In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Nekhemyevich and the family name is Tal.
Mikhail Tal
Tal in 1962
Full name
Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal
Country
Soviet Union (until 1991)
Latvia (1992)
Born
9 November 1936 (1936-11-09) Riga, Latvia
Died
27 June 1992 (1992-06-28) (aged 55)[1] Moscow, Russia
Title
Grandmaster (1957)
World Champion
1960–1961
Peak rating
2705 (January 1980)
Peak ranking
No. 2 (January 1980)
Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal[a] (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992)[1] was a Soviet-Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius and is widely regarded as one of the most influential players in chess history. Tal played in an attacking and daring combinatorial style.[2][3] His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability. Vladislav Zubok said of him, "Every game for him was as inimitable and invaluable as a poem".[4]
His nickname was "Misha", a diminutive for Mikhail, and he earned the nickname "The Magician from Riga". Both The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games[5] and Modern Chess Brilliancies[6] include more games by Tal than any other player. He also held the record for the longest unbeaten streak in competitive chess history with 95 games (46 wins, 49 draws) between 23 October 1973 and 16 October 1974, until Ding Liren's streak of 100 games (29 wins, 71 draws) between 9 August 2017 and 11 November 2018.[7][8] In addition, Tal was a highly regarded chess writer.
Tal died on 28 June 1992 in Moscow, Russia. The Mikhail Tal Memorial chess tournament has been held in Moscow annually since 2006.
^ abTal's gravestone has 27 June as the date of his death. All other sources consulted give 28 June, including Kasparov, Garry, My Great Predecessors, part II, p. 382, and The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, p. 6.
^Zubok, V. M. (2011) Zhivago's children: the last Russian intelligentsia, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0674062329
^Clarke, P. H. (1969) Tal's Best Games of Chess, Bell, ISBN 0713502045
^Zubok, Vladislav. Zhivago's Children. Harvard University Press, 2009. p. 179 ISBN 9780674033443
^Cite error: The named reference Burgess was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Evans was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Soltis, Andrew (2002) Chess Lists Second Edition, 2nd ed., McFarland & Company, Jefferson, North Carolina and London, pp. 43–44, ISBN 0786412968.
^"Official FIDE Ding, Liren (CHN) Individual Calculations full report".
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Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet-Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative...
A World Chess Championship was played between Mikhail Botvinnik and MikhailTal in Moscow from March 15 to May 7, 1960. Botvinnik was the reigning champion...
(2004). "Mikhail Botvinnik's Opening Course". In Neat, K. (ed.). Return Match for the World Chess Championship: Mikhail Botvinnik – MikhailTal, Moscow...
exception of 2015, to honour the memory of the former World Champion MikhailTal (1936–1992). Many of the world's strongest players compete. In 2014 it...
played between former champion Mikhail Botvinnik and champion MikhailTal in Moscow from March 15 to May 13, 1961. Tal had unseated Botvinnik in the 1960...
the return match in 1958, and lost to MikhailTal in 1960 but won the return match in 1961. Thus Smyslov and Tal each held the world title for a year,...
had some Jewish ancestry: Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, Mikhail Botvinnik and MikhailTal. The Modern School of Chess espoused by Steinitz and Siegbert...
Tigran Petrosian, Paul Keres, Lajos Portisch, Boris Spassky, Mikhail Botvinnik, MikhailTal, Viktor Korchnoi, Jan Timman, Anatoly Karpov, Vasyl Ivanchuk...
least twice (not necessarily while they were reigning): Vasily Smyslov, MikhailTal, Tigran Petrosian, Bobby Fischer, Anatoly Karpov, and Garry Kasparov...
Wilhelm Steinitz, Siegbert Tarrasch, Mikhail Chigorin, Alexander Alekhine, José Raúl Capablanca, Boris Spassky, MikhailTal, and Samuel Reshevsky as the greatest...
placegetters qualified for the Candidates, along with Boris Spassky and MikhailTal who were seeded into the Candidates matches as finalists of the previous...
(1994). MikhailTal Games 1949–1962. Chess Stars. ISBN 978-1-199-58317-8. Alexander Khalifman; Sergei Soloviev; Olga Krylova (1995). MikhailTal Games 1963–1972...
Encyclopaedia of Chess, New York: St. Martin's Press Tal, Mikhail (1976), The Life and Games of MikhailTal, New York: RHM Press, ISBN 0-89058-027-8 Wade, Robert;...
World Champions who held the title from 1948 to 1985: Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, MikhailTal, Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky, Bobby Fischer, and...
held the World Champion title at some point. They are Bobby Fischer, MikhailTal, Tigran Petrosian, and Vassily Smyslov. His career score against Fischer...
championships, which were of the Swiss system. Six titles: Mikhail Botvinnik, MikhailTal Four titles: Tigran Petrosian, Viktor Korchnoi, Alexander Beliavsky...
Bronstein with a sacrificial attack. 1960: MikhailTal vs Mikhail Botvinnik, 1st Match Game, Moscow. Tal's critics said his daring, complicated style...
that his opponents never know when he is suddenly going to play like MikhailTal." (Tal was known as the most aggressive attacker of his era.) Petrosian was...
Seirawan vs Tal, 1983 In this position, Syrian-American Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan has just played 13. b4 against the former World Champion MikhailTal, expanding...
November, Carlsen achieved a shared 8th place of 10 participants in the MikhailTal Memorial in Moscow with two losses and seven draws. He finished ninth...
Munich, West Germany Soviet Union 34½ Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, Paul Keres, David Bronstein, MikhailTal, Tigran Petrosian Yugoslavia 29 Svetozar...
White. Zilber, Latvian Chess Champion in 1958, defeated the teenage MikhailTal in 1952, and during most of the 1980s was homeless and regarded as one...
featured five players, three of them Soviet citizens—including the winner, Mikhail Botvinnik. Botvinnik would go on to win or retain in four further championship...
Russia Sergei Rublevsky 2706 2013-11 1974 115 Soviet Union Latvia MikhailTal 2705 1980-01 1936 1992 Former world champion (1960–1961), formerly highest-ranked...
a rematch in 1958. In 1960, he lost the title to the Latvian prodigy MikhailTal, an accomplished tactician and attacking player. Botvinnik again regained...
writer. He is best known as the trainer of the 1960-61 World Champion MikhailTal. In 1935, he took 4th place in Rosas (Salo Flohr won). In 1936, he took...
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