Mikhail Tal

Also known as Mikhail Nekhemievich Tal, Mihails Tāls

Soviet-Latvian chess player (1936-1992)

AI overview

Mikhail Tal was a Soviet-Latvian chess player who lived from 1936 to 1992 and became one of the most celebrated figures in chess history. He is remembered for his creative and aggressive playing style that emphasized dynamic attacks and bold sacrifices, which made him both exciting to watch and influential in how chess strategy evolved during the Cold War era.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 9 November 1936
Died: 28 June 1992
Works: 17

Top works

Vie et Parties de Mikhaïl Tal
Vie et Parties de Mikhaïl Tal
Complete Games of Mikhail Tal, 1960-66
Study chess with Tal
Attack with Mikhail Tal

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Country: FR
Active from: 1989-12-12

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 39
Total plays: 51

via Last.fm · Mikhail Tal

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

SciPy 1.0: fundamental algorithms for scientific computing in Python
· 2020 · cited 34,522x
SPAdes: A New Genome Assembly Algorithm and Its Applications to Single-Cell Sequencing
· 2012 · cited 24,083x
A global reference for human genetic variation
· 2015 · cited 17,392x
Global burden of 369 diseases and injuries in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019
· 2020 · cited 15,320x
Efficacy and Safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine
· 2021 · cited 9,776x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“Later, I began to succeed in decisive games, perhaps because I realised a very simple truth: not only was I worried, but so was my opponent.”
“To play for a draw, at any rate with White, is to some degree a crime against chess.”
“When one of us first plays chess, he is like a man who has already caught a dose of microbes of, say, Hong Kong flu. Such a man walks along the street, and he does not yet know that he is ill. He is healthy, he feels fine, but the microbes are doing their work.”
“You must take your opponent into a deep, dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.”
“There are two kinds of sacrifices: correct ones, and mine.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Wikidata facts

Image: Mikhail Tal 1982.jpg
Number of children: 5

Show 7 more facts

Commons category: Mikhail Tal
date of birth: 1936-11-09
date of death: 1992-06-28
name in native language: Михаил Нехемьевич Таль
Elo rating: 2575
Stack Exchange tag: chess.stackexchange.com/tags/tal
nickname: Rygos magas

Sources (8)

via Wikidata · CC0

~27 min read

Article

Mikhail Tal (9 November 1936 – 28 June 1992) was a Soviet Latvian chess grandmaster 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. 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".

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 and Modern Chess Brilliancies 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. In addition, Tal was a highly regarded chess writer.