Tal: A keen eye for tactics

Mikhail Tal (November 9th, 1936 — June 27th, 1992)

Tal has been in the news recently for his 95 game undefeated streak which was just surpassed by Chinese GM Ding Liren. Here we celebrate his tactical prowess in honour of his birthday.

First example

Our first tactic comes from a simultaneous event in Stuttgart 1958.

White had just played 14.g5 to drive the black knight away from f6. Black now tried 14...hxg5 15.hxg5 Rxh1?

Most players would now probably have recaptured the rook with 16.Rxh1 without much thought - after all, if White takes the knight on f6 and plays 16.gxf6 Black takes the rook on d1 with check and then captures on f6 and will remain an exchange up. But Tal had seen deeper. He played:

16.gxf6! Rxd1+ 17.Nxd1 Qxd2 18.fxg7!

Black took the white queen and what would have been more obvious than to take the black queen back? But White refrained from recapturing automatically and came up with a surprising zwischenzug — which decides the game. After taking on g7 White's passed pawn threatens to queen and to mate Black with 19.g8Q#. Black can avoid getting mated but he cannot stop the pawn from queening. White is winning.

Black continued with 18...Kd8 19.g8Q+ Kc7, but after 20.Qxc8+ Kxc8 21.Bxd2 he resigned.

Most chess players would have been happy to find such a combination in a classical game. Tal found it in a simul!

Example two

Another game from a simul in which Tal found a surprising tactical resource is presented by the legendary trainer Mark Dvoretsky in his book Secrets of Chess Tactics from 1992.

In this position, every attacking player would consider 18.Nxf7. But what to do after 18...Kxf7 19.Qxe6+ Kf8? Can White continue the attack — and how?

In his calculations, Tal here discovered the paradoxical retreat 20.Bc1!!. White now threatens 21.Rf3+ Bf6 22.Ba3+ and against this threat Black is surprisingly helpless. Black tried 20...Bf6 21.Ba3+ Re7 22.Re4 Ke8 23.Bxe7 Nxe7 24.d5 Bb5 but now White finished the game in style with 25.d6! Bxd3 26.d7+! Qxd7 27.Qg8#.

Dvoretsky writes that Arthur Jussupow in a training session later found another win for White. It is more direct but as effective as Tal's retreat with the bishop:

20.Bxe7 Rxe7 21.Rf3+ Ke8 22.Qf7+ Kd7 23.Rxe7+ Nxe7 (23...Qxe7 24.Bxd5) 24.Qe6+ Ke8 25.Rf8+! Kxf8 26.Qf7#.

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