He perfectly suited the stereotypes of genius: a burning look, carelessness in appearance, complete concentration on the most important thing and inattention to the little things in life. Mikhail Tal occupied the world throne for a very short time, but is still considered to be a real genius of chess, personifying their highest sense as a game based both on excitement, improvisation, insight, and on a methodical calculation of options.
His main human achievement was that he remained optimistic and benevolent towards others, despite the sufferings and ailments that accompanied him for his short life.
Not like everyone
Eccentricity accompanied him from birth - the right hand was a three-fingered, which friends jokingly called evidence of the alien origin of Tal. More practical biographers see the reason for this anomaly in the fact that his parents were blood relatives - cousins, which is fraught with genetic failures.
Mikhail Tal was born on November 9, 1936 in Riga, in a family of doctors. As he later said: "I played with fate with black pieces." Her first move was dangerous: six months after birth, the boy contracted an infection similar to meningitis. Parents, like doctors, understood the meagerness of the chances of survival, and they also knew that such inflammation affects the brain in an unexpected way, sometimes repeatedly increasing its efficiency in case of a successful outcome of the disease. The child survived.
Short childhood
By the age of five, he could multiply three-digit numbers in his mind, and he read from the age of three. The Talei family spent the war in evacuation in the Perm Territory. At school, the boy was accepted immediately to the third grade, and Mikhail Tal was enrolled, as an exception, from the age of 15 at the University of Riga, at the Faculty of Philology.
Tal's memory was phenomenal. The boy literally reproduced the texts of the book, which, as it seemed to others, he fluently looked through in minutes. That information, which he considered particularly valuable, remained in his memory forever.
At the same time, Mikhail did not consider himself a child prodigy. His boyish interests did not differ from his peer hobbies - he loved to play football and spent a lot of time running around with the ball, despite early pathology in the work of the kidneys. But gradually in his life the main meaning appeared - chess.
The beginning of the way
At age 6, Mikhail Tal, whose biography will now be forever associated with this ancient game, first saw a board with figures. This happened when the child was at work with his father and was waiting in the waiting room for his doctor’s office. Patients spent time playing a chess game awaiting admission. Father showed him how the figures walk, and introduced the basic rules. At first, the boy reacted calmly to the game. The excitement, which later the future chess champion was distinguished for, boiled in him when, at the age of 9, he received a “children's mat” from his cousin who had come to visit.
From the age of 10 he began to go to a chess club at the Riga Palace of Pioneers. At 12, he received the 2nd category, at 14 - the first, at 17 he became a master. Tal's first chess teacher, Janis Kruzkops, himself was a supporter of combinational, active play. In the case of Mikhail, this overlapped with outstanding abilities and fiery temperament. The Tal chess player has never been afraid of risky sequels that complicate the position. Tal's legendary “incorrect” victims are also largely from his “pioneering” childhood.
Literature teacher
The interest in the study of literature and history apparently arose in Mikhail under the influence of his mother, Ida Grigoryevna, who in her youth had an acquaintance with Ehrenburg, Picasso, and other humanities. The theme of the thesis, after the defense of which a young teacher Mikhail Tal was graduated from the university, was “Satire and Humor in the Works of Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov”. Obviously, the brilliant sense of humor inherent in Tal, celebrated by everyone - people who had known him for a long time and barely known - had a solid foundation.
After graduating, he worked for some time at school, but by then chess had become the main profession. Philological training greatly helped Tal in his studies in journalism, in particular, when he edited the journal “Chess” published in Riga, which was highly regarded throughout the world.
Sally
In his game, they always looked for the imprint of the influence of supernatural, demonic forces - the style of Mikhail Tal was too bright, extraordinary, full of risk, boundless imagination and unpredictable intuitive insights. The losers sought an explanation of their failures in the hypnotic look of the master, in his extrasensory abilities. Those who knew Michael better, these attempts evoked a smile - the matter was different.
Simply, the Tal chess player was the product of his general attitude to life. The desire to succeed as soon as possible, to know the fullness of feelings, incontinence in desires and means for their embodiment accompanied him all his life.
When preparations were underway for the most important match with Botvinnik, who decided the fate of the world champion title, he carried out a whole operation to conquer the heart of the Riga beauty Sulamif Landau. Both goals were achieved: Sally became his wife, and he became the world champion.
Way to Olympus
Tal’s rapid ascent to the chess top, as well as his quick acquisition of the prefix ex-to his world title, are legendary pages in world chess history. In 1957, a young Riga citizen became the USSR champion in chess, ahead of the venerable David Bronstein and Paul Keres - applicants for the world crown. In the future, he won the All-Union Chess Championship 5 more times.
The next stages of the journey to chess Olympus were international tournaments. There followed victories in the interzonal tournament of applicants in Portoroz, in Slovenia (1958) and at the 13th Chess Olympiad in Munich (1958). Tal won the International Chess Tournament in Zurich (1959) and the Candidates Tournament held in the same year in Yugoslavia, among which were all the then stars in this sport: Smyslov, Gligorich, Petrosyan, F. Olafson, Keres and fifteen-year-old Robert Fischer.
The match with Mikhail Botvinnik for the world title was held from March 15 to May 7, 1960 and ended with an early victory for the 24-year-old Tal, who won 6 games, lost 2 and first reached 12 and a half points.
The youngest world champion
Young and charismatic, witty and intelligent, possessing an unprecedented bold and energetic style of play, Tal became an idol of chess lovers around the world. When the professional masters were surprised by the unexpected appearance of the “upstart”, when they learned closer to the new champion, the feeling of sympathy for him became widespread and universal. Even the misanthrope and sociopath Bobby Fischer, known among the grandmasters and the chess public, easily spent the whole day alone with Tal playing blitz.
In Riga, Tal was met by a huge crowd, carrying a car with a young champion from the station in his arms. He willingly met chess lovers of different ages in Riga and throughout the Union. Soon in the USSR there were few who were unfamiliar with the surname Tal. Mikhail Nekhemievich earned respect for the fact that he did not change his place of residence even in the most severe times, he never allowed himself to indiscriminately swear at the country where he was born, although the boldness of his statements abroad provoked constant interest in him from state structures - at one time he was not allowed to travel abroad.
Subsequent life
In the course of preparations for the rematch with Botvinnik in the spring of 1961, an exacerbation of Tal's kidney problems intervened. He was even offered to ask to postpone the match, but out of respect for the opponent he agreed to all the conditions of Botvinnik. As a result, Tal was not ready for a new title fight and lost.
Subsequently, he repeatedly entered the struggle for the world chess crown, but to no avail. He participated in the team of A. Karpov in preparing him for the matches with Korchnoi and Fisher, making a significant contribution to his becoming a champion.
Despite the growing health problems, he did not want to slow down the pace of life. After the birth of his son, divorce from Sally, the second and third marriage, the birth of his daughter, he remained an expensive person for everyone he met on his life's journey, behaving with women simple and simple. He did not want to lose simple and natural pleasures - tasty, but unhealthy food, good alcohol, smoked a lot … True, sometimes this was due to the need to drown out the constant pain. To relieve pain, it was necessary to resort to strong medicines.
