 1Mle4t 2 1 .Wd l e5 Black gets active. 1 9 . . �f7 .

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20.tll xaS ?! ilc5t 2 1 .ii.e3 ii.xe3t 22.1Mfxe3 \Wxa8 23 .1Mf c5 CU d7 24.1M/h5t We7 Black is better. 20 . . ic5t 2 1 .W e l 1Mfe4t 22.Wdl e5 23.CUxaS ig4t! 24.Wcl Wxf6 25 .1Mlh6t 1Mlg6 26.l"lfl t l!ie6 27.1Mf d2 The position is unclear, as Kasparov pointed .

out. Even better is: 17 . . �xe4! 1 8. fXg7 tlc5 t 1 9 .Wg3 .

For a while it was believed that Black was in trouble, but modern analysis engines have shown how to escape.

-

Alexander Tolush

28 1

1 9 . . . l"lgS! Tal mentioned the line 1 9 . . . 1Mfe5t 20.Wh3 1Mfxg7 2 l .CU c7t fl Wb l t 34.'tt> g2 We4t 3 5 .'tt> g l Wb l t 36.Wfl Wxb2 37.a4 White should win with his extra pawn. 3 1 .E1 a8t Tai creates play against Black's king. 3 I .. .@h7 32.E1d8

35 ... '1Wxd3t 36.@xd3 @g6 37.@e4 The primitive 37.b4 does the trick as well: 37 . . . 'tt> f5 38.a4 'tt> e 5 39.b5 axb5 40.axbS md5 4 l .b6 'tt> c6 42. 'tt> e 4 'tt> x b6 43. 'tt> e 5 �c5 44.mf6 md5 4 5 .'tt> xf7 White wins the race. 37 ... @f6 38.g4 White can win in any way he chooses, but Tai decides to stop Black from creating a passed pawn.

32 . . . g4 does not really help, as after 3 3 .:r::I: d4 h5 34.8d5 it is Black's king that is more likely to become vulnerable. Improving the queen with 32 . . .Wf5 allows 33 .Wd3 Wxd3 34.Bxd3 with a winning rook endgame, for instance 34 . . . a5 3 5 .b4 a4 36.:r::I: f3 and White will soon create a passed pawn with the rook behind it.

1 956

Egor Chukaev - Mikhail Tai

3 8. . . We6 39.h4 h S 40.gxhS fSt 4I .'it>d4 'i±>f6 42.a4 g4 43.hS

Finally Black resigned. Tal's opening play was not especially convincing, but when his

301

two world champions, losing all four times. Tai had already beaten him once in 1 9 5 5 . We will join the game at a crucial moment in the early middlegame.

opponent went wrong, Tai exploited it nicely. 1-0 In the next round Tai uncharacteristically spoiled a winning position with a huge attack, but then he scored convincing wins over Georgadze and Khalilbeili. There followed a hard -fought draw against Sakharov.

In the penultimate round Tai had White against Krogius, a strong grandmaster who stood half a point above him, making it a vital game in the battle for qualification to the final. Tai went wild in the opening but Krogius was a bit too cautious and went for an equal endgame. Tai persevered and managed to grind out an extremely important win to keep his qualifying hopes alive. Krogius was kind enough to provide a few comments on Tai:

:AME.

Egor Chukaev - Mikhail Tal Tbilisi

1 956

1 .d4 ll'i f6 2.c4 g6 3.ll'ic3 !g7 4.e4 d 6 s.!e2 0-0 6.!gS cS 7.dS e6 8.'Wd2 exdS 9.exdS 'Wb6 10.ll'if3 !fS 1 1 .ll'ih4 ll'i e4 12.ll'ixe4 !xe4

"I always felt great sympathy for Tai. Most chess players are somewhat egoist and concentrate on themselves, but Tai did not talk too much about himself but rather listened to others. For him money

meant very little; he was always ready to give it away and help others. He treated everybody equally - he would talk to weaker players just the same as to a grandmaster. I have known all the world champions from Euwe to Kasparov fairly well, and for me he was the nicest and the most intelligent of them. Whenever I asked him something, he always kept' his word and did it in time." In the last round Tai faced Chukaev. The battle for qualification was still extremely tight, and Tai needed to win to be sure of achieving his objective. Chukaev played four games against

The critical continuation is: l 3.f3! h6! ( 1 3 . . . 1Wxb2 1 4 .l'k l is better for White.) 1 4.�xh6 (After 1 4.�e3 1Wxb2 1 5 .1kl 1Wf6! l 6.�f2 �f5 l 7.ctJxf5 1Wxf5 Black has won a pawn while avoiding any damage to his pawn structure.) 1 4 . . . �xh6 1 5 .1Wxh6 1Wxb2 1 6.0-0 �c2 Black saves the bishop and the position is balanced.

The Magic of Youth

302

20 ... a5! Planning to soften the long diagonal.

1 4.f3 White may as well proceed with his plan, as there is no way of defending the queenside. 14 ... lli b4! 1 5.fxe4 llixa2t l 6.mb1 1 6. f8!, inte n ding to give back the pawn and press with the two bishops. White can probably hold, but it will not be easy.

.

2 1 ...�xeS 22.dxeS gd8

316

Th e Magic of Youth

23.b4? Keres tries to solve his problems too quickly. He should have settled for 23 .�c2 �xc2 (23 . . . �b5 24.�d l ) 24.�xc2 with a slightly inferior but still defensible position.

It must be said that White was already in deep trouble. For instance, even after the more solid 32.l"\b2 l"1c4 33 .�b6, Black can play 33 .. .f4 34. Wf2 Wg6 intending to bring the king to f5, when his advantage should be enough to win.

23 ...�c6! Tal simplifies to a pawn-up ending.

32 ... ci>g6 33.E:b4 h6

24.f3 �xd3 25.\Wxd3 E:xd3 26.bxaS E:xa3 27.�xa7 E:xaS Despite the opposite-coloured bishops, Black has good winning chances. Both of his pieces are more active than their white counterparts, and White's kingside is also slightly weak. 28.�d4

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34.E:b2 Exchanging the rook does not h elp, but waiting also gave no real hope, for instance: 34.�b6 'it> h5 3 5 .Wfl �d5 36.Eld4 (36.g4t fxg4 37.l"1xg4 �xf3 38.l"1xg7 Wxh4 Black wins a second pawn.) 36 . . . g5 37.hxg5 hxg5 38.�a7 g4 39.fxg4t fxg4 40.g3 Bc3 The second pawn falls. 34 ... E:xb2 34 . . . 8c4 3 5 .�f2 f4 is also good enough, but Tai has spotted a nice winning idea. 29.E:h l E:d2 30.�c3 E:c2 3 1 .�d4 f7 Tal prepares a general advance on the kingside. 32.h4?! Keres tries to stop what is coming, but the medicine is worse than the disease as the h-pawn soon falls.

35.�xh2 hs 36.�a3 xh4 37.�fS? White's only chance was to advance his king and try to draw the opposite-coloured bishop endgame two pawns down. I am fairly certain that Black should be winning, but a certain level of technical accuracy would still be required. 37 ... g3 38.�xg7 hS 39.�h6

1 95 7

Mikhail Tal

-

Lev Aronin

Mikhail Tal Lev Aronin -

Soviet Championship Final, Moscow

317

1 957

1 .d4 dS 2.c4 e6 3.tDc3 cS 4.e3 tlJ f6 S.lDf3 tb c6 6.a3 �d6 7.dxcS �xcS 8.b4 �d6 9.�b2 0-0 10.'Wc2 lD eS Tal's next move leaves no doubt as to his aggressive intentions.

40.gxf3 @xf3 4 1 .@fl bS 42.�d2 h4 43.�b4 h3 44.@gl @ ez

0-1

This victory not only meant that Tai had defeated one of the strongest players in the world (and, arguably, of all time) , but it also pushed him back into equal first place alongside Bronstein. They were closely followed by Tolush, who was playing the tournament of his life and would soon catch up with them. In the next round Tai faced Aronin, who played twenty-seven games against the world

champions. He won five of them, drew fourteen and lost eight. Curiously, he had an excellent record against Petrosian, with three wins, three draws and no defeats. He also scored well against Tai: prior to this game he had beaten him once, and later he would defeat him once again, Kasparov has analysed the following game in detail. I will include light comments until we reach the most interesting phase.

318

The Magic of Youth

Simply recapturing on c4 (with either the queen or the bishop) gives White a clear advantage, but Tal cannot resist getting closer to his opponent's king. 20 ... cxd3 2 1 .'Wxd3 eS 22.lbgS A tempting alternative is 22 .iWe4!? g6 23.ghg l as analysed by Kasparov. 22 ... g6 23.h4!? 23 .Ei:hg l !? �e6 24.h4 is mentioned by Kasparov, but Tal has come up with a fantastic idea, albeit not a fully correct one in the absolute sense. 23 ... ibfS! 24.e4?! ibg4! 26.hxg6 l':!xd3 27.l':!xd3

2S ... !!ad8? The first time these two players faced each other, Tal attacked violently but Aronin defended well and managed to win. This time, however, he fails to find the best defence.

Black should have attacked the queen with the other rook: 25 . . . Ei:edS ! 26.hxg6 Ei:xd3 (26 . . . hxg6?? allows the well-known tactical motif 27.1Mfxd8 Ei:xd8 28 .Ei:xdS 1Mfxd8 29.Ei:hSt! winning.)

28.l':!h7 !!cs It is a practical decision to go after the f6pawn without giving up material. Nevertheless, 28 . . . Ei:e6!? is also possible. Play continues 29.lll xe6 �xe6 30.Ei:g7t �h8 3 Uldl �h3 32.Ei:h l iWcS 33.Ei:xf7 and White has enough play to draw, as pointed out by Kasparov.

