В огонь атаки

by Михаил Таль, Яков Дамский

Mikhail Tal, the 'magician from Riga,' was the greatest attacking World Champion of them all, and this enchanting autobiography chronicles his extraordinary career with charm and humor.

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction, Biography, Games, Autobiography, History, Memoir

304 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[notgettingenough · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't believe that I left home some time without this book. It's worth more than five stars.


The stories are the best. ‘Why did you play this move when it was so clearly refuted in…’ ‘Well, I was reading the latest 64 in the bath, got to this variation at the bottom of the page and thought, yes, that will do, I’ll play that today. Jumped up, grabbed a towel and…I never did turn the page.’ Or the famous hippopotamus story:

Journalist: It might be inconvenient to interrupt our profound discussion and change the subject slightly, but I would like to know whether extraneous, abstract thoughts ever enter your head while playing a game?

Tal: Yes. For example, I will never forget my game with GM Vasiukov on a USSR Championship. We reached a very complicated position where I was intending to sacrifice a knight. The sacrifice was not obvious; there was a large number of possible variations; but when I began to study hard and work through them, I found to my horror that nothing would come of it. Ideas piled up one after another. I would transport a subtle reply by my opponent, which worked in one case, to another situation where it would naturally prove to be quite useless. As a result my head became filled with a completely chaotic pile of all sorts of moves, and the infamous "tree of variations", from which the chess trainers recommend that you cut off the small branches, in this case spread with unbelievable rapidity. And then suddenly, for some reason, I remembered the classic couplet by Korney Ivanovic Chukovsky:

"Oh, what a difficult job it was. To drag out of the marsh the hippopotamus".

I don't know from what associations the hippopotamus got into the chess board, but although the spectators were convinced that I was continuing to study the position, I, despite my humanitarian education, was trying at this time to work out: just how WOULD you drag a hippopotamus out of the marsh ? I remember how jacks figured in my thoughts, as well as levers, helicopters, and even a rope ladder. After a lengthy consideration I admitted defeat as an engineer, and thought spitefully to myself: "Well, just let it drown!" And suddenly the hippopotamus disappeared. Went right off the chessboard just as he had come on ... of his own accord! And straightaway the position did not appear to be so complicated. Now I somehow realized that it was not possible to calculate all the variations, and that the knight sacrifice was, by its very nature, purely intuitive. And since it promised an interesting game, I could not refrain from making it.

Journalist: : "And the following day, it was with pleasure that I read in the paper how Mikhail Tal, after carefully thinking over the position for 40 minutes, made an accurately-calculated piece sacrifice ...".

All the things he did for fun, like leave his shoes outside his hotel door to look like he was inside, doubtlessly working hard, preparing and then sneaking off to the beach. I love the idea that he has the evil eye when really all he did was care in a different way from others. As Kasparov said, discussing the matter of the return match against Botvinnik:

And, of course, Tal should have prepared differently for the return match. But if he prepared, he wouldn't be Tal. He lived differently, it was simpler to him than to us. From my conversations with Tal, I think he didn't consider the things obvious to us to be of any importance….He didn't even seek the truth in chess, he sought beauty. It was a concept completely different from most of ours.

Kasparov, in the same interview about Tal, recalled this:

GK: Speaking of Tal, I became a world champion on Tal's birthday, November 9th.

EK: On Tal's birthday?

GK: Yes. I remember than on November 8th, before the last game with Karpov, I got calls from my teacher Botvinnik and from Tal, with whom I was on friendly terms. Botvinnik gave me a speech. He was like, "You lead 12:11. No matter what happens, you have proved that this match should have been played". Very stern he was. Tal didn't say anything like that. He just reminded me, "Don't forget, young man, that tomorrow is my birthday".

