Mikhail Tal Tricks

by Vijay Balaji.V
(India)

Mikhail Tal - Tactical Genius

Mikhail Botvinnik had long held the World Chess Championship. He was challenged by a young Latvian, Mikhail Tal. Tal has many times sacrificed his pieces, trying different techniques and initiative ideas in the game. He lost in many competitions because of experimenting too much. Many people thought Tal was not learning from his previous mistakes. But those techniques helped Tal very much in his later chess matches. His intuitive sacrifices, has created many complications to his opponents. And most of the players were clueless in trying to counter his techniques.

After some time, it almost became an impossible thing to solve all the problems he created over the board. But there were also some flaws occurring in his techniques. After some analysis it was found that all were well performed tricks. Even though, Tal convincingly beat his opponents with his trademark aggression.

In 1960, the match played in Moscow has a fond memory among many people. Thousands of chess fans were not able to buy an entrance ticket. Even though, they stayed outside the Pushkin Theatre to watch an incredible game. Tal sacrificed a knight in his opening moves in the 6th game. A challenge was posed on Botvinnik and on his followers. Tal looked too relaxed and was pacing to and fro on the stage in front of a legendry opponent. Botvinnik had scored victories over legends like Alekhine and Lasker.

At last, Botvinnik only had a few minutes left on his clock. The fans were so excited and the atmosphere looked like last moments of a football match. Finally, Tal won the game, and in spite of his opponent’s resistance, he also won the whole match, becoming the World Chess Champion.