Mikhail Tal

1 957 29.f3 gc6

a

-

Alexander Tolush

319

In the penultimate round Tal was Black against Kholmov, who needed to score one­ and-a-half points from his last two games to achieve his final grandmaster norm. Tal firmly held, and later recalled that, when he offered a draw in a dead drawn position, Kholmov thought for an hour before accepting it. Tal asked Kholmov what he was thinking about, to which Kholmov replied: " How to beat Bronstein in the last round." (Their game ended in a draw, although Kholmov did go on to become a grandmaster in 1 960.) b

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30.gxf7 Tal makes a correct decision to simplify to a

drawn rook endgame. There was no choice, as 30.fXg4? Elxf6 3 1 .Eldh3 m2t 32,cJ;ib3 1Mfd6 is winning for Black. 30 .. .1M/xf7 3 1 .�xf7 �xf7 32.fxg4 �xf6 33,gd7 E:b6 34.�c3 �g5 35.a4 a6 36.�c4

�xg4 1/z-1/2

This game was awarded the brilliancy prize,

and Euwe even went as far as to call it this most

Tal entered the final round in equal first place with thirteen points, alongside Bronstein and Tolush, who had continued his fine run of form. Keres was also in contention, sitting just half a point behind the leaders. It was fitting that Tal's opponent in the final round was Tolush. Tal recalls that he was happy that Tolush was a fighting player who would not shy away from a sharp battle. Before the game, there was such huge interest in the game that Tal and Koblencs could hardly enter the building. Tal recalls that he smiled and remarked that it was a sign of good luck, before noticing that one of his coat buttons had fallen off.

brilliant draw ever. I personally think this is an exaggeration, but it was a remarkable game all the same. Tal would later comment: "I very much like receiving brilliancy prizes as a co-author. There have been four such games in my career, but this was the first, and it afforded me the greatest pleasure." In the eighteenth round Tal defeated Gurgenidze in a game that featured some nice sacrifices; it can be found on page 336 in the notes to the Averbakh - Tal game in the next chapter. In the next round Tal got a small advantage against Tarasov, but the latter defended well and held the draw.

Mikhail Tal - Alexander Tolush

Soviet Championship Final, Moscow I 957

l .c4 I believe Tal chose this move to bypass the Nimzo-Indian, which was Tolush's main weapon against l .d4. l . .. � f6 2.�c3 g6 I imagine that Tal was planning to meet 2 . . e6 with 3.e4, the sharp Mikenas variation. .

3.e4 d6 4.d4 �g7 5.f3 e5

320

The Magic of Youth

Tal and Koblencs probably anticipated the possibility of this move order, as Tolush had played it a few times already. When his opponents blocked the centre with d4-d5, Tolush always responded by moving the knight from f6 and advancing with .. .f5 . I believe Tal's set-up in the game was chosen specifically to counter this plan.

6.'Llge2 'Ll bd7 7.igS! Since Black no longer has the option of . . . lli c6, there is no special reason for the bishop to guard the d4-square. 7 ... c6 8.�d2 0-0

10.g4! Tal prevents his opponent from gammg space on the kingside, while also preparing his own attack.

10 ... a6 l l .Cll g3!? The move betrays Tal's instinct. Positional players might be more inclined to play on the queenside with a2-a3, b2-b4 and ctJ c l -d3. Many would also consider l l .a4 intending to establish a queenside clamp with a pawn on a4 and knight on a4, followed by breaking things open with b2-b4. 1 1 ...E:e8 12.h4 �aS 13.ih6 'Ll f8 Tolush brings the knight t o defend the king.

9.dS! Having made a few noncommittal developing moves, Tai gains space at a time when it will be harder for Black to arrange . . . f5 . 9 ... cS? Tolush commits a strategic blunder. Now he will be left in a passive position with no real hope of counterplay. I believe it was the immense pressure of the occasion that caused him to make such a poor decision. Tolush was forty-seven years old at the time, and must have been aware that this would be his only chance to be Soviet Champion. True, Tal also deserves credit for playing the opening smartly.

1 S.id3 bS 1 6.0-0-0 Tai must have sensed he had a golden opportunity after his opponent played the opening like an amateur. On the last move Tolush offered a pawn sacrifice; it was not fully sound, but taking the pawn would have allowed Black some activity on the q ueenside. Tal instead decides to ignore it and prepare his own attack on the kingside.

Mikhail Tai - Alexander Tolush

1 9 57

16 . . bxc4 17.ib l .

1 7.ixc4 gives White a clear advantage as well, but Tal prefers to keep the queenside closed while keeping the bishop's sights set on the kingside. 17. . .ihs 1 s.E:dg1 E:bs

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This can hardly be called a sacrifice, as taking the knight would be suicidal. However, it is important to see how the knight may set up other attacking possibilities in the event that Black ignores it. It is also worth pointing out that White can always retreat the knight to e3 to pick up the c4-pawn if the position demands it. 19 ... tli6d7

Tolush himself was a superb attacking player, and he probably saw a lot of Tal's tactical possibilities. Another logical defensive try is: 19 8b7 Intending to defend along the seventh rank. White must play forcefully to breach the defence. 20.ixf8! 20.d6 50.Vif e7t @c6 5 1 .lt>h3! and Black has no defence.) 46.Vif dSt Vife7 47.�xd5 Vif d6t The rook ending is a dead draw, as Kasparov points out. 4S.'1Wd6t '1We6

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4 1 .. .\Wfs 42.'\Wd6t! Correctly luring the queen to the slightly inferior e6-square. The immediate 42.'1Wg3 Ei:a6 (42 . . . h5?? 43.f4+-) 43.h4 h5 44.'\Wc7 Vif e6 enables Black to keep his position together. 42 ...'\We6 43.'1Wg3 Threatening an unpleasant check on h4. 43 ...'1We3 44.h4! Spassky takes away a square from Tal's king while providing some breathing room for his own. 44 .. J'�e2 Ta! attaches an exclamation mark to this move, but Kasparov points out that there was a better alternative: 44 . . . Ei:a6! Intending to bring the rook to e6. 45.Vif c7 (45 .Vifb8 h5 46.ViffS Vif e l defends.)

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46.'\Wf4t! This was the sealed move. Koblencs calls the ensuing session of adjournment analysis the most difficult one he ever had with Ta!. The last move was easy to anticipate, but their subsequent analysis soon became problematic because Spassky had several possible plans. In an article in Shaxmati v Rossii magazine, Averbakh reveals that Tal and Koblencs asked him to lend his assistance in the adjournment analysis. Averbakh agreed, since it was very much in his interest to help Tal avoid defeat. (Averbakh was in sole fourth place, half a point ahead of Spassky. Thus, if Spassky won, he would leapfrog over Averbakh and take his qualification spot in the zonal tournament; however, if the game was drawn, Averbakh and Spassky would contest a playoff to decide who would qualify.)

Ta!, Koblencs and Averbakh analysed deeply

1 958

into the night. A t around half past four in the morning, Tal's mother came to the room, where she handed Misha a pot of yoghurt and suggested that he get some sleep. Both Koblencs and Averbakh agreed, and half an hour later Koblencs told his student to go and sleep for three hours. Koblencs and Averbakh continued analysing, without reaching a definite conclusion. Regardless of the absolute evaluation, they were fully aware of how unpleasant it could be to defend such a position. The game was resumed at 9am. Tai recalls that it was hard to get into the tournament hall as there were so many spectators. He says that on the way to the venue he felt relaxed, as analysis had convinced him that there was no direct win for White, but as he was entering the building some doubts came into his mind. However, when he reached the board, Tai may have gained some confidence from Spassky's appearance, as he looked as though he had barely slept. Meanwhile, Averbakh went for a walk on the streets of the Latvian capital as he could not stand the tension at the playing hall. 46 \WfS 47.Wfh6 ...

The queen causes more problems from the kingside. 47 . @e7 48.\Wfst @f6 49.1Wg7t @e7 ..

349

Boris Spassky - Mikhail Tal

SOJ�a8! Koblencs remarks: "How unpleasant it is when the king is standing in the fire of heavy pieces. That is the reason why Tai was sitting gloomily at the table." Let me remind you that Petrosian's draw in the final round meant that he stood half a point ahead of Tai, in sole first place. Tal says that, during the morning session of play, he noticed Petrosian among the spectators wearing a new suit, in anticipation of being crowned Soviet Champion. so ... \Wd7 Tai says that all his moves were forced, b ut I think 50 . . . \Wf4 t!? is a valid alternative. Spassky assesses 5 1 .mh3 1Wf5 t 52.mg3 as bad for Black, but after 52 . . . \Wd7!? I do not see a win. The main line of my analysis continues: 53 .Wfst (53 .Whs h5) 53 . . . mf6 54.Whst mf5

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5 5 .\WbS (After 5 5 .'.ga6 1Mf c7t 56.mh3 @f4!! 57.\Wf6t \t> e3 the black king finds shelter in a remarkable way.) 55 . . . m f6 56.\Wf4t mg? 57.h5 :ges 5 8 .:gxeS 1Wxe8 59 .h6t mgS and Black should be able to hold. 5 1 .W/fst @f6 52.:Ba6t Going after the d-pawn is less dangerous. An illustrative line is: 52.:gds ? 1Wc7t 53.mh3 '.ge l 54.'.gd6t \t> f5 5 5 .'.gxd5t me6 5 6.\Wds :gh 1 t 57.mg4 :gxh4t! 5 S .mxh4 1Wh2t 59.mg4 1Wxg2t 60.mf4 1Wd2t= Black secures a perpetual, as pointed out by Kasparov.

