Tal

by Cyrus Lakdawala

Mikhail Tal is a true legend of chess. He was the World Champion and also holds the world record for the longest unbeaten run in competitive chess. Tal is widely regarded to be the greatest attacking player of all time. Nicknamed 'the magician from Riga', Tal was a creative genius who made it look as though absolutely anything was possible over the chessboard. He excelled in confusing his opponents in chaotic positions, and even the best defenders of his time were unable to withstand his blistering attacks. Tal's many brilliant games have inspired generations of chess players who admire his play without ever being able to convincingly reproduce it. In this book, former American Open Champion Cyrus Lakdawala selects and examines his favourite Tal games, from the beginning to the end of his exceptional career. Lakdawala shows how we can all improve our chess by learning from Tal's masterpieces. Cyrus Lakdawala examines his favourite games of the chess legend Mikhail Tal, a World Champion who is widely regarded to be the greatest attacking player of all time. Move by Move provides an ideal platform to study chess. By continually challenging the reader to answer probing questions throughout the book, the Move by Move format greatly encourages the learning and practising of vital skills just as much as the traditional assimilation of knowledge. Carefully selected questions and answers are designed to keep you actively involved and allow you to monitor your progress as you learn. This is an excellent way to improve your chess skills and knowledge. * Learn from the games of a World Champion * Important ideas absorbed by continued practice * Utilizes an ideal approach to chess study

Genres: Chess

400 pages, Paperback

Published May 7, 2016

Reviews

[Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am one who loves the writing style of Cyrus Lakdawala a lot. He is funny and he brings a welcome dose of human emotion and feeling to writing about chess players and the moves that are made in the course of games that he features. First, and foremost, I learn a lot about playing chess, and that's the point after all. Second, I love that he injects a little brevity or interesting historical tidbits into the narrative of the games he uses in his books. I tend to become vested and more interested in individual players or the matches they played in. Chess is an awfully dry subject to try and write a book about, and I appreciate his effort to make it engaging. It works for me. The subject of this book is Mikhail Tal, the "Magician from Riga", is a chess player that I have always admired greatly. This book contains a collection of 53 of his best and most interesting chess games. I played every one of them and am simply in awe at what a brilliant player Tal was.

Tal, when asked what a game of chess meant to him, replied: "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."

Solid 4.5/5 stars for me!

[Alex Hammel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The games are fantastic, of course, but the writing has just about put me off similes entirely.