In case you haven’t heard the sunglasses story, here it is from olimpbase:

Tal was so intimidating in those years that he made seasoned Grandmaster opponents shudder with fear. A case in point is a game played between GM Tal (as Black) and Hungarian GM Pal Benko (as White) at the Interzonal Tournament in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, 1959. This was the third cycle (the first two were played in Bled and Zagreb, respectively), and Benko was starting to think that Tal had been hypnotizing him due to his poor record against him so far. So Benko took with him sunglasses and wore them while at the chessboard. But Tal, who had heard of Benko's plan to wear sunglasses before the game started, borrowed enormous dark glasses from GM Petrosian. When Tal put on these ridiculously enormous glasses, not only did the spectators laugh, but other participants in the tournament did, as did the tournament controllers, and finally even Benko himself laughed. But unlike Tal, Benko did not remove his glasses until the 20th move when his position was hopeless.

I’m writing this today because last night I watched Tal in a movie. Really. I watched The Falcon and the Snowman and discovered - it hadn't dawned on me before - that my favourite chess player:



is the spitting image of my favourite actor:



Are they not identical?

Karpov mades an appearance as a KGB agent. He plays no chess but he does make a 7 letter word, ‘diagram’, in a Scrabble game. It is so apt for a chess player, surely it was on purpose.

[P.E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Magician from Riga



Simulatenous exhibition, Amsterdam (1959)


So, what is all the fuss about?
This book is the whimsical chess autobiography of former World champion Mikhail Tal, reknown for a highly creative, even mercurial playstyle, involving sharp tactics, energetic, decisive pawn moves, and last but not least, legendary quality and piece sacrifices, as you can see from the collection of games gathered there :)


Mikhail Tal in 1988


In the end, I have been equally impressed by the subtleties involved by his seemingly quiet moves, by the scale of his tactical fireworks and most of all, by the humility and self-derision evinced by the author-narrator-main character throughout, as he sets the . So far among the chess literature I've read (not that much, I'm all too ready to acknowledge), this one book clearly stands out when it comes to the human qualities of the author, shining through the prose. Only Chess Breviary by Savielly Tartakower comes close, while the sheer passion radiating from this one is unparalleled! :)


Tal's stare


Incidentally, this work is also a highly informative document about the lifestyle of the most distinguished chess competitors from the USSR, always on the move, from one event to another, barely catching up with the scheduled plane to the next place, always on the lookout for the most recent developments in chess opening theory, now working as a team, now as rivals. In this regard, the games played with Mikhail Botvinnnik, Paul Keres, Viktor Korchnoi, David Bronstein, Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky and young Anatoli Karpov are highly illustrative of what it meant to be part of a "stable" of professionnal chess players back then, in the Soviet Union.


Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian

----------

Here is a link to a page gathering all the games studied in the book (still, if only to read Tal's quirky remarks, asides and personal comments on the games and their context, the book is worth purchasing :))



Mikhail Tal taking part in Wijk an Zee tournament (1976)


♔♕♖♗♘♙

Further reading in chess literature:

Bréviaire des échecs
Chess Master vs. Chess Amateur
L'art de faire mat
How to Reassess Your Chess: Chess Mastery Through Chess Imbalances


Soundtrack :
Reinvention - Gryphon

[Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best chess biography I've ever read. Tal was madly in love with chess, and his enthusiasm for the game is apparent in every page of this love story. You can't help but want to play after reading his infectious game annotations. You want to sacrifice on knight on e6 as soon as possible. Like any good teacher, Tal makes you excited about the subject. When you finish reading, you want to go play.

Tal constantly found a way to inject life into stale, technical positions. He often made the game so mind-bogglingly complicated that no one knew what was going on. He was a chaos pilot, heading into the biggest stormclouds on the horizon in search for something new and wonderful. Most of us like to feel in control, to be safe. Tal liked to explore, to find adventure. He always seemed to ask "what happens if I do this?" Consequently, his games featured sacrifices that were intuitive - based on feelings and aesthetics rather than logic and mathematics.