350

The Magic of Youth

52 ... E1e6 53.1Wh8t We7 S4.E1a8 The general assessment has remained about the same; Tal's king has not been caught, but he also lacks a way to simplify and release the pressure. S4 ... E1el Kasparov suggests 54 ... h5, but after the surprising 5 5 .g3 it is not easy for Black to defend. One possible line is 5 5 . . . Ei:c6 5 6.'1We5 t Ei:e6 57.'1Wg5t Ei:f6 58.Ei:a6 '\Wf5 5 9 .Ei:xf6 '1Wxf6 60.'1Wxd5 with an extra pawn for White. Perhaps Black can hold this endgame, but it will not be pleasant. SS.Wg3 Another idea is 5 5 . f4, when Black has a narrow way to stay in the game: 5 5 . . . h5 56.'1Wf8 t h8 24.8xa8 8xa8 25.h4 lli ba4 26.hS h6 27.lli h4 llixb2

Mikhail Tal

-

Oscar Panno

367

Fischer played differently: l 1 .dxe5 llixe5 1 2.llixe5 dxe5 1 3.iWhS iWd6 1 4 .lli d2 ile6 1 5 .lli f3 ilxb3 1 6.axb3 lli d7 1 7.b4 8fd8 1 8 .ilgS f6 1 9.ile3 \We6 20.8'.ed l c5 2 1 .lli h4 ilf8 22.lli f5 g6 23.\Wg4 lt>f7 24.lli h6t ilxh6 25 .\Wxe6t xe6 26.ilxh6 cxb4 27.cxb4 8dc8 28 .ile3 8c4 29.8d2 8xb4 30.Bad l lli f8 3 l .8d6t \t>f7 32.8b6 8xb2 33.8dd6 a5 34.8b7t g8 3 5 .8xf6 8e8 36.8ff7 lli e6 37.8xh7 a4 38.8a7 Ba8

The following year, Tal chose a different path with White: l 1 .lli bd2 exd4 1 2.cxd4 d5 1 3 .ilc2 ile6 1 4.e5 \Wd7 1 5 .llib3 lli a4 1 6.ilg5 lli b4 1 7.ilxe7 \Wxe7 1 8.iWb l h6 1 9 .Bcl Bac8

1 1 .ile3 Tai repeats a move he had used previously against Antoshin.

The Magic of Youth

368

1 1 ...exd4 A month later, Tai faced a different move: 1 1 . . .l"lbS 1 2.dxe5 lll x e5 1 3.lll x e5 dxe5 1 4 .'\Wh5 '\W d6 Black successfully equalized from the opening, but Tai managed to outplay his opponent and win in Tai - Darga, Munich (ol) 1 95 8 .

1 5 .lll xeS lll bc4 Ovoretsky's suggestion of 1 5 . . . �f6 1 6.lll c3 l/J bc4 looks good enough to keep the position balanced.

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1 4.eS!? Tai sharpens the position. This aggressive move has never been repeated, even though Tai attaches an exclamation mark to it in his annotations. 1 4.b3 and 1 4 .lll c3 have been played in a few subsequent games, and 1 4 . '\W d3 is also possible. 14 ... dxeS! Panno finds the most accurate continuation, avoiding l 4 . . . cxd4 l 5 .�xd4 or l 4 . . . lll ac4 1 5 .exd6 �xd6 1 6.�g5 . However, he paid a heavy price as his last move cost him an hour on the clock. Perhaps he was intimidated by Tal's reputation as a fearsome tactician, which caused him to spend an inordinate amount of time checking variations.

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1 6.®'d3 1 6. '\W h5 leads to no more than a draw after: l 6 . . . g6 ( 1 6 . . . f5 is also playable.) l 7.lll xg6 fxg6 1 8 .�xg6 hxg6 1 9.'1Wxg6t �h8 White must take a perpetual check, as 20.�h6? E1g8 2 1 . '\Wh5 '\W e8! wins for Black. 1 6 ... fS Panno's move is okay, but it does expose Black's king slightly.

The more natural way to defend against mate IS:

1 6 . . . g6 l 7.�h6 Panno probably did not want to allow the bishop to develop with tempo, but Black has more than one satisfactory reply. l 7 . . . lll x e5! ? 1 7 . . . l"le8 is perfectly playable, but i t is tempting to sacrifice the exchange. l 7 . . . cxd4!? is also promising, and after 1 8 .�xf8 �xf8 1 9. '\W f3 l"la7 Black has more than enough compensation for the exchange. 1 8 .l"lxe5 1 8 . dxe5 '1Wxd3 1 9.�xd3 l"ld8 is fi n e for Black.

1 95 8

1 8 . . . tLl c6 1 9 .ixfS ixf8 Kasparov likes Black's compensation here. 17.ih3 l 7.if4 is Dvoretsk:y's suggestion. Here 17 . . . ib7!? looks simplest. ( 1 7 . . . tLlxb2 and 1 7 . . . cxd4 are also playable.) 1 8 .dxc5 ( 1 8 .tLlxc4 12lxc4 1 9. tLl d2 tLlxd2 20.Wxd2 Wd5 2 1 .f3 ih4 is equal.) 1 8 . . . ixc5 1 9 . W g3 gc8 Black is in no way worse. 17 ... f4 Panno vacates the f5-square for the bishop. Tai writes that l 7 . . . ie6 l 8 . dxc5 wins a pawn,

but Black can still reach a decent position after 1 8 . . . tLlxb3 1 9.Wxb3 f4 20.icl gc8 .

Another playable continuation is: l 7 . . . tLlxb3 1 8 .Wxb3 (After 1 8 . tLl c6 Wd7 1 9 .tLlxe7t Wxe7 20.axb3 tLlxe3 2 1 .gxe3 Wd6 the position is balanced.) 1 8 . . . cxd4 1 9 .ixd4 ( 1 9 .tLl xc4 ie6!) 19 . . . Wxd4 20.tLlc6 Wxb2 Black is doing all right. 18.id2 lll xb3

Mikhail Tai - Oscar Panno

369

He was probably not inspired by 1 9.Wxb3 if6 20.tLla3, when Black has more than one decent continuation. 20 . . . ie6!? is the ambitious option. (If Black is looking for safety, then 20 . . . ixe5 2 l .gxe5 ie6 22.gxe6 tLlxd2 23.Wc3 Wxd4 24.Wxd4 cxd4 25.gd l b 4 leads t o a draw, as Kasparov points out.) 2 1 .tLlaxc4 (2 1 . tLl exc4 id5) 2 1 . . .bxc4 22.tLlxc4 gb8 23 .Wc2 Wd5 Black is rather active. 19 ... lll x al 20.lll xd8 ifS! 20 . . . ixdS 2 1 .dxc5 l'fa7 allows White to claim an edge after 22.c6 or 22. tLl c3 . 2 1 .Wf3 l'hxd8 22.�xe7 ixb l Koblencs recalls how some of the other players did not believe in Tal's position. Bronstein tried to console Koblencs, telling him not to be upset if Misha would lose today, and that he would get his revenge in the future. Simagin made the amusing comment that Panno had a warehouse full of pieces. Despite Black's material advantage, things are not so simple. His pieces are uncoordinated: the knight on al is out of play, and the one on c4 can be driven away at any moment. The g7-pawn is a target, and White's attacking aspirations are helped by the presence of opposite-coloured bishops.

370

The Magic of Youth

Panno captures the pawn and attacks the bishop. The d-pawn needed to be removed, otherwise White could have taken on c5 and obtained a dangerous passed pawn. 23 . . . cxd4? is worse: 24.b3 �g6 (24 . . . d3 is bad after 25 .'t.Wg4, as Tai points out.) 2 5 . bxc4 d3 26.'t.Wg3 d2 27.�xd2 gxd2 28 .'t.Wc3 g d l t 29.mh2 �f7 30.c5 White wins, as shown by Kasparov. 24.\Wg4! Tai finds the most venomous attacking move. Instead after 24.'t.Wg3 �g6 25 .�e5 .:1J xe5 26.'t.Wxe5 �f7 27.'t.Wxc5 White will have to work to equalize. 24 ...�g6 25.�e6t �f7 25 . . . mhs 26.�e5 .:1Jxe5 27.'t.Wxe5 ggS 28 .'t.Wxc5 ! (Dennis Monokroussos pointed out that White can force a draw with 28.gxg7.) 28 ... 4J c2 Black should be able to hold, but he still needs to take care as the a-pawn is weak. 26.�f5

26 . . . �g6? 27.gxg?t mxg7 28 .�h6t mxh6 29.'t.WxfSt mg5 30.'t.Wxc5t is a nice line that wins for White. 26 . . . gd5 ! was best, intending 27.'t.Wg4 h5! to divert the queen from the g7-pawn. 28.�g3 gd i t 29.mh2 4J d2 3o.1Wg5 4Jn t 3 i .mg1 h4 (3 1 . . . 4J e3t draws.) 32.\Wxh4 .:1J e3t 33.mh2 4J d5 Black is a bit better according to Kasparov. 27.b3 �g6

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28.Elxg?t! Tai avoids 28 .'t.We6t �f7 29.\Wf5 when the game is likely to end in a draw. Though I cannot be certain, I believe he probably saw this tactical shot in advance when thinking about his 1 9th move. 28 ... �xg7 29.�h6t! �xh6 30.'WxfSt \tig5 3 1 .bxc4 White takes back one of the enemy pieces. Black still has a lot of material against White's queen, but he must worry about his exposed king. 3 1 . .. bxc4 3 I . . .gxc4? 32.g3 is winning for White. 32.g3 Tal's move is natural and poses problems to the opponent, but it is not the most precise.

1 95 8

Mikhail Tai

32.f3! According to Kasparov, this move was recommended by Dvoretsky. 32 . . . j,f5 32 . . . c3? allows White to execute his primary threat: 33 .h4t! Wxh4 34.�h6t j,h5 35 .Wh2 gd2 36.�f6# 32. . .j,d3 33 .h4t Wg6 34.g4 h5 35 .�eSt Wg7 36.�xh5 White should win the race. 33 .Wf2!! Dvoretsky stopped here, saying that the idea is interesting. It turns out that he was being too modest, as modern computers show that White is just winning.

