Meet the Legends: Mikhail Tal

Known as the Magician from Riga, Mikhail Tal is a former Soviet and Latvian Chess player who was the 8th World Champion. Tal is also considered a creative genius and is one of the influential players in Chess history. Tal’s game style was more towards an attacking and combinatorial style. 

Tal was born to a Jewish family in Riga, Latvia, and his father was only identified as ‘Uncle Robert’, who was a taxi driver in Paris in 1920. He lost his whole family in World War 2. Mikhail often traveled to the Netherlands to visit his aunt. As a child, Mikhail joined the Riga Palace Young Pioneers Chess Club. 

Tal began his coaching with Alexander Koblents in 1949, and his game improved drastically. And two years later, Mikhail qualified for the Latvian Championship. In the 1952 championship, Tal finished ahead of his trainer, which was a splendid achievement. Tal was awarded the title of Candidate Master in 1953 when he won the Latvian Championship for the first time, and then became the Soviet Master in 1954 by defeating Vladimir Saigin in a qualifying match. 

Mikhail made his first significant appearance at the 1956 USSR Chess Championship, where he shared 5- 7th place with Lev Polugaevsky and Ratmir Kholmov. His moment to shine came in 1957 when he became the youngest player to win the USSR Chess Championship. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster despite not playing enough matches, as FIDE decided to waive the rules a bit, as he had won the Championship, and the Soviet Union was a dominant force in Chess at that time. Tal went on to defend his title in 1958 as well, maintaining his dominance in the sport. 

At the age of just 23, Mikhail defeated Mikhail Botvinnik in a World Championship match, making him the youngest-ever to win a World Championship. Garry Kasparov and then D. Gukesh later broke it. Botvinnik, though, had his revenge in the Return match in 1961. Tal started suffering from health issues, and that was one of the primary reasons for his defeat. 

Soon after losing to Botvinnik, Tal won the 1961 Bled super tournament in Yugoslavia. In 1962, his health worsened, and he had to withdraw three-quarters of the way through in a Candidates tournament 1962. Poor health caused a major slump in his game from 1968 to 1969, but he recovered after having a kidney removed. 

Post his recovery, Tal was back to his best as in 1972 to 1973, he went undefeated in 86 games straight. From October 1973 to October 1974, he went 95 games unbeaten straight and broke his record. He was at the top until Ding Liren broke it in 2018. In 1979, Tal won the Riga Inter-Zonal with an undefeated score of 14/17. One of his greatest achievements during his late career was getting an equal place with Anatoly Karpov in the 1979 Montreal Tournament. 

Mikhail played in 21 Soviet Tournaments and won them six times, showing his greatness. He is also the five-time winner of the International Chess tournament in Tallinn. He continued to suffer from health issues. In 1992, he was in the hospital where he left to play the Blitz tournament and defeated Kasparov. Unfortunately, Mikhail died a few days later due to a hemorrhage in the esophagus. It is said that he was a heavy drinker and a chain smoker, which was a major reason for his health issues. 

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