1/8/2020 – Sally Landau marries Misha Tal for love. Then she separates from him on account of his affairs with other women. Meanwhile, she has to make a living and bring up her son, Gera, so she takes up a job with a travelling orchestra. On one of these trips she leaves the little boy with Ida, her mother-in-law. Unfortunately, Ida falls seriously ill. So a friend who works in a sanatorium takes in Gera for the time being. | Photo: Svetlana Punte / "Sally Landau" Album

12/30/2019 – Sally Landau married Misha Tal for love. The marriage did not last, but love did. Each went their way till fate brought them together in an unexpected fashion. An incredible story of a wayward genius as seen by his first wife. | Photo extracted from "Checkmate", a book by Sally Landau

12/21/2019 – Sally Landau marries Misha Tal for love. Soon she discovers the downside of his character. He is a philanderer and enjoys amorous conquest. His affair with actress L becomes a scandal. Early in 1964, he is summoned to the Central Committee and is told that he has to choose between his wife and his mistress. He is reminded that he is a public figure and has to conduct himself as a responsible citizen. He tells them curtly it’s none of their business, and he will do as he pleases. “Well, you can make your own decision”, the officials tell him. He is soon to learn of their decision… | Photo: Svetlana Punte

11/15/2019 – He was crazy and he drove everyone crazy. Misha Tal was the joy and despair of all who loved him. When it comes to the Wizard of Riga, truth is stranger than fiction. Last Saturday, November 9th, was his birth anniversary, which inspired PROF. NAGESH HAVANUR, to take a look at the reminiscences of Sally Landau, his first wife.

9/30/2019 – Bring the latest CBM up to date! Simon Williams presents you an opening idea, which goes back to no lesser than Magnus Carlsen. Yannick Pelletier came across a variation in the Semi-Slav at the Chess Festival in Biel, which may turn out to be much better than its reputation. Moreover, there is an excellently filled "Lucky bag", the "Brilliancy game" Tal-Koblencs (1961) in another video, and a huge update for your database.

2/2/2019 – The story of Tal can never be finished and his fans always want more. Only this series has to end for now. In the concluding installment here our columnist offers his final observations on Team Tal, the last testament of Valentin Kirillov. | Photo: chesspro.ru

12/30/2018 – Valentin Kirillov and Misha Tal are childhood pals. Destiny takes them on separate paths and then brings them together. The former world champion now has a devoted friend serving as his official second. What does it mean to live and work with a wayward genius? Read on to see a memorable portrait drawn by a friend who loved Misha and paid the price. (Based on an episode in “Team Tal” by Valentin Kirillov, Elk and Ruby. 2017) | Photo: Gahetna.nl

11/29/2018 – Last time our columnist offered a glimpse of young Tal as seen by his friend, Valentin Kirillov: Then we saw a young eagle soaring in the sky. Now we see him with wings burning and falling. Here is how the tragedy unfolded. | Pictured: Mikhail Tal and Boris Spassky at blitz | Photo: chess-news.ru

11/15/2018 – Last week saw the birth anniversary of Mikhail Tal, (1936-1992) 8th World Champion and legendary player. Few players captured the imagination of the chess world as he and Bobby Fischer did. We offered him a small tribute and here is another by our columnist who also draws our attention to a slim volume that deserves to be better known. | Photo: Riga greets Tal

11/9/2018 – Mikhail Tal was born on November 9th, 1936 in Riga, and died June 27, 1992 in Moscow. He probably would have been happy to know that the World Championship match between Carlsen and Caruana begins on his birthday. Tal loved chess and chess fans loved him for his bold, enterprising play and his stunning combinations. He had a very keen eye for tactics — which sometimes best showed in more light-hearted events. Here are two examples to commemorate the birthday of this great player and tactician. | Photo: Ron Kroon / Anefo [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

11/5/2018 – In the Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen, six world-class players have played six draws so far. The two top Chinese players Ding Liren and Yu Yangui compete with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri, Nikita Vitiugov and Radoslaw Wojtaszek. With Monday's draw Ding surpassed the undefeated streak of the great Mikhail Tal! Ding's 96 games without a loss can be considered the best undefeated streak in history, if not (yet) the longest. | Photos: Qipai.com

3/13/2018 – Candidates tournaments have always been special tournaments. After all, the winner of the candidates becomes the challenger the reigning world champion and, possibly, new world champion. The candidates tournament 1959 was won by a brilliant Tal, the candidates tournament in Curacao 1962 caused a scandal. | Photo: Mihail Tal

3/6/2018 – 13 rounds of blitz is tiring. If you are not playing well you want to get over with it as soon as possible. But if you are winning like Sergey Karjakin was at the Tal Memorial Blitz 2018, you would want to keep playing forever! Sergey was in top-notch form as he mustered up 10.0/13 (+8,=4,-1) and finished 1½ points ahead of second-placed Nakamura. The American tried hard but couldn't keep up with Karjakin's pace. Third place was won by Ian Nepomniachtchi. We have the full coverage with interesting games, positions and lot of videos!