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Oscar Panno

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I t looks counterintuitive for White t o open up his own king, but he can live with it. 33 . . . Wh5 ! Tai gives 33 . . . Wg6 34.g4 h6 and remarks that there is no mate, but after 35 .�e7! ctJ e3 36.�xc5! g d l t 37.Wf2 ctJ d5 3 8 .�xc4 ctJ f6 39.�xa6 White has too many passed pawns. 34.�eSt j,g6 34 . . . Wh6 35 .g4! is winning. 35 .�e5 t wh6 36.g4 gd l t 37.Wf2 lLi d4 38.f5 gd2t 39. Wg3 gd3 t 4o.wf4 gf3t 4 1 . We4 gfl 4 1 . . .j,xf5t 42.gxf5 gxf5 43 .�g3 leaves Black with a tough task, as his king is loose.

wins. 34.Wg3 lLi e3 34 . . . c3 35 .h4t Wg6 36.h5t wins the bishop. 35 .h4t Wg6 36.h5t Wxh5 37.�est j,g6 38 .�xe3+White picks up the knight, and will soon win further material and/ or catch the black king. 32 ...�e4! Tal praises his opponent for continuing to find good moves despite being under severe time trouble. 33.h4t 33.f3 ? allows 33 . . . gdl t 34.Wf2 gd2t with perpetual checks.

42.Wd5! After 42.�xc5 ctJ xf5 43.gxf5 gxf5 44.�e3t Wg7 4 5 .Wd4 I think Black can build a fortress. 42 ... ctJxf5 43.Wxc5 ltJ h4 44.�e7 c3 45 .�e3t g7 46.�xc3t

372

The Magic of Youth

Black may be able to draw this endgame, but he will certainly have to work hard for it.

trouble, avoiding 3 5 . f3t? mxf3 36. '\Wxf5t ii>e3 37. '\W xh7 c3 when the initiative shifts to Black. His last move threatens a lethal check on g5. 35 ... h6!

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33 . . . mg6 is less accurate, but it is still good enough to draw if Black follows up correctly: 34.g4!? (34.f3 gdl t! This is a strong intermediate check. [34 . . . �d3? 3 5 . g4 should win for White.] 3 5 .mh2 [35 .mg2? �xf3t!!J 35 ... �d3 Black should hold.) 34 ... gdl t! 3 5 .mh2 ct'i d4! Black's pieces are active and the c-pawn may become dangerous, for instance: 36.'\WeSt @g7 37. '\Wxe4 c3 38.'\We7t mgS 39.h5 c2 40.h6 gh l t! 4 1 .mg3 ggl t White cannot escape from the checks, as running with the king to f4 or g5 allows Black to promote with check.

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36.'WeS! Here too, winning the bishop with 36.f3t! mxf3 37.'\Wxf5 t me3 would only give Black winning chances. The situation in the following phase of the game is perfectly described in the following quote from Koblencs:

"Here you have another of the characteristic features of Tal's style: the ability to keep creating fresh difficulties for his adversaries. Sometimes the opponent succeeds in repelling a whole series of attacks and in avoiding numerous pitfalls, but the difficult defence so exhausts him that in the end he makes a mistake; sometimes on easy ground. In the present game Panno 'cracked' right at the finish line." 36 .. J'l'.e4 This is far from a losing move, but Panno has overlooked quick, clear route to a draw: 36 . . . �d3 37.'IWfG �fs 3s .'W'xh6 mf3 39 .®fG ctJ e3! 40.fxe3 gd2t= 37.'\Wg7t

After 37.f3t Wxf3 3 8 . '\Wxf5 t We3 39.'1Wxc5 t �d3 Black is safe. 37 ... r;f;>f3 Panno wants to use his c-pawn. His move is fine, points out that 37 . . . Wh5 3 8 .f3 Ei:e2t 39.Wgl Cli e3 than a draw.

king to support the although Dvoretsky is also safe, as after White has no more

38.'1Wc3t tlJ e3 This move is okay, but 38 . . . Wxf2! is more forcing. With more time available, Panno would surely have found it. After 39.'1Wxc2t �f3 Black is in no danger and the game is likely to end in a perpetual check. 39.r;f;>gI �g4 40.fxe3 h5! The grandmaster from Argentina avoids a few landmines, including 40 . . . Wxg3 ?? 4 1 . '\W e l t �h3 42.Wf2, and 40 . . . E1xe3 ? ? 4 1 . '\W f6t We2 42. '\W fl t Wd2 43.'\Wf4, both of which win for White. It is always a good practical precaution to keep all of one's pieces defended against a checking queen. 41.'IWel

completed his 40th move, he blitzes out another move which proves to be a serious mistake. Had he taken more time, Panno would surely have found 4 l . . . E\e6! when Black draws without much difficulty, as White's king is caged and Black's pieces are all securely defended, including the crucial a6-pawn. The continuation might be 42.e4!? c3! 43 .'1Wxc3t Wxe4 44.'1Wxc5 Wd3 with a dead drawn position. 42.�fl t This was Tal's sealed move. He and Koblencs went on to analyse the endgame for much of the night. They do not mention whether or not they received help from anyone else in the Soviet delegation, but it would not surprise me if at least one other Soviet grandmaster was on hand to assist with adjournments. It would be interesting to know if the Argentinean federation had the resources to send a second to accompany their three players at the lnterzonal. 42 ... r;f;>e4 43.'1Wxc4t r;f;>f3 44.�fl t r;f;>e4 45.�xa6

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373

Mikhail Tai - Oscar Panno

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41 ...!'ixe3? Panno had stopped recording his moves in time trouble. Unaware that he had already

� � ��� ��� �!""�"d4? After the game, this was considered by most commentators to be the losing move; indeed,

374

The Magic of Youth

it is certainly a mistake not to take the g-pawn. However, I am not convinced that Black can draw the game, even after perfect defence. 45 . . . Ei'.xg3t Tal says that they mainly focused on this move in the adjournment analysis. 46.�fl 1"1f3t! Vladimir Vukovic found this, the most resilient defensive idea. I also checked 46 . . . Ei'.d3 but found that after 47.Wc4t Ei'.d4 48 .Wclt �d5 49.a4 the a-pawn is likely to decide the outcome of the game. (The variations go deeper than this, but for our purposes it is enough to stop here.) 47.gl White has to go this way, as after 47.� e l Be3t 48.�dl Belt 49.�c3 1"1e3t, any attempt to run up the queenside will cost White his queen. 47 . . . �d4

b-file from the queen, and keeps the option of switching to the a-file to restrain the enemy pawn. 48 . . . c4 After 48 . . . Ba3 49.a5 �f3t 50.�gl �d5 5 1 .Wf6t �c4 5l.a6 �b5 53.�blt �b3 54.We5 I think White wins. 49 .Wd6t �e3! 49 . . . �c3 is less resilient: 50.a5 Ei'.d3 5 1 .�f6t cl 5l.a6 �f3t 5 3 .Wxf3+50.Wc5t �d3 5 1 .Wd5t �c3 5l.a5 1"1f5 5l . . . Ei'.d3 53.We5t �cl 54.a6 c3 5 5 . a7 �f3t 56.�fl �cl 57.Wf5 �dl 5 8 .Wxd3t+53.Wd8 53 .We4? �f3t 54.Wxf3t 1"1xf3 5 5 .�xf3 only draws. 5 3 . . . �cl After 53 . . . �f3t? 54.�g3 �cl 5 5 .Wc8 White wins the c-pawn. 54.a6 c3 5 5 . a7 �f3t 56.�g3 56.�gl probably wins as well, but one winning line is enough. 5 6 . . . �e4 57.We8! The tempting 57.a8=W? allows 57 . �f3t! when Black can draw. 57 . . . �d3 57 . . . Bf3t 5 8 .�hl Be3 5 9 .Wxh5 cii d2 60.Wa5 ! is winning. .

48.a4! This is my idea. By pushing the pawn immediately, White does not allow the enemy king to restrain it. 48.Wd6t is Vukovic's move. I could take up a few pages analysing this branch alone, but the quick summary is that Black seems to draw with the ultra-precise 48 . . . �c4 49.a4 �b4! 50.Wa6 Ei'.b3!!. This excellent rook move unblocks the c-pawn, takes away the

.

Th e tablebase confirms that White is winning. The main line continues: 59 . . e7 23 .�b4t �xe6 24.�c4t �f5 25 .�xf7 wins according to Hubner. 20 . . . �c4!? is playable though: 2 1 .�xc4 ixc4 22.tli b5t lt>c8 23. tli xc3 Ei:a7 24.tll d5 ixd5 25 .ixd5 Ei:g5 Black is safe according to the German grandmaster. 2 1 .h4 Ei:xg3t This forces a draw. 2 1 . . .Ei:e5 ! ? 22.exf7 �d7 eventually leads to a roughly equal position. 22.fxg3 �xg3t 23. lt>fl �h3t 24.lt>f2 �h2t= Black gives perpetual checks.

The Magic of Youth

394

imagination, but then failed to find the best continuation at the critical moment. 1 9.1Mie8t! dib7 ( 1 9 . . . 1Mid8 20.exf7+-) 20.bxc3 would have led to a relatively easy win, as pointed out by Unzicker among others. The continuation might be: 20 . . . tll c6 2 1 .EI:ab l t dia7 (2 1 . . .ib4 22.1Mixf7+- is mentioned by Clarke.) 22.exfl

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20.e7!?

