48 Facts About Mikhail Tal

Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal was a Soviet-Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion.

Mikhail Tal is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as one of the most influential chess players.

Mikhail Tal's play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability.

Mikhail Tal's nickname was "Misha", a diminutive for Mikhail, and he earned the nickname "The Magician from Riga".

Mikhail Tal held the record for the longest unbeaten streak in competitive chess history with 95 games between 23 October 1973 and 16 October 1974, until Ding Liren's streak of 100 games between 9 August 2017 and 11 November 2018.

Mikhail Tal was born in Riga, Republic of Latvia, into a Jewish family.

Mikhail Tal used an imaginative combination to win his game at the age of 13.

Mikhail Tal won his first Latvian title in 1953, and was awarded the title of Candidate Master.

Mikhail Tal became a Soviet Master in 1954 by defeating Vladimir Saigin in a qualifying match.

Mikhail Tal graduated in Literature from the University of Latvia, writing a thesis on the satirical works of Ilf and Petrov, and taught school in Riga for a time in his early twenties.

Mikhail Tal was a member of the Daugava Sports Society, and represented Latvia in internal Soviet team competitions.

Mikhail Tal then went to play on board three at the students' championship in Sweden, scoring 6 out of 7.

Mikhail Tal became the youngest player to win the USSR Championship the following year, at the age of 20.

Mikhail Tal had not played in enough international tournaments to qualify for the title of Grandmaster, but FIDE decided at its 1957 Congress to waive the normal restrictions and award him the title because of his achievement in winning the Soviet Championship.

At that time, the Soviet Union was dominant in world chess, and Mikhail Tal had beaten several of the world's top players to win the tournament.

Mikhail Tal won nineteen games, drew eight, and lost none, for 85.2 percent.

Mikhail Tal retained the Soviet Championship title in 1958 at Riga, and competed in the World Chess Championship for the first time.

Mikhail Tal won the 1958 Interzonal tournament at Portoroz, then helped the Soviet Union to win its fourth consecutive Chess Olympiad at Munich.

When Benko arrived for his match with Mikhail Tal, he wore dark glasses in order to avert the gaze of Mikhail Tal, which could be intimidating.

Yuri Averbakh claimed that Botvinnik would agree to a postponement only if Mikhail Tal was certified unfit by Moscow doctors, and that Mikhail Tal then decided to play.

Mikhail Tal played in a total of six Candidates' Tournaments and match cycles, though he never again earned the right to play for the world title.

Mikhail Tal tied for first place at the 1964 Amsterdam Interzonal to advance to matches.

Mikhail Tal played in the 1985 Montpellier Candidates' Tournament, a round-robin of 16 qualifiers, finishing in a tie for fourth and fifth places, and narrowly missing further advancement after drawing a playoff match with Jan Timman, who held the tiebreak advantage from the tournament proper.

From July 1972 to April 1973, Mikhail Tal played a record 86 consecutive games without a loss.

One of Mikhail Tal's greatest achievements during his later career was an equal first place with Karpov in the 1979 Montreal "Tournament of Stars", with an unbeaten score of, the only undefeated player in the field, which included Spassky, Portisch, Vlastimil Hort, Robert Hubner, Ljubomir Ljubojevic, Lubomir Kavalek, Jan Timman and Larsen.

Mikhail Tal played in 21 Soviet Championships, winning it six times.

Mikhail Tal was a five-time winner of the International Chess Tournament in Tallinn, Estonia, with victories in 1971,1973,1977,1981, and 1983.

In Olympiad play, Mikhail Tal was a member of eight Soviet teams, each of which won team gold medals, won 65 games, drew 34, and lost only two games.

Individually, Mikhail Tal won seven Olympiad board medals, including five gold, and two silver.

Mikhail Tal represented the Soviet Union at six European Team Championships, winning team gold medals each time, and three board gold medals.

Mikhail Tal scored 14 wins, 20 draws, and three losses, for 64.9 percent.

Mikhail Tal played board nine for the USSR in the first match against the Rest of the World team at Belgrade 1970, scoring 2 out of 4.

Mikhail Tal was on board seven for the USSR in the second match against the Rest of the World team at London 1984, scoring 2 out of 3.

From 1950 to 1991, Mikhail Tal won or tied for first in 68 tournaments.

Naturally artistic, witty and impulsive, Mikhail Tal led a bohemian life of chess playing, heavy drinking and chain smoking.

Mikhail Tal was briefly addicted to morphine, prescribed due to intense pain.

Mikhail Tal drank heavily before tournaments; in a tournament in the Netherlands, Mikhail Tal and another Soviet grandmaster were tied in the standings, and the results of the next day's final games would determine the victor.

Mikhail Tal continued to win his game decisively along with the tournament.

On 28 June 1992, Mikhail Tal died in a Moscow hospital, officially of a haemorrhage in the oesophagus.

Mikhail Tal had the congenital deformity of ectrodactyly in his right hand.

Mikhail Tal often sacrificed in search of the initiative, which is defined as the ability to make threats to which the opponent must respond.

The famous sixth game of his first world championship match with Botvinnik is typical in that regard: Mikhail Tal sacrificed a knight with little compensation but prevailed when the unsettled Botvinnik failed to find the correct response.

However, while Capablanca and Fischer were feared because of their extreme technical skill, Mikhail Tal was feared because of the possibility of being on the wrong side of a soon-to-be-famous brilliancy.

Mikhail Tal contributed little to opening theory, despite having a deep knowledge of most systems, the Sicilian and the Ruy Lopez in particular.

Mikhail Tal was a prolific and highly respected chess writer, penning a number of books and serving as editor of the Latvian chess magazine Sahs from 1960 to 1970.

Mikhail Tal's books are renowned for the detailed narrative of his thinking during the games.

That shouldn't be a surprise because Mikhail Tal was the finest writer to become world champion.

One amusing anecdote frequently quoted from Mikhail Tal's autobiography takes the form of a hypothetical conversation between Mikhail Tal and a journalist.