Chess - The Scotsman 26/12/12

FOR those of you with a Christmas surplus of book tokens, or perhaps more relevant these days, online gift vouchers, then one entertaining new book published by New in Chess that comes recommended is The Magic Tactics of Mikhail Tal by German authors Karsten Müller and Raymund Stolze.

During a golden period from 1957 to 1960, Tal was twice champion of the USSR, had the best result at the Munich Olympiad, the Interzonal, the Candidates tournament, and was world champion at 23. Unfortunately, he also lived the high life by smoking and drinking to excess, and, tragically, in his latter years, an addiction to morphine from the many chronic illnesses he suffered before his death at 55 in 1992.

The eighth world champion was considered as the best attacking player of all time, and Müller and Stolze offer a chance to re-evaluate and revisit his games and discuss the line between speculation and intuition.

There are two types of sacrifices, “correct ones and mine,” Tal once joked. And his victory against former world champion Vassily Smyslov a year before his ascent to the title is typical of the sort that our bacchanalian chess hero would often conjure up from nowhere. It proved to be a game that enthralled a young 15-year-old Bobby Fischer: “White simply gave up a bishop for the attack, without getting the slightest material compensation. This is one of the most unusual sacrifices I have ever seen.”

Smyslov’s only mistake was playing what looked like the seemingly obvious 18 ...Nf6?? (correct was 18..Bf6 and Black defends) … only to fall under the magician’s spell.

M Tal - V Smyslov

Candidates Tournament, 1959

Caro-Kann Defence

1 e4 c6 2 d3 d5 3 Nd2 e5 4 Ngf3 Nd7 5 d4 dxe4 6 Nxe4 exd4 7 Qxd4 Ngf6 8 Bg5 Be7 9 0Ð0Ð0 0Ð0 10 Nd6 Qa5 11 Bc4 b5 12 Bd2 Qa6 13 Nf5 Bd8 14 Qh4 bxc4 15 Qg5 Nh5 16 Nh6+ Kh8 17 Qxh5 Qxa2 18 Bc3 Nf6 19 Qxf7!! Qa1+ 20 Kd2 Rxf7 21 Nxf7+ Kg8 22 Rxa1 Kxf7 23 Ne5+ Ke6 24 Nxc6 Ne4+ 25 Ke3 Bb6+ 26 Bd4 1-0