Tal's move has many positive features: it keeps the e-file open, prevents Black from defending the d5-bishop with a pawn, and opens the h3-c8 diagonal for the bishop. Furthermore, having a pawn so close to the promotion square can give rise to a lot of tactical possibilities. Despite these plus points, White is still spending a tempo on a pawn move in an extremely sharp position. After 20.exf7 1Mixf7 Black is doing all right in the complications. I believe the most accurate continuation is: 20.ixc4! fXe6 2 1 .EI:ab l Not 2 1 .tll xe6? f1xg3t. Hubner analyses 2 1 .ixd5 exd5 22.tll e6 'Wd6 (22 . . . f1xg3 t? 23.difl ) 23.tll f4 1Mic6!? in some detail, with equality as the eventual verdict. 2 1 . . .ixd4 2 1 . . .1Mid7?! 22.1Mib3! White is better. 2 1 . . .tll d7! ? is possible, based on 22.ixd5 exd5 23 .1Mib3 EI:g5 24.tll e6 EI:b8! when Black manages to stay in the game. 22.EI:xd4 !'1a7

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23.:8xd5 !? 23 .ixd5 exd5 24.:8xd5 :8b7 25 .E1bd l 'W c6 The position is roughly balanced. 23 . . . exd5 24.ixd5 E1d8 25 .ie6t tll d7 26.�b6 :8e8 27.:8c6 :8xe6 28.:8xe6 did8 The battle continues, but it should end in a draw.

1 959

-

Mikhail Tal

395

Dieter Keller

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2 0 . . . Wxe7! ? i s decent, and after 2 l .j,xc4, Black can choose between 2 1 . . .Ei:g5 , 2 1 . . .j,xc4 and 2 1 . . .j,b7, all of which lead to approximate equality. Even stronger was: 20 . . . j,xe7! This was recommended by Bouwmeester and Withuis. Now White must find a narrow path to equality. 2 1 .Wc2!? As far as I am aware, no other commentator mentioned this move which targets the h7 pawn. After 2 1 .j,fl lLl d7! 22.j,h3 j,c5 Black is clearly better, as pointed out by Hubner. 2 1 .Ei:ab l lll d7! is strong. (2 1 . . .Ei:g5 leads to complications, while 2 l . . .j,c5 is a route to safety.) 22.Wc2 (22.lll f5 lll c5 23.Wb4 j,e4 White is not doing well.) 22 . . . j,cS 23.Wxh7 Ei:dS Black consolidates his position, which is bad news for White. 2 1 .lll f5 !? j,e6 22.lll d4 should be j ust enough to keep the balance. Black can choose either 22 . . . j,d5 leading to a repetition, or 22 . . . j,d7 23.Wc2 when White gets enough play by taking the h7-pawn.

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2 l . . .j,c5 22. Wxh7 Ei:eS 22 ... Ei:dS 23.Wf5 t Ei:d7 gives White a choice between 24.lll b3 and 24.j,f3 , with equality in both cases. Or if 22 . . . Ei:g5 23.lll f3 Ei'.xg3t 24.�fl Ei:xf3 (24 . . .j,xf3 25.hxg3) 2 5 .j,xf3 j,xf3 26.Wf5 t the position i s balanced again. 23.j,g4t lll d7 23 . . . �b7? 24.Ei:ab l t �a7 25. lll b 5 t axb5 26.Ei:xd5 Ei'.e7 27.Wh5 White may win. 24.Wf5 Ei:e5 25.Wxf6 Ei:e7 26.Wg5 The chances are even.

2 1 .lll f5!

The Magic of Youth

396

After this critical move, Black must play accurately to survive. The following line contains some beautiful points. 2 1 . . .'&e5! The defends the bishop and gets closer to White's king. 2 1 . . .j,e4? 22.j,g4 �b7 23.'&xc4 is no good for Black, for instance 23 . . . j,xf5 24.j,xf5 ttJe5 25 .'&f4 l:l:ac8 26.j,xc8 t Bxc8 27.'&xf6 and White wins. 2 1 . . .j,e6? 22.ttJ g7!! White eliminates the defender of the light squares. 22 . . . ttJxe7 23.ttJxe6 fxe6 24.j,xc4 l:l:xg3t 25 .�fl ! White wins. 22.j,xc4

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24 . . . �c7!! Amazingly, Black can temporarily live with the second white queen. If 24 . . . BxeS 25.Bxd5 '&h3t 26.�xf2 White is close to winning. 25 .'&axc6t! j,xc6 26.'&xf7t j,d7

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22 . . . j,xf2t! Black opens up the king. 22 . . . j,f3? 23.ttJd4! j,xd4 24.cxd4 '&xe7 25 .8d3! j,e4 26.Bel Black is in big trouble. 22 . . . j,e4 23 .j,d3 is winning for White, for instance 23 . . . 8g4 24.j,xe4 '&xe4 2 5 . eS=Vift '&xe8 26.'&xg4 and it is all over. 23.�fl '&xf5 24.eS=Vift!! White diverts the rook. After 24.8xd5 '&h3 t Black forces a perpetual check, as Kasparov points out.

27.8xd7t White acts before he receives a check on h3. 27 . . . '&xd7 28.'&xd7t �xd7 29.j,xgS Bxg8 29 . . . j,xg3 ? ? 30.j,d5 wins. 30.�xf2 8c8 Black should hold this endgame, regardless of the pawn deficit. 2 1 . ..�b7! Keller chooses the right square for his king. By stepping off the eighth rank, he enables the second rook to control the e8-square.

Kasparov gives 2 1 . . .�bS? as more precise, but Hubner refutes this move with 22.ttJ b5!. The

1 95 9

Mikhail Tai

-

Dieter Keller

397

main line continues 22 . . . '\We5 (Black i s not helped by 22 . . . '\Wxe7 23.Ei'.xd5 or 22 . . . '1Wb7 23.Ei'.ab l ) 23.Ei'.ab l Ei'.xg4 24.Ei'.xd5 Ei'.xg3t 25.iifl ! and White wins.

22. ctJ f5 �e6 (22 . . . '\We5 ? 23.Ei'.xd5 '1Wxd5 24.Ei'.d l White wins.) 23.Ei'.ab l t iia7 24.�f3 �xf5 2 5 .'\Wxc6 '\Wxc6 26.�xc6 �xb l 27.Ei'.xb l The ensuing endgame should be drawn. 22.ctJxc6!? Most commentators evaluated this move as losing, but my analysis shows that the correct outcome is equality. Some of the ensuing lines are absolutely stunning, and I dare say Tai himself would have enjoyed them. 22 . . . �xc6 22 . . . '\Wxc6? ? 23.Ei'.xd5! wins. 23.Ei'.ab It iia7 23 . . . �b5?? 24.Ei'.d7 +24.'\Wxc4 Ei'.g5!! Commentators have analysed other moves, but we will focus on the most critical one which was believed to be winning for Black.

25.iifl !! If I am correct, this discovery of mine enables White to hold the balance. Now White threatens �e2 without allowing a counter-strike on g3 . The king move also enables White to play f2-f4. The lines 25.'\Wxfl? Ei'.e8 26.�f3 Ei'.xg3t-+ and 25.�e2? �b5 26.'\Wxf7 Ei'.xg3t illustrate the importance of removing the king from gl . 25 . . . Ei:e5 ! This seems best; Black is trying to keep an eye on the passed pawn. 25 . . . �e7? 26.Ei'.d7!! wins. 25 ... '\Wxe7 26.�e2 �b7 27.f4! Black can draw, but he must play accurately. 25 . . . Ei:cS leads to eventual equality after 26.�e2 or the more complicated 26.Ei:b6!?. 26.f4! �b5 27.Ei'.xb5 axb5 28 .'1Wxb5 Ei'.xe7

The Magic of Youth

398

30.Ei:d6! 1Wh3t 3 1 .� e l Ei:xe2t! 32. g S 1 9. li'l e7t i±>g7 20.1Mi'xa5 White will have a hugely advantageous endgame. b) l 7 . . . Be8 ? is also poor: 1 8 .li'lg4 c5 ( l S . . . i±>gS 1 9 .Bhe l Bxe l 20.Ei:xe l �b7 2 1 .h6t i±>f8 22.li'lxf7 White wins.) 1 9.Bhe l Bxe l 20.Bxe l gs 1 5 . . . li'le8? would be weak. 1 6.1Mfxd8 1Mi'xa2 ( 1 6 . . . li'l df6 l 7.1Mi'a5) l 7.�c3 ( 1 7.1& a5 is the simplest according to Tai.) l 7 . . . li'l ef6? 1 8 .gxd7 ixd7 1 9. li'l h6t i±>hS 20.1Mfxf6 Tai shows this entertaining checkmate. However, there was a serious alternative for Black: 1 5 . . . g6 Like the game continuation, this could have

The Magic of Youth

406

Now White can win with 2 1 .Ei'.e8t or the � '/, � even more stylish 2 1 .1Wd5!. c) l 7 ... \Wxa2!?

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I believe Black can survive with this move, but extreme accuracy is needed. Even though the last move is not the most convincing equalizer, it is worth exploring some further variations; not just because the lines are themselves magical, but also because they contain resources and motifs that may become relevant at later points in the game.

