"But here is the finger of God, a flash of the Will that can,
Existent behind all laws, that made them and, lo, they are!
And I know not if, save in this, such gift be allowed to man,
That out of three sounds, he frame, not a fourth sound, but a star.
Consider it well: each tone of our scale in itself is nought;
It is everywhere in the world - loud, soft, and all is said:
Give it to me to use! I mix it with two in my thought:
And, there! Ye have heard and seen: consider and bow the head!
-Robert Browning
Give Mikhail Tal a piece or two and he will mix it with his thought and you will him put those pieces in some most improbable squares and create a very unique constellation....
.....you would love seeing it .....with a gaping mouth....irrespective of the outcome!
Meanwhile, as Bronstein said, don't believe those who claim to have seen it all....!
The beauty is in the human 'ability' for imperfection.....and those who do not wish to thrive with imperfections, uncertainty and chaos and claim to have 'analysed perfectly' 'understood completely'....have no place in the realm of art!
I shall show you glimpses of Tal's unusual disposition of his pieces, which has beauty written all over it.....!
Botvinnik wrote in his 100 Selected Games: "The player's greatest art consists in exploring the possibilities of bringing the game to a position where the normal relative value cease to operate....for instance, a Queen may become weaker than a pawn. One cannot arrive at such a critical position by way of simple, superficial moves. The road lies through sacrifices..."
The magician from Riga is peerless, in this art...!
The purpose of this article is not to analyse those incredible positions......you have innumerable sources for that! But, just to engulf us with joy of merely seeing those extinct specimens.....and if possible, try finding clues for what induced Tal to go for it in the first place.
I pre-warn the readers not to use engines in search of 'correctness' and arrive at conclusions....it will only succeed in marring the beauty....
......the beauty lies in the interludes .....where the two human minds sitting across the board meet....surreptitiously between the moves......and what makes one decide on a particular choice....
Mikhail Tal - Hans Joachim Hecht, Varna - 1962
Tal, after sacrificing his Queen for the Knight on f6, had just played 21.Bd3-f5!!....
.....now three of his pieces are enprise!! This intuitive concept draws strength from the control of all squares around the Black King....we cannot undermine the role played by that little pawn on 'g7'!
Black has three captures; none of which gives him respite....the seeds for which was sown by him on move 12....
Black had just played 12.....Nf8.....where he could have castled....instead.
Tal always has an eye on the opponent's King....even if it is pushed to the corner......and if you leave it in the center for undue length of time....!?
13.c5!?
The purpose of this pawn sacrifice is to open the line of Bishop.
13.....dc5; 14.de5! Qe5; 15.Qa4 c6?!
This weakens the d6 square, which, along with the weakness of e5-square amplifies the trouble. But the other option 15....N6d7 is not an easy move to make over-the-board as it ties up the other Knight from going to his intended e6 or g6, enabling castling.
16.OO! Ng6; 17.Nc4 Qe6; 18.e5! b5; 19.ef6!! ba4; 20.fg7 Rg8; 21.Bf5!!
And we have arrived.....though this is not a linear line, with no options.....
The moves 12.....Nf8 and 15.....c6 were the chisels with which Tal sculpted the initial position.....!
......it always gives pleasure to explore the options oneself using a chessboard.....not computer and engine.....
Position-2
Efim Geller - Mikhail Tal, Alekhine Memorial - 1975
You rarely get to see a King travelling this far in the middlegame and aid in delivering mate!!
The White King commenced its journey on move 29 and travelled via h2-g3-f3-g4-g5-f6-e6-f7 to reach the f8 square after 12 moves....of course with the help of Black!
Position - 3
Mikhail Tal - Bent Larsen, Denmark - 1969
Is that a misprint.....that Bishop on f7!? ......how on earth did it reach there?
Though Tal lost this game (after taking undue risk, as he usually does!), the diagram begs to be showcased.....sheerly for the audacity to put that Bishop on f7, deep in the enemy camp!
....this is how it landed there....on move 20.....on the strength of the pawn on f5 and Knight on f4.
.....and remained there
Position - 4
Pionerskaia Pravda Readers - Mikhail Tal, Telephone - 1969
The game started thus...
1.e4 e5; 2.Nf3 Nc6; 3.Bc4 Nf6; 4.Ng5 Bc5; 5.Nf7 Bf2; 6.Kf2 Ne4; 7.Kg1 Qh4......
......till it reached the above position after White's 26th move.
White was either busy going for Black's King or fending the threats against his own King and hence did not get time to attend to his Queenside pieces!!