3/5/2018 – In memory of Mikhail Tal, the 11th Tal Memorial takes place in Moscow from March 2nd-4th, with a blitz tournament on March 5th. The venue is the Museum of Russian Impressionists in Moscow. Participants are Mamedyarov, Kramnik, Svidler, Nepomniachtchi, Anand, Dubov, Nakamura, Gelfand, Karjakin and Grishuk. Watch live with video updates and more from the venue by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal

3/5/2018 – Chess is considered as a young man's game, but a 48-year-old gentleman from India is changing that perception! Vishy Anand seems to be on a mission - to win just about every rapid event that he plays. Gold at the World Rapid Championship 2017 was difficult, but winning the Tal Memorial Rapid was tougher. The field had some of the best rapid players on the globe and Vishy simply cruised to the finish line with 6.0/9, one point ahead of the rest. In this article we try to analyze the reason for his spectacular performance. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

3/4/2018 – We are heading towards an exciting final day at the Tal Memorial 2018. Vishy Anand won his sixth round game against Hikaru Nakamura and came back to the lead along with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with 4.0/6. Two players: Kramnik and Grischuk follow them on 3.5/6. In this report, you can find a wealth of instructive content including videos, analysis, interviews and much more. We also discuss the question of whether chess in museums is a good idea or not? Report from Moscow by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.

3/2/2018 – The Tal Memorial 2018 begins on the 2nd of March 2018. It consists of two events - nine rounds of rapid and thirteen rounds of blitz. The Candidates tournament is about to begin in a week, yet four of them are playing here: Kramnik, Karjakin, Mamedyarov and Grischuk. Competing with them are Anand, Gelfand, Nakamura, Svidler, Nepomniachtchi and Dubov. It is going to be a wonderful event and we have Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal present at the venue to bring you high-quality coverage. In this first report apart from the opening ceremony we bring you a very interesting experiment that was conducted with the players using Tal's famous games.

11/9/2017 – November 9th is the birthday of Mikhail Tal, one of the most fascinating and adored World Champions. Tal loved to play chess, whether it was blitz, simultaneous events or games with classical time-control, and his imagination led to countless wonderful games. On the occasion of the birthday of the "Chess Magician" Prof. Nagesh Havanur shows brilliant games and a haunting elegy to pay a short tribute to Tal. | Photo: Unlikelylads / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

10/12/2017 – Vlastimil Hort continues to share memories of great chessplayers and personalities he has met during his long chess career. One of them was German Grandmaster Wolfgang Unzicker. At first, Unzicker suspected that Hort was a communist spy, but when this suspicion was dispelled, they became friends and liked to tell each other jokes in Russian. | Photo: André Schulz

8/20/2017 – The Austrian Rudolf Spielmann was a brilliant attacking player and a predecessor of Mihail Tal. His book "Richtig Opfern!" (The Art of Sacrifice in Chess) is considered to be a classic of attacking chess. Spielmann died under tragic circumstances on 20. August 1942, 75 years ago.

7/27/2017 – The "Exercises in Style" are an invitation to playfully have a closer look at the style of the 16 World Champions. In each of the four parts of the series the reader is shown four games without data and is asked to guess which World Champion played which game. Part 2 showed games by Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov and Mihail Tal. Here are the answers to which World Champion played which game.

7/18/2017 – What is style in chess? And how unique is it? Tal and Botvinnik played differently but how easy — or difficult — is it to spot these stylistic differences? Part 1 of the "Exercises in Style" presented games by Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine, the first four World Champions in the history of chess. Now follow games by Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov and Mihail Tal. Do you know which World Champion played which game?

11/9/2016 – Today, 9th November 2016, Mihail Tal would have celebrated his 80th birthday. Tal is one of the most popular World Champions though he reigned only for one year. But this short time on the chess throne was enough to secure him a special place in the history of chess. Not only because of his magical games but also because of his kind and modest nature. His opponents feared the magician from Riga, his fans admired him. The German chess journalist Dagobert Kohlmeyer knew Tal well and shares memories.

11/9/2015 – The 9th of November happens to be the birth anniversary of Misha Tal, who continues to be adored by the chess world long after his death. In 1959 he won the quadruple round robin Candidates Tournament, and the next year he went on to beat Botvinnik in the World Championship match. He was only 24 years old. Prof. Havanur presents a delightful episode from his career.