Content deleted Content added
No edit summary Tags: Reverted Mobile edit Mobile web edit |
Hushpuckena (talk | contribs) →Soviet champion: copy edit |
||
| (11 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown) | |||
Line 3:
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2023}}
{{Infobox chess player
| name =
| image = Mikhail Tal 1962.jpg
| caption = Tal in 1962
Line 51:
==Soviet champion==
Tal made his first significant appearance at the [[1956 USSR Chess Championship]], sharing 5th–7th place with [[Lev Polugaevsky]] and Ratmir Kholmov.{{sfn|Kasparov|p=383}} [[Grigory Levenfish]] called him "the most colourful figure of the championship" and a "great talent" who
He became the youngest player to win the [[1957 USSR Chess Championship]], at the age of 20. He had not played in enough international tournaments to qualify for the title of [[International Grandmaster|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 Tal had beaten several of the world's top players to win the tournament.<ref>{{cite book |author=Clarke, Peter H. |title=Mikhail Tal – Master of Sacrifice |publisher=B.T.Batsford Ltd |year=1991 |isbn=0-7134-6899-8 |page=4}}</ref>
Line 63:
In 1959, Tal won a very strong tournament at [[Zürich]], [[Switzerland]]. Following the Interzonal, the top players carried on to the [[Candidates' Tournament]], Yugoslavia, 1959. Tal showed superior form by winning with 20/28 points, ahead of [[Paul Keres]] with 18½, followed by [[Tigran Petrosian]], [[Vasily Smyslov]], the sixteen-year-old [[Bobby Fischer]], [[Svetozar Gligorić]], [[Friðrik Ólafsson]], and [[Pal Benko]]. Tal's victory was attributed to his dominance over the lower half of the field;<ref>{{cite journal |last=Horowitz |first=Al |author-link=Israel Albert Horowitz |year=1973 |title=The World Chess Championship, A History |publisher=Macmillan |page=188 |lccn=72080175}}</ref> whilst scoring only one win and three losses versus Keres, he won all four individual games against Fischer, and took 3½ points out of 4 from each of Gligorić, Olafsson, and Benko.<ref name="MarkWeeks1959Candidates">{{cite web |url=http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/5860$cix.htm |title=1959 Yugoslavia Candidates Tournament |work=mark-weeks.com}}</ref> When Benko arrived for his match with Tal, he wore dark glasses in order to avert the gaze of Tal, which could be intimidating. In response and as a joke, Tal wore large sunglasses which he borrowed from a member of the crowd.<ref name="Independent Obituary" />
In 1960, at the age of 23, Tal defeated the strategically-minded [[Mikhail Botvinnik]] in a World Championship match, held in Moscow, by 12½–8½ (six wins, two losses, and thirteen draws),<ref name="Independent Obituary" /> making him the youngest-ever World Champion (a record later broken by [[Garry Kasparov]], who earned the title at 22, and broken again by [[Gukesh Dommaraju]] who earned the title at age 18). Botvinnik, who had never faced Tal before the title match began, won the return match against Tal in 1961, also held in Moscow, by 13–8 (ten wins to five, with six draws).<ref name="Independent Obituary" /> In the period between the matches Botvinnik had thoroughly analysed Tal's style, and turned most of the return match's games into slow wars of maneuver or [[Chess endgame|endgames]], rather than the complicated tactical melees which were Tal's happy hunting ground.<ref name="NYTimes1992TalObit">{{cite news |title=Mikhail Tal, a Chess Grandmaster Known for His Daring, Dies at 55 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE0D91739F93AA15755C0A964958260 |author=McFadden, R.D. |date=29 June 1992 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> Tal's chronic [[kidney]] problems contributed to his defeat, and his doctors in Riga advised that he should postpone the match for health reasons. Yuri Averbakh claimed that Botvinnik would agree to a postponement only if Tal was certified unfit by Moscow doctors, and that Tal then decided to play.<ref name="Kingston2002AvebakhInterviewPart2">{{cite web |url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles183.pdf |title=Yuri Averbakh: An Interview with History – Part 2 |author=Kingston, T. |publisher=The Chess Cafe |year=2002}}</ref> His short reign atop the chess world made him one of the two so-called "winter kings" who interrupted Botvinnik's long reign from 1948 to 1963 (the other was Smyslov, world champion 1957–58).
His highest [[Elo rating system|Elo rating]] was 2705, achieved in 1980. His highest Historical Chessmetrics Rating was 2799, in September 1960.
Line 98:
[[File:Mikhail Tal 1982.jpg|thumb|Tal in 1982]]
[[File:Mikhail Tal 1961 Oberhausen.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Tal in 1961]]
Naturally artistic, witty and impulsive, Tal led a [[Bohemianism|bohemian life]] of chess playing, [[Alcoholism|heavy drinking]] and [[chain smoking]]. His already fragile health suffered as a result, and he spent a great deal of time in the hospital, including an operation to remove a kidney in 1969.<ref>Sosonko, p. 23</ref> He was also briefly addicted to [[morphine]], prescribed due to intense pain.<ref>Sosonko, p. 25</ref> Tal also drank heavily before tournaments; in a tournament in the Netherlands, Tal and another Soviet grandmaster were tied in the standings, and the results of the next day's final round would determine the victor. The night before these games, the two drank together until four in the morning. Tal was ready to play at 8
On 28 June 1992,<ref name="died" /> Tal died in a Moscow hospital, officially of a [[Bleeding|hemorrhage]] in the [[esophagus]]. His friend and fellow Soviet grandmaster [[Gennadi Sosonko]] reported that "effectively his entire organism had ceased to function."<ref>Sosonko, p. 30</ref>
| |||