White has three options: c l ) 1 8 .Elhe l , c2) . 1 8.tt'lg4 and c3) 1 8 . tt'lh4. c l ) 1 8 .Elhe l When commenting on l 5 . . . g6, Ta! only gives the moves leading to this position, and remarks that Black would be "squeezed in a vice-like grip." As we will see, there is a bit more to it than that. 1 8 . . . IWal t! Sending the king to the cl-file seems to be good enough. 1 8 . . . Elb8? 1 9. tt'l g4 h5 20 .1Wh6t Wg8 2 1 .Ei'.xd7 hxg4 22.tt'le5 Black is defenceless. l 8 . . . c5? l 9 .Eld6! �a5 20.tt'lf5t lt>g8 2 1 . tt'l e7t Wg7 22.�xf6t Lll xf6 23.1Wxf6t Wh6 24.c3 Ei:b8 25 .Ei:d5 !! White wins. 1 9.Wd2 1Wa6

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20.Lll h 4! ? This looks dangerous for Black, but there are actually a few reasonable defences. White can force a draw with 20.tt'lf5t lt>g8 2 1 .tll h6t if he wants it. 20.tt::l g4? does not work due to 20 . . . �a5 !. 20 . . . tll b6! The most convincing route to a draw. 20 . . . � a5 2 l . �xa5 Lll d5!! 22.�c3t tt'lxc3 23.bxc3 c5 Black may hold. 20 . . . c5 is also sufficient and eventually holds, albeit in a more complicated way than the main line. 2 1 .tll 4f5 t After 2 1 . �xf6t �xf6 22.tll 4f5 t �xf5 23.tt'lxf5 t Wg8 White has to deliver perpetual checks. 2 1 . . . �xf5

22.Ei'.e7!! A lovely winning attempt, but Black has a defence.

Mikhail Tal - Vassily Smyslov

1 959

22 . . . tll b dS ! 23.tll xfS t ©g8 White has no more than a draw. c2) 1 8.tll g4 This is the second of White's three options, and it may also lead to some amazing variations. 1 8 . . . tll eS!? This is an interesting attempt to cause problems for White. The 'no nonsense' reply is 1 8 . . . Wg8! when White has nothing better than repeating with 1 9.tll h6t, as 1 9.Elhe l ? tll xg4 wins for Black. However, 1 8 . . . EleS? is a blunder due to 1 9 .Elxd7! hS ( 1 9 . . . �al t 20. Wd2 �xh l 2 1 ..ixf6t also leads to mate) 20 . .ixf6t! followed by mate in two. 1 9.�xeS ! Four o f White's pieces could have taken the knight, but only this option keeps him in the game. 19 . .ixeS ? .ixg4 20.�xg4 (20.Elxd8 �a l t) 20 . . . ©g8 Black wins. 1 9.tll xf6?! .ixf6 20 ..ixeS .ixeS 2 1 .�xeSt Wg8 22.�c3 .ig4 Black has good winning chances with the extra pawn. 1 9 . . . .ixg4

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20.Eld6! White targets the knight on f6. 20.Elxd8 ? �a l t 2 1 .Wd2 ElfXd8t! (2 1 . . .Elaxd8t? 22.We3) 22.We3 �xh l

407

23 .�xf6t Wf8 24.�h8t We7 Black has a decisive material advantage. 20 . . . .ie6 After 20 . . . �al t!? 2 1 . Wd2 �xh l 22.Elxf6 .ixf3 Black's position appears suspicious, but I found that neither 23.gxf3 nor 23.Elxg6t lead to any more than perpetual checks. 2 1 .tll d2 Ele8 22.Elxd8 Elaxd8 23.�xf6t

c3) White's final attacking option is: 1 8 .tll h4

The Magic of Youth

408

20Jl:xe l e2!! 22.El:e7 '1Wc5 23.El:de l '1Wd6t 24.i>cl '\Wf4t wins for Black, as Kasparov points out. 22 . . . gxhG 23 .i>e2! '\Wf5 ! Th e only move. 24. tli d4 '1Wg5 24 . . . '\Wf4 25.�xf4 �xf4 26.tt'l e6 �e5 27.tll xfS tt'l xfS 28.Ei:dS looks riskier, although it may just be playable for Black.

1 9 ...'Wal t Both 1 9 . . . El:xf7 20.El:xdSt and 1 9 . :ges 20.'IWgSt lead to quick mates. ..

20. c;t>d2 E(xf7 20 . . . '\Wxd l t 2 1 .El:xd l El:xf7 22.l2lxf7t Wg8 23.tll xdS is also hopeless. 2 1 .tbxf7t c;t>gs 22.Eixal c;t>xf7 23.l2le5t In addition to the extra exchange White wins a pawn.

Robert Fischer

1 95 9

23 ... e6 24.Cll xc6 Cll e4t 25.e3 .ib6t 26 ..id4 Smyslov resigned. Tal won the brilliancy prize for this game, which remains one of the most famous of his career. Being on the wrong side of such a spectacular game seemed to have a demoralizing effect on Smyslov, as evidenced by his later games against Tai from the same event, which we will get to in due course. 1-0

Tai followed with a solid draw against Gligoric, then he blundered badly and lost against Keres. He bounced back with a win over Olafsson before making a second quick draw with Petrosian.

-

Mikhail Tal

413

but he decided to look for a complicated fight. Amusingly, Tai started by pushing the pawn only one square, holding it on c6 and looking up at the young Fischer. Tai allowed himself a small laugh before revealing it would be a Sicilian after all. 2.Cll f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Cll xd4 Cll f6 5.Cll c3 a6 Tal is not afraid to use Fischer's favourite Naj dorf Variation against him. 6 . .ic4 Fischer sticks to his usual variation. 6 ... e6 7 ..ib3 .ie7 When he met Fischer again m the penultimate round, Tal deviated with 7 . . . b5; see Game 69 later in the chapter.

In the next round Tai faced the teenage . sensation Bobby Fischer. The American is unique among world champions, in that he 8.f4 0-0 9.1Wf3 l!Nc7 1 0.0-0?! did not play a single game against any of his A previous game continued: 1 0.f5 etJ c6 successors. Against his predecessors he played 1 1 .�e3 etJ xd4 1 2.�xd4 b5 1 3 .0-0-0 b4 1 08 games, scoring thirty-one wins, fifty-six 1 4. tLl a4 l'lb8 1 5 .fxe6 fxe6 Y2-Yi Muchnik draws and twenty-one defeats. Previously Tal Polugaevsky, Baku 1 95 8 . Fischer was probably had drawn with Fischer twice and beaten him aware of this game and thought he could in Bled. Tal is the only world champion to improve, but his move is not the best. boast a positive lifetime score against Fischer, with four wins, five draws and two defeats. Fischer was not known for his personal friendships with his rivals, but he liked Tai and went to visit Misha when he was hospitalized later in life.

Robert Fischer Mikhail Tal -

Candidates, Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade

( 1 3), 1 959

1.e4 c5 According to Vasiliev, Tai seriously considered the Caro-Kann for this game, as he was aware that Fischer almost always played the innocuous 2. etJ c3 d5 3 . etJ f3 line,

414

Th e Magic o f Youth

f4-f5 with . . . e5. It requires good j udgement to determine that White will not be able to profit from the d5-square.

when Black has won an exchange, but White's domination over the light squares gives him some compensation.

1 1 .fS?! b4! Tal begins by sending the knight away from d5 .

17.�fel

1 2 . 'D a4 e5 13.CDe2 .ib7 Thanks to his superior opening play, Tai has already seized the initiative. 14.'Dg3 'D bd7 1 5 . .ie3

1 8.exd5 CDxd5 19.CDe4 Giving up the light-squared bishop with 1 9.�xd5 would be a miserable decision, but it would probably have given better survival chances than the game continuation. 1 9 . . . �xd5 20.ttJ e4 1"\ac8 2 1 .1"\adl l:l:fdS 22.sd2 Black can increase his advantage with 22 . . . W/c6 or 22 . . . �c6. 1 6 ..if2? With this weak move White's position goes from unattractive to losing. It was essential to aim for queenside counterplay with 1 6.c3 or 1 6.a3. 1 6 ... Wi'b7! Tai sticks to the main plan, rather than trying to win material.

Fischer may have been hoping for 1 6 . . . �b5?! 1 7.c4! ( 1 7.:r'l:fe l ? Vff c 6 wins the knight) l 7 . . . bxc3 l 8 . ttJ xc3 �xfl 1 9.ttJxfl (or 1 9.1"\xfl )

1 9 ... 'D f4 20.c4?! Fischer wants to help to defend the e4knight from c2 with his bishop, but he chooses an unfortunate way to go about it. 20.c3! is more resilient, although after 20 . . . sad8! (20 . . . tt:J f6?! 2 1 .�c2 defends) 2 1 .Sacl (2 1 .�c2 g6-+) 2 1 . . . ttJ f6 22.ic2 l:'I:d2! Black wins.

1 959

Robert Fischer

-

Mikhail Tal

415

26.llixcS 1iWc7 27.1iWe3 gae8 28.ge2 Giving up the exchange barely even postpones White's fate. 28 ... llixe2t 29.1iWxe2

2 1 .fxg6 fS!? Tal chooses the flashier win. 2 1 . . .hxg6 is equally good. 22.g7 �xg7 23.1iWg3t �h8 24.lli ecS llixcS 25.ixcS

30.llixa6 1iWa7t 3 1 .�xg2 Rather than resign immediately, Fischer walks into a forced mate. 3 1 ...ggst 32.�h3 1iWg7 33.idl ge6 0-1 When writing about this game Tal was modest about his victory, remarking that, at the time of the game, "Tal was Tai but Fischer was not yet Fischer." The American was certainly a long way from reaching the peak of his powers; nevertheless, the way Tai demolished him was extremely impressive.

Tal's next opponent was Benko, who scored a reasonable four points from his first nine games, but then lost four in a row before meeting Tai. Benko played seventy-two games against all the world champions from Botvinnik to Karpov. He scored six wins, thirty-two draws and thirty-four losses. Prior to this meeting, Tal had beaten him in three

The Magic o f Youth

416

games out of three. Their lifetime score from Benko's point of view was one win , three draws and eight losses.

