Mikhail Tal - The Magician of Riga
The man who sacrificed everything to win the game!
Welcome to this article about the man himself, the magician of Riga... Mikhail Tal.
Mikhail Tal is undoubtedly and unarguably the greatest tactical chess player of all time. He would punish his opponents with the most crazy tactics in his games. Tactics that simply would be almost impossible to work out and seek during the games. The majority of chess games usually begin in the endgame. But with Mikail's crazy play, the majority of his games would have been won in the latter part of the middlegame. The consensus of most of his games played were won in the middlegame and very rarely reached the endgame. Only Tal could do this.
Tal was known as the Magician of Riga.......? Why well it's simple, his tactical play was magical and he was born in Riga, hence known for being the Magician of Riga. His style of play was of an intense sacrificial nature, whereby he sacrificed all of his pieces to simply bring his opponents to their knees. Most often Tal's opponents would resign. He had a very intelligent and clever style of play. All his pieces on the chessboard were well planned, coordinated and synchronised. Tal used a combative style of play for checkmating his opponent.
One of Tal's most famous quotes was:-
"You have to lead your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the only way out is a path for 1".
Tal played very confidently with just the right recipe for confidence and diligence. His was simply a tactical genius. He could scan and analyse the game in progress through absolute infinite brilliancy. No opponent has ever been able to do this and play like Tal. To put it simply there has never been another Magician of Riga!
It would be almost impossible to work out all of Tal's tactics in any one game. This would crucialate the opponent in trying to figure out all of his tactics and make it almost impossible to play against Tal. Tal had a remarkable gift of filtering out new tactics at any given moment in the game. He had an incredible gift to work out moves in their unique brilliance and if the games that were played were to be analysed by engine machines then Tal would definitely come out on tops and defeat most of his fellow rivals. The tactical genius even played his brilliant move order when he was not so well and won the games.
Mikhail Tal found tactics after tactics, and whilst playing his chess games, he would most certainly be able to work out his brilliant move order. Tal would carefully plan his attack and take into account of his opponents every move. Tal would sacrifice his Queen being the most powerful piece on the board, and his rook and many other pieces. His checkmating style was deadly and unforgiving. One mistake from the opponent and it would be game over. Tal would always go into attack mode with many sacrifices before the final blow,and by then in most cases his opponent would have resigned.
Let's have a look at the chess diagram below and see Tal's crazy tactical plan.
"You have to lead your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the only way out is a path for 1".
Mikhail Tal.