His child-like curiosity and enthusiasm was combined with a legendary ability to calculate variations. He was, in every sense of the word, a genius. His style was a throwback to the swashbuckling romantics of the 19th century. During the 1940s and 50s, the Soviets were trying to convince everyone that chess was a science. It had rules and laws that had to be followed if one wishes to play proper chess. The world champion, Botvinnik, was in fact a scientist. He promoted research, hard work, and rigorous intellectual exercise. To win at chess, you must build up small, positional advantages and then grind out a win in the endgame due to your superior technique. As Tal says, it sounds like someone saving up his money in order to buy a motorcycle. Where's the fun in that? Let's just play!

It's easy to cheer for our hero as he rises to the top of the chess world. He is a smart, funny, and personable young man. That's what strikes me the most. He is so down-to-earth. You can tell he genuinely wants you enjoy the game as much as he does. It's not just about beating the opponent; it's about creating something new and beautiful for everyone to share in. His reign as World Champion was short lived, as was the man himself. But the fearless genius left us with a treasure trove of brilliant games. He showed that chess can be more than a game, more than science or a mathematical puzzle. It is a form of art. It's a way to gain insight into how someone thinks, how they see thing. It is a glimpse into someone's soul. This book bares the soul of a man who dedicated his life for celebrating beauty and friendship. Buy this, along with his book on the 1960 World Championship against Botvinnik. They are immortal classics.

[Rupert Dreyfus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mikhail Tal was the most creative chess player of all time. This books has Tal commentating on some of the most insane tactics in a way that's fun and accessible. It reads like a mock interview and he comes across like a funny old-school sort of fella. It's widely speculated that he played while under the influence of drink and drugs, and many of these games probably support this claim. He sacrificed in ways the average brain can't understand. Maybe one day I'll read it again absolutely hammered and see it all come together...

Recommended to all chess fans regardless of ability.

[Serge Pierro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think that there was ever a more exciting chess player than Mikail Tal. His games were a maelstrom of creativity that would explode with sound (and unsound!) sacrifices that unnerved many of his opponents. And who could forget "The Gaze"! Some of the most interesting games ever played are contained in this volume, along with some great stories by Tal himself.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

What else is there to say? Talks game described and annotated by the master himself! Best part is his reflections on the psychological warfare going on in these games, which is an extremely rare insight into the thought process of a master at the peak of his powers.

[Sameer Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a huge shame he died so young - I still find it crazy when I see how recently some of his contemporaries died only within 5 years (Korchnoi), or are even still alive (Averbakh)! If Tal were alive today he'd still only be 84. We could've had Tal vs. Carlsen! Great book anyway - good stories and good games.

[Sergei Moska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Assigning a number of stars to a given book is tricky, since there are so many dimensions to consider. Books can be

1)useful
2)"important" within their field
3)of high quality
4)appealing in general
5)appealing to the reviewer, even if he knows that it's an idiosyncratic taste

Then you get Life and Games of Mikhail Tal, which solves the problem by being a five-star book in each category. If going over chess games has any appeal to you whatsoever, you will probably really like this book. Chess books are almost never, ever this readable. And the subject matter? Tal is the man. As Botvinnik once said, "I couldn’t make myself dislike him." Tal's personality really comes across in this book. It's hard to imagine someone reading through the whole thing (including the famous Hippo story - google it!) and thinking "Wow, Tal is lame."

Tal is a notoriously creative player, so some might think that only players with similar styles would appreciate the collection. Not so. My style is very little like Tal's - I prioritize looking for and precisely calculating short variations, with few intuitive sacrifices - and I still love going through the games and commentary. What's more, having done so a few times, I realized that some of Tal's style even rubbed off on me a bit.

I expected to give a coherent, detailed review, but I clearly failed. That's how enthusiastic I am about this book. It's one of the few universally well-regarded books that really does live up to its hype.

[John Puusa · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best chess books every written. Former World Chess Champion Mikhail N. Tal takes on the role of both interviewer and interviewee in this unique autobiographical work. The book includes both annotated and unannotated chess games from both the high and low points of Tal's career.

[Tim Reisner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Endearing autobiog of the great attacker. Tal's struggle with illness gives the games and anecdotes a poignant note.

[Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great, 100 amazing games, great anecdotes, insightful commentary, wit and just everything I want from a collection of games. Sadly I am not very fast at reading through chess games.

[Victor Hugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tal é hipnotizante, não apenas nos matches, mas nas palavras. Essa é de longe a melhor biografia que já li, que personagem interessante! O raciocínio dele é simples mas bastante complexo, fiquei muito admirado. O conhecia apenas pelas partidas que estudei nos últimos anos e agora a sensação é que se abre uma nova camada de compreensão, tanto relativa aos matches, quanto ao xadrez. Muito inspirador e estranhamente revolucionário. Não deixa de existir um pesar, pois ele partiu cedo demais. Recomendo muito a leitura para quem tem interesse no mundo do xadrez.

[Stian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spent a long time reading this book, making sure I squeezed every drop of pleasure from it, so to say. And it did not disappoint.

Tal is by far my favourite player (alongside Morozevich, whose style is very similar to Tal, but 'hampered' by modern opening preparation and computers) and it was a pleasure to sit down and play through his games. About half the games I played through over the board myself, setting up the positions and so on. I tried to look at a lot of positions as puzzles, and most of the time I failed to see the tactical brilliancies that Tal came up with (some sane, most not!). The others I simply played through unaided, but Houdini 3 and the ChessBase database was certainly helpful in retrieving and analysing a lot of the games (going through games in my head is one thing; reviewing variations another, and much too challenging sometimes!).

A wonderful book in any case, spiced with Tal's wit and fascinating and bohemian lifestyle. A true legend of the game, and this book is a legendary chess book for good reason!

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mikhail Tal’s autobiography is in the form of an interview, with a “journalist” interviewer asking probing questions, followed by Tal’s answers. Some of Tal’s responses are pure narrative, while others involve detailed descriptions of chess matches. In fact, the book uses hundreds of chess diagrams of his games from 1949 to 1975. When a life is so immersed in chess, it makes sense that his autobiography would be an even mix of narrative and game diagrams. There is no other way to illustrate Tal’s life.

Tal was born in Riga, Latvia in 1936. He died in 1992, age 55. He spent much of his life ill, mostly kidney problems, which interfered with his play at times. Nevertheless, he defeated a Grandmaster for the first time at the USSR Team Championship at age 18. He became a Grandmaster in his own right at age 21. He won the World Chess Championship at age 24 (in 1960).

Tal’s personality shows itself early, at age 19, when he said “To play for a draw, at any rate with white, is to some degree a crime against chess” (28). Playing for a draw at the top levels of competition was not at all unusual.

The Hippopotamus in the Marsh

One anecdote reveals the quintessential Tal personality: the story of the Hippopotamus in the Marsh. Tal was playing Grandmaster Vasiukov in a USSR Championship. They reached a very complicated position with a difficult decision about a piece sacrifice. He was tracing thousands of moves, subtleties, and alternatives, until it became a chaotic pile of moves, known as the ‘tree of variations,’ from which you must cut off the small branches. In the middle of this struggle, suddenly, Tal remembered a poetry couplet:

Oh, what a difficult job it was
To drag out of the marsh the hippopotamus

Tal became obsessed with the couplet, and forgot all about the chess board. Spectators assumed Tal was quietly studying the position. Instead, Tal was trying to formulate a workable theory on how the hippopotamus could be dragged out of a marsh. After 40 minutes working out several methods involving levers, helicopters, and rope ladders, he finally concluded to just ‘let it drown.’ Then suddenly the hippopotamus disappeared from his mind. As he ‘awoke’ from the 40-minute daydream, he became conscious of the chess board in front of him again. At the same moment, he realized the board was so complex at that point, it was impossible to follow the tree of variations. It was only possible (and advisable), to make the move most in tune with his intuition. It was that simple. The intuitive move was clear to him, and he made it. Tal recalls, “The following day, it was with pleasure that I read in the paper how Mikhail Tal, after carefully thinking over the position for 40 minutes, made an accurately calculated piece sacrifice” (65). That move proved to be pivotal, and he won the game by giving that pivotal move almost no thought at all.