Mikhail Tai Pal Benko -

Candidates, Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade

1 959

1 .e4 c S 2.lll f3 g 6 3.d4 ig7 4.dS d 6 S .lll c3 lll f6 6.ihSt lll bd7 7.a4 0-0 8.0-0 a6 9.ie2 l'!b8 1 0.l'!el lll e8 1 1 .if4 lll c7 1 2.ifl bS 1 3.'!Wd2 l'!e8 1 4.h3 lll f6 1 5.l'!adl id7 1 6.eS b4 17.lll e4 lll xe4 1 8.l'!xe4 ixa4 1 9.ih6 ih8 20.l'!del

2 1 .e6! The mighty e-pawn chokes Black and cuts most of his pieces off from the kingside. 2 1 ...fS 22.l'!h4! ixb2? Benko was facing a huge attack in any case, so he probably decided he may as well rake a bit more material and hope for the best. However, his move allows an instant refutation.

22 . . . if6 Keeping the bishop on the kingside would have forced Tai to work harder to crack the defence. 23.lli g5 ! ib5 23 ... '!WcS takes the sting out of h8 27.d7 28 .'IWxfSt e6 29.l"lxe6 is also hopeless.

This win brought to an end the first half of the tournament. Tal's score of 9Yzl l 4 put him in equal second place with Petrosian, half a point behind Keres. After the fourteenth round there was a blitz tournament, which was won by Tal. The players then made their way to Zagreb, the Croatian capital, for the third quarter. Once again, Tal's first opponent in the new cycle would be Smyslov, who must have been keen to reassert himself after losing such a spectacular game in the eighth round. Tal came close to equalizing in the opening, but Smyslov played excellently and increased his advantage. He won a piece, but Tai kept looking for counter-chances. We will join the game five moves before the time control.

Vassily Smyslov - Mikhail Tai Candidates, Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade

1 959

1 .e4 c5 2.etJf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.etJxd4 a6 5 ..id3 etJ c6 6.etJxc6 bxc6 7.0-0 d5 8.etJd2 etJ f6 9.'We2 .ie7 1 0.:!:l:el 0-0 1 1 .b3 a5 1 2 ..ib2 a4 13.a3 axb3 14.cxb3 'Wb6 1 5 .exd5 cxd5 1 6.b4 etJ d7 1 7. etJ b3 e5 1 8 ..if5 e4 19.:!::i: e cl 'Wd6 20. ltJ d4 .if6 2 1 .:!:l:c6 'We7 22.:!::i: acl h6 23.:!:l:c7 .ie5 24.ltJ c6 'Wg5 25.h4 'Wxh4 26.ltJxeS ltJxe5 27.:!:l:xcS etJ f3t 28.gxf3 'Wg5t 29.g3 ? ? °1Wd3t 4 1 .g2 1&e6 when Black neutralizes the slight pressure on the kingside. 1 9 ...Vfid4! Suddenly the positron has gone from relatively dry to exciting. Tai adjusts to the new situation quickly, and fights for the advantage by grabbing a pawn, rather than going for safety with 19 . . . 1&c7. 20.h4 Keres defends his bishop, avoiding the simple trap 20.c3 ? ? 1!Mxf2t 2 l .1!Mxf2 ilxf2t 22. xf2 lli xe4 t when Black wins. 20 ... Vfixb2 2 1 .Eldl

1 959

l .e4 c5 2.tll f3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.tll xd4 a6 5.�d3 lll c6 6.tll xc6 dxc6 7.0-0 e5 8.tll d2 Vf1c7 9.a4 tll f6 1 0.Vfif3 �c5 1 1 .tll c4 0-0 1 2.tll e3 Ele8 13.�c4 �e6 1 4.�xe6 �!xe6 1 5 .tll f5 g6 16.tll h 6t g7 17.gdl g ds 18.gxdS Vfixd8

2 1 . . .ild6? does not work due to 22.g4! when White's attack is irresistible. 22 . . . VMa3 (22 . . . 1!Mxc2 23.llif5t!) 23.c3 a5 24.ile3 Black has no defence, for instance 24 . . . ilc5 25 .Eld7! or 24 . . . b5 25.g5. a

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420

The Magic of Youth

22.!!d3 Keres threatens c2-c3 to open the d-file. 22 ...'Wxc2! 23.!!xd4! Keres finds the only way to sustain his initiative. 23.g4? is refuted by 23 . . . ii.xf2t 24.fl ii.xh4 25 .ii.xh4 'Wcl t 26.c;t>g2 Wxh6 and Black wins. 23 ... exd4 24.eS

26.'Wg4 26.Wf4? We l t 27.c;t>h2 We5 leads easily winning endgame for Black.

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26 ...'Wel t 27.iih2 'Wxf2 Tal wins another pawn and defends the d-pawn, while White's minor pieces do nothing. 28.'Wh3

25.e:xf6? Keres keeps both of his minor pieces, but they remain out of play.

Correct was: 2 5 .ii.xf6 Wc l t 26.c;t>h2 Wxh6 27.ii.g5 Wg7 28.ii.f6 !::lx f6 (Black can also repeat moves with 28 . . . Wh6.) 29.exf6 Wh6 30.Wg4 c;t>gs 3 1 .Wxd4 b5 Black is in no danger of losing this queen endgame, but the question is whether he can play for a win with his king caged.

1 959

Mikhail Tal - Vassily Smyslov

squares on the queenside, preventing the white queen from checking on a3 and invading. Black has a winning position, and Tal converts his advantage smoothly, despite being short of time. 29.�b3 29.�a3t We8 gets nowhere for White, as 30.�cS �eSt exchanges queens.

The final seven games took place in Belgrade, in a hall large enough to accommodate 2,000 spectators. Smyslov still had unpleasant memories with the black pieces against Tal, so he abandoned the Caro-Kann in favour of the Sicilian. The former world champion obtained the advantage, and Tal made what he would later describe as a "half sacrifice, half blunder." We will join the game five moves before the time control.

29 ... b5 30.axb5 cxb5 3 1 .�a3t b4 32.�b3 1l:Ve5t 33.@hl �el t 34.@h2 �e5t 35.@hl 1l=Vd6 36.@gl d3 37.�dl �c5t 38.@hl �c2 39.�f3 d2 40.hd2 �xd2 0-1

This win left Tal a point-and-a-half ahead of his nearest rival, which was still Keres. He extended his lead with a win over Olafsson, then made a third quick draw with Petrosian. In the next round Tal scored another convincing win over Fischer. In the final game of the third quarter, Tal faced Benko, who recalls a funny episode: "I sat down to play him with sunglasses on, because he often stared at his opponents as if he was trying to hypnotize them. Some journalists convinced me to do it, as a joke. Afterwards, a story circulated around the world that I had been seriously worried about Ta! putting me under his spell!"

Ta! came up with the perfect answer: he managed to borrow a pair of large dark glasses and returned to the board wearing them. Everyone from Benko, to the other players, to the arbiter and the spectators laughed at it. Tai soon removed the glasses after the game got underway, and his play was no joke as he outplayed Benko and won convincingly. Tai had scored six points out of the last seven games, bringing to an end a magical third quarter of the tournament.

42 1

AME . ·

Mikhail Tal Vassily Smyslov -

Candidates, Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade

1 959

1 . e4 c 5 2.lll f3 d 6 3.d4 cxd4 4.lll xd4 lll f6 5.lll c3 e6 6.ie2 a6 7.0-0 lll bd7 8.f4 b5 9.if3 ib7 1 0.a3 �c7 1 1 .�el ie7 12.@hl gbs 1 3.b3 0-0 1 4.ib2 gfe8 1 5.�g3 ifs 1 6.gael e5 l 7.lll f5 @hs 18.�h4 exf4 1 9.�xf4 lll e5 20.ge3 g6 2 1 .lll h6 ig7 22.lll d5 lll xd5 23.exd5 f6 24.ie4 g5 25.�f5 ixh6 26.�xf6t ig7 27.�f5 lll g6 2s.gh3 ixb2 29.�xg6 g e7 30.gh6 gg8 3 1 .�f5 !c8 32.�f3 g4 33.�d3 ie5 34.c4 bxc4 35.bxc4 g eg7

36.c5!

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The Magic of Youth

A piece down in a lost position, Tal offers a pawn to confuse his opponent. 36 ... dxcS There is nothing wrong with this, but 36 . . . '\We?!? was more practical, with the point that 37.c6 ? '1Wg5 traps the rook.

40 ... E:gd7?? Smyslov sees the threat but chooses the worst possible way to deal with it.

40 . . . a5 does not make much sense, but I will mention it j ust to illustrate Tal's threat. 4 1 .'\WfSt! Ei:g8 42.ilxg8 Ei'.xf8 43.Ei'.xfS if5 (43 . . . ®g7 44.Ei:xh7t wins the queen.)

37.d6! The pawn is unpleasant on d6, and now the d5-square is available for the bishop. 37 ...'1Wa7? Black is still winning, but he must walk a narrower path after posting the queen such a long way from the main battleground.

37 . . . '\WdS! is more straightforward, for instance 38 .Ei:h5 '1We8 39 .Ei:h6 Ei:f8 and it is all over for White. 38 ..idS! Tai keeps making unpleasant moves. 38 .. J�d8 39.�e4! .id4

Black has a few other playable moves. For instance, 40 . . . Ei:ggS guards the kingside but 4 I .ilxg8 Ei'.xg8 42.Ei:el ! keeps White in the game. Another idea is 40 . . . c4 so that the black queen will be defended, but then 4 l .ilxc4 Ei'.e8 42.Ei:h5 leaves the position unclear. However, there was one clear winning move: 40 . . . '\Wd7!! The point is that both the queen and the bishop on d4 are now p rotected. 4 I .ilc4 (4 1 . Ei:f6 ilxf6 42.1Mfxf6 '1We8-+; 4 1 .'\WfS t Ei:g8 42.ilxg8 Ei:xf8 43.Ei:xfS Wg7-+) 4 1 . . .'\WeS! Black threatens both .. ie3 and . . ilb7. White's attack is at a standstill and he is too far behind on material. .