Here, Tal could have delivered an incredible mate with 26.....Nf4!! 27.Kh6 (if 27.Kh4 h5!! locks the White King and mates him on g4 square!) Rg6; 28.Kh7 Rg7; 29.Kh6 Kg8!! followed by mate on g6 square!
Missing which, the game ended in a draw!
Position 5
Mikhail Tal - Rafael Vaganian, USSR Ch - 1974
In this game, Tal was on the receiving end of the combination.
Having got an overwhelming position, Tal's Rook got lured by Vaganian to h8. Even after that, Tal enjoyed an advantage and in the position above, 31.e4 would still have secured him a clear advantage. Instead, he played.....
31.Be4? Nf3!!
A shocker! Tal receiving in Tal style!! Now, 32.gf3 leads to straight perpetual checks and if 32.Bf3 Bf3; 33.Rh2 (33.gf3 Qe1=) Be4!! followed by perpetual checks as trying to escape PP by playing Kh3 leads to mate after ......Qh4!
32.Qd3 Ng1!!
Brilliant resource! Now 33.Qe2 Ne2; 34.Kf2 (34.Kf3? Ng1! 35.Kf2 Be4 followed by .....b5 wins!) 34.....Nc3 and White's a-pawn falls and Black's queenside pawns turn mobile and dangerous
33.Kh2 Nf3! 34.Kg3 Ng1 Drawn!
Position - 6
Mikhail Tal - Leonid Stein, USSR Ch - 1969
Riddle: How the Rook landed on g6 square.....with his Bishop on h4 already en-prise !!
This was the position from where it started!
Without getting too much by way of assessment, we can safely conclude that White has a good game with fully blown pieces ready for an offensive!
As Tal would never be satisfied with normal comfortable position, he initiated complications with.....
14.Rd6!? g5; 15.Rg6!!
Neither of the two pieces could be captured: the Rook is immune because of the pin on the f7 pawn and 15....gh4?? 16.Qh6 mates!
15......e6; 16.Rg7!
This is what Tal was aiming for, the control of dark squares, with the exchange sacrifice Rook for that dark-squared Bishop!
Stein conducted a very active defence; first by removing the King from the Kingside and taking him for a walk across the board and then counter-attacked White to hold the game!
Position - 7
Mikhail Tal - Filipowicz, Halle - 1974
How did the Rook land on b3....hemmed by Black's pawns and Bishop on the front and his own pawns on the rear!?
The seeds were sown on move 34....position below!
After complicated play in the early part of the middlegame, the above position was reached where Tal had just played 34.Rc1! with the idea, 34....Bb3? 35.cb3 Rd3; 36.Kd3 maintaining equilibrium! The game subsequently ended in a draw!
We shall conclude this article by a very amusing incident, narrated by Tal himself! Tal was suffering from persistent kidney problem and despite that -as he does in chess- he risked his life with smoking and consumption of alcohol. During 1969, the situation became really serious and they decided to remove his diseased kidney. He was deeply in love with the game and never allowed even his poor health to come in the way of his creations on the chessboard!
"I travelled to Tbilisi, and there they removed my diseased kidney, which evidently should have been done 2-3 years earlier. If it is possible to talk at all about renaissance, that was how I felt when I came around after the operation. On roughly the fifth day (from the date of operation), I was already impatiently awaiting my next tournament!
It was just at this time that a rumour began to spread, to the effect that during the operation, I had suffered a complete and final 'defeat'. It reached Yugoslavia, and my friends from the Moscow 'Mossovyet' Theatre, who were on tour there at that time, were saddened to read in a number of Yugoslav newspapers of the death of Tal. I hastened to reassure my friends, quoting them the words of one of the classic humorist: 'The rumours about my death are greatly exaggerated!'
The tournament about which I had been dreaming began in Tbilisi roughly a month after the operation and I played there with particular pleasure. I don't know whether this really happened, but later I was told that when I sacrificed my Queen against Suetin, the following comment was made: 'not bad for a dead man, don't you think!"
Position - 8
Mikhail Tal - Alexey Suetin, Goglidze memorial - 1969
Tal had just played 20.Qe5!! and after 20....de5; 21.ef7 1 - 0
....as 21.....Kf8; 22.Bh6# and 21.....Kd8 and .....Kd7 loses to 22.Bf5!
Seldom you will find Tal not jeopardising his pieces and make them overwork.....both to attack and mate or at times escape! They were so unfathomable that on many occasions, his opponents could not succeed in finding the right resource, retort, defence.
Tal was absolutely fearless both in life and in his games....for a man who could let-go his kidney and pain, letting go his pieces was never difficult.....
.....but his opponents suffered on most occasions!
Hope you enjoyed this short journey!
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