Revenge

Leading a life of intense competition inevitably leads to strong feeling in both winning and losing. Tal learned early to govern his emotions. As he explains it, “In principle, striving for revenge … is a good intention, but when it becomes an end in itself … you lose your sense of reality and of objectivity in assessing a position” (68).

Artistes

Tal loved playing to a crowd, unlike one of his famous adversaries Bobby Fischer, who was hypersensitive to crowd noise. Tal felt that “When we appear on the stage, we are artistes” (166). He enjoyed the noise in the hall, particularly when the noise was a positive reaction to one of his moves on the chess board.

Gets Better with Age

Even though Tal was the World Chess Champion at age 24 in 1960, he actually reached his peak rating at age 44 in 1980. And in the 1970s he had 100-game winning streaks, playing the world’s greatest Chess Champions. Tal played them all. He had his share of wins over greats such as Fischer, Spassky, Karpov, Petrosian, Keres, and a host of others who all experienced fear and anxiety when taking their seat across from Tal.

When games go long, and must be adjourned for the night, there is feverish analysis into the wee hours to prepare for resumption the next morning. Often in Tal’s games, where “every hour a cup of coffee was consumed” (405), Tal’s opponent would resign right away the next morning, or after a very few moves. The night’s analysis would predict, the morning resumption would bear out, the implacable pattern of Tal’s advantage.

Chess in the Hospital

During Tal’s illnesses, his colleagues would visit him in the hospital, bringing of course a portable chess board, to help him pass the time in bed. In 1969 there was a false report of Tal’s death. He quickly contacted his friends and quoted Mark Twain, assuring them that “The rumors about my death are greatly exaggerated!” (393). In sickness and in health, Tal played chess and kept his sense of humor.

A Bright Light

Mikhail Tal lived a life of pain and disease. He endured physical suffering constantly as he faced the most fierce mental challenges almost every day. He played an absolute minimum of 100 games per year, many of which games lasting all day or two days. But Tal was known as an upbeat, friendly man with a great sense of humor and generally a pleasure to be around. He was a classic “absent-minded professor” personality type. He was not good with everyday practical skills. But the minute he sat in front of a chess board, he was making history. If you enjoy fascinating characters, history, and chess, this is probably the best book you could read.

[Sylvan Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now i know why Mikhail was a true genius at the chess enigma, cheers. Top draw insight into the brilliancy of piece sacrifices. Even though i played through the games on my chess board, there were more than a few i will never ever get to grips with...his mind was definitely not of this planet (Venus or Mars i'm betting :)).

[Ken Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This autobiography is quite simply amazing. Posing as a journalist, Tal interviews himself. This is one of my favourite questions from the book:

"JOURNALIST. It is perhaps not convenient to interrupt you at such a crowning moment, but I would, nevertheless, like to know whether extraneous thoughts ever enter your head during a game?"

Tal, referring to himself as a chess player, takes the opportunity to present us with the infamous hippopotamus story:

"CHESS PLAYER. Oh yes! For instance, I will never forget my game with Grandmaster Vasiukov in one of the USSR Championships. We reached a very complicated position where I was intending to sacrifice a knight. The sacrifice was not altogether obvious, and there were a large number of possible variations, but when I conscientiously began to work through them, I found, to my horror, that nothing would come of it. Ideas piled up one after another. I would transport a subtle reply by my opponent, which worked in one case, to another situation where it would naturally prove to be quite useless. As a result my head became filled with a completely chaotic pile of all sorts of moves, and the famous ‘tree of variations’, from which the trainers recommend that you cut off the small branches, in this case spread with unbelievable rapidity. Then suddenly, for some reason, I remembered the classic couplet by Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky:

Oh, what a difficult job it was
To drag out of the marsh the hippopotamus.

I don’t know from what associations this hippopotamus got onto the chessboard, but although the spectators were convinced that I was continuing to study the position, I, despite my humanitarian education, was trying at this time to work out: just how would you drag a hippopotamus out of a marsh? I remember how jacks figured in my thoughts, as well as levers, helicopters, and even a rope ladder. After lengthy consideration I admitted defeat as an engineer, and thought spitefully: ‘Well, let it drown!’ Suddenly the hippopotamus disappeared, went from the chessboard just as he had come on – of his own accord! Straight away the position did not appear to be so complicated. I somehow realised that it was not possible to calculate all the variations, and that the knight sacrifice was, by its very nature, purely intuitive. Since it promised an interesting game, I could not refrain from making it. The following day, it was with pleasure that I read in the paper how Mikhail Tal, after carefully thinking over the position for 40 minutes, made an accurately-calculated piece sacrifice."

This is but one of many wonderful anecdotes found in the book. Tal was something else, and this autobiography might be the best I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. I cannot recommend it enough.

We also get the chance to play through no less than one hundred of his games, carefully selected from his entire career (up to the point of writing). Did those games make me a better chess player? I don’t know, but I certainly enjoyed the ride.

Unfortunately, the diagrams are not of the best quality. Sometimes they are fuzzy, sometimes it’s almost impossible to tell which colour the queens are. Basically, the diagrams look like poor copies of a poor photocopy. There are also a few annotation errors in the book. These issues mar what is otherwise a masterpiece, but not to the extent that I feel like knocking off a star. The book is way too good for that.

[André Jablonski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning.
I first came across this fictitious interview/socratic dialogue format in a wonderful high-school level Calculus book by Tarasov. Later I found out this format was quite popular in the Soviet Union and it goes so well with Tal's memoirs. We are taken in a time capsule, to travels across the Soviet Union and the world during the 50's, 60's and 70's. Most importantly of course, we are taken into Tal's insights to his games. In this regard his talents as a writer and editor really show up, he knows the right measure of depth and extension in a game analysis, there is plenty to absorb and plenty to look further on our own if we want. In my view, one flaw - or rather than a flaw, an aspect that didn't really stand the test of time and technology - in Kasparov's celebrated "Great Predecessors" is that he just goes through too many lines in a game. I understand the privilege in having Kasparov's analysis, but if I want to look that deep in a game today I can just turn on my computer engine, so I end up skipping a lot of his book. Seirawan's great "Chess Duels" on the hand is an example of book that sometimes gets a bit too shallow when going through the games. So to me, Tal's book is a perfect balance. Highly recommended.

[Tina Haibodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly interesting and another reason why I adore memoirs. The novel goes beyond the tactics that Mikhail uses in chess, the psychological warfare and includes the illnesses he suffered after years of drinking/smoking.

The book includes both annotated and unannotated chess games from Tal's career, so I wouldn't recommend if you have absolutely no knowledge of chess. His thought processes were interesting to learn about, considering his reputation for being one of the most creative and impulsive players.

[Aya Hamouda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I've ever read in Chess . I rarely give 5 stars , but this one deserves more than 5 . It's absolutely a masterpiece.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure gold! With My Memorable 60 Games, this is a must read for any chess player.

[Michael Lafer Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the Absolute best Tal book ever!!

[Tiarnán · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of the better written chess books

[Aris Zacharis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book with games of the magician.

[Lucca Tosto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magic.

[Jean Bourgeois · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite chess player of all time, this guy was a madman

[Yuvan Suresh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Undoubtedly the best chess book ever written

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is inspirational and shows what perseverances can bring to someone

[Sergio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo recomiendo. La mejor forma de conocer al campeón del mundo de 1960

[Sirin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dear Tal,

Oh, Tal! How much I love you! I wish I could emulate even a quarter of your brilliance. You inspired me to play chess. The sublime beauty of your games makes me feel awestruck, like a child seeing them for the first time. When I play a sacrifice, I immediately hear melodies, hoping to play like you. A true maestro—each game a symphony. I once dreamed of you when I was 17, wishing you were my grandfather (sorry, dede).

Thank you for touching my heart and making me love chess.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant. Probably the best Chess biography/Games collection ever written. Tal was a great player and a great writer. Very humorous too.