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1 959

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Gligoric, but he extended his amazing run of form and won again. He then faced second­ placed Keres, who recalls : "This game was played in the last tour, five rounds before the end of the tournament. At that moment, Tal was leading by a margin of2V2 points over me. I had therefore to play for a win at all costs in order to retain even theoretical chances of gaining first place." Keres chose the Tarrasch Defence. It looks like Tal was thinking too much about playing for safety, as his play was uncharacteristically timid. Keres took full advantage and won a good game to close the gap. Tai drew his next two games with Olafsson and Petrosian, by which time Keres had narrowed the gap to a single point with two

Mikhail Tai

423

rounds to play. In the penultimate round Tal had a dangerous pairing with Black against Fischer. Tal mentions that he found out after the tournament that Fischer had publicly promised revenge for the three losses he had already suffered at Tal's hands in this one tournament.

Robert Fischer Mikhail Tal -

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4I.E!f6! Facedwith the unstoppable threatofinvading on the back rank, Smyslov resigned. Averbakh comments that if somebody had predicted that Tal would score I Y2/2 in two games being a piece down for little compensation against Smyslov, nobody would have believed it. 1-0

-

Candidates, Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade

1 959

1 .e4 cS Petrosian suggested using the Caro-Kann, but Tal was not interested in playing safe. Many players would have aimed to draw this game and play for a win with White in the last round against Benko, if indeed a win was needed to qualify. 2.ctJf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.tlixd4 tli f6 s.tlic3 a6 Tal chooses Fischer's favourite system once again. 6.�c4 e6 7.�b3 bS 8.f4 b4 8 . Jtb7 is the main line nowadays. .

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9.ctJ a4 Tai mentions that he had analysed this position in the morning with Koblencs, Averbakh and Petrosian. 9 ... ctJxe4 They looked at a few options, but Tigran was most keen on the idea of taking the central pawn. Tai was unsure and did not make up his mind until the position arose in the game. Subsequent analysis showed that taking the pawn is a bit too risky, and nowadays most players refrain from pushing the b-pawn so early.

The Magic of Youth

424

1 3 .£!.dS! The pseudo-sacrifice is nice, albeit not hard to find. 1 3 fg a7 1 4.�xe4! Let me quote Tal: ''After making a couple of mistakes, I felt myself to be on the very edge of the abyss, especially since Fischer was playing keenly and with great self-control. At the same time, sensing the 'smell of my blood', Keres began pressing Gligoric with all his might. It was all pointing to the fact that the question of first place would be decided in the last round or even after it. But Bobby, not wishing to remain a pawn down for long, hurried to restore material equality, thereby losing part of his advantage." .•.

Fischer points out that 1 0 . . . ilb7 is better. Even so, White has a strong initiative after l l .ile3 or l l .f5 e5 1 2. ttJ e6!?. 1 1 .f5! This riposte caught Tal totally off guard. 1 1 ...gxfS 12.Cll xf5! :!'!g8 1 2 . . . exf5 allows 1 3 .'1Wd5 winning material.

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1 2 . . . ilb? 1 3 .'1Wg4 is also unpleasant for Black, as is 1 2 . . . d5 1 3 .ttJ e3 ! ilg7 ( 1 3 . . . ilb7 1 4. '\W h5) l 4.ttJxd5 0-0 l 5 .ile3 when Black is in at least as much trouble as in the game.

Tal's description is vivid and engaging to the reader, b ut his assessment of White's last move is inaccurate; Fischer's choice is, in fact, the most accurate. l 4 .ile3

is also quite challenging, one point being that after 1 4 . . . ilb7 1 5 .c4!! Black is under pressure. H owever, there is a better defence in 1 4 . . . exd5 ! 1 5 .ilxa7 '1Wg5 16.Ci:le3 ile6 1 7.'1We2 ttJ d7 1 8 .l'f ad l . Here White has an edge, but his advantage is smaller than in the game and the position is more complex. 14 . . . exfS 1 5.�xf5 :!'! e7 Koblencs recalls that, during the games, he would make regular phone calls to relay the moves to his colleagues in Riga, who would then display the moves on large demonstration boards so that the local chess fans could follow the progress of their national hero. During the Fischer game, however, he stopped calling as he did not want to cause a collective heart attack!

1 959

Robert Fischer

425

Mikhail Tai

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1 8 ...1!Nxa4! "Such a surprise that I didn't dare believe my eyes! Tal finds an inspired defence!" - Fischer.

It is also worth hearing Tal's reminiscences of this pivotal moment in the game: " I was faced with a choice: should I go into a slightly inferior endgame or, after accepting the piece sacrifice, subj ect myself to a very strong attack? I could not see a forced mate, it is true, but perhaps only because I wasn't looking for one. If I had been playing White, I would have considered the attack to be decisive. Nevertheless, I chose the second path."

16 ...VNxcS 17 . .if4? Fischer needlessly sacrifices the a4knight. The American suggests 1 7 .c3 as an improvement; another strong move is 1 7 .l�f2 when Black's position remains in ruins due to the shattered pawn structure.

17... \1Nc6!

Despite his excessively provocative opening play, Tal has since proved himself adept at playing the role of defender.

18.1iNf3

Tal is right that exchanging queens on f3 would have left him with an unpleasant defensive task. However, he could have considered l 8 . . . 1'1g6!?, inviting a queen exchange on slightly better terms, with decent chances to hold. 1 9 ..ixd6 \1Nc6! Tal continues to defend well.

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20 . .ixb8 \1Nb6t 2 1 .�hl \1Nxb8 Once again I quote both players, beginning with Fischer: "The crowd was shouting and whistling with each move. Later I was informed that many sports fans were in the audience. Maybe some soccer match had been cancelled. As a consequence, chess was the main attraction that day in Belgrade."

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The Magic of Youth

And Tal: "A famous position: it was here that a widely publicized psychological duel took place between us. Fischer first wrote down the move 22.!'l:ae l ! - without doubt the strongest writing it not in his usual English notation, but in some European language, almost Russian! And not very deftly, he pushed the scoresheet towards me. 'He's testing me out,' I thought. Would I frown or display my nervousness? I could force myself to smile, but Bobby was no longer a child, and would understand. What then was I to do? I very much wanted him to change his decision, so I calmly stood up and began walking alongside the board. I shared a joke with someone, glanced for appearance's sake at the demonstration board and, with a contented expression, returned to the board. I am sure that for all this time Fischer was looking at me, and not calculating variations. He cast one more glance at me (I endured it) , then crossed out the move on his scoresheet and gave the queen check! "

which forces the black king to start walking to the queenside. Tal writes: "When after the game I asked Fischer why he didn't play 22.�ae l he replied, 'Well, you laughed when I wrote it down!'" 22 . . . ©dS! During the game Tal thought the rook move would have put him in a losing position, but he underestimated Black's defensive resources. In fact it is White who must p lay carefully to draw in some lines. 22 . . . d7!? is also playable, as neither 23.'1Wd5t nor 23.'1Wf5 t lead to more than a draw for White.

23.:8xe7 This is the simplest way to m a i ntain the balance. Most commentators focused on 23.�dl t?! when White can probably draw, but the task is more difficult. The main line is: 23 . . . fg 26.®'xd7 ®'d6 Now Tal's pieces are starting to work together harmoniously.

27.®'b7 Fischer decides to keep the queens on, but there is a danger that his own king might fall prey to an attack.

28.c3! Fischer wants to reduce the number of pawns on the board.

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The Magic of Youth

28 ... aS 28 . . . bxc3! is stronger than it may appear: 29.°1Wc8t i1g7 30.°1Wxc3t !f6 3 1 .°1Wc2 White has to keep the b-pawn, but now after 3 1 . . . ie5 ! Black's attack is too strong. 32.h3 (32.l:'i:d l \Wf6 33.l:'i:d7t i1h8-+) 32 . . . Wd4 33.°1We2 !b8 34.°1We7t i1h8 Black wins. 29.Wl'cst After 29.cxb4 °1Wxb4 30.°1Wf3t 8f6 3 1 .°1We2 !d6 Black's attack should decide the game. 29 ... 'iii g7 30.'1Wc4

33.E:e4 '1Wxc4 34.l':l:xc4 E:b6! Fischer admits that he overlooked this move, which preserves Black's b-pawn. Now a2-a3 will always be met by . . . b3. 35. 'iii g2 'iii f6 Tai naturally centralizes his king. 36.'iii f3 'iii eS 37.'iii e3 !gSt 38.©e2 ©d5 39.'iii d3 if6

3 1 .cxb4 axb4 32.g3 By threatening to eliminate Black's final queenside pawn with a2-a3, Fischer virtually forces Tai to exchange queens.

The immediate 32.a3 is refuted by 32 . . . Wd2!, for instance: 33.E:gl (32.°1We2 °1Wxe2 33.E:xe2 b3-+) 33 . . . ib6 34 .We4 °1Wf2! 35 .E:dl b3! and Black wins. Keeping the queens on the board also does not work for White: 32.°1We4 ic7 33 .°1We7t ®g8 34.°1We8t °1Wf8 35 .°1We4 °1Wd2 33.b3 !f6 Black should win.

Robert Fischer - Mikhail Ta!

1 95 9

40 . . . Zi,e? (Another plan is 40 . . . !::i'. b 7 intending . . . Zi,g7, . . . h6, . . . Zi,fS and . . . !::i'. a7 to push White back.) 4 1 .!::i'. d4t mes 42.!::i'. c 4t mbs 43 .!::i'. e4 Zi,cS 44.!::i'. h 4 h6 I doubt that White can hold this position. 40 ...�eS 4 1 .Ele2 Elf6 42.Elc2 Elf3t 43.d3 �d4! In the last few moves Ta! has succeeded in improving his rook and his bishop. The game must have been adjourned somewhere around this point. 45.a3 Other moves are no better, for instance 45.b3 !J:f3t 46.