Selected Chess Games of Mikhail Tal

by J. Hajtun

Hajtun - Selected chess games of Mikhail Tal . . 1961. . 150 pp. Hardcover

Genres: Chess

145 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Of course the games are wonderful...but absolutely terrible annotations. The guy does every lame cliche possible: states the obvious, leaves you hanging (over and over again) where you need notes the most, and (most annoying of all) continues to praise Tal to the heavens on every page. It gets most ridiculous in the moments when he says (in effect): "Perhaps the following is not quite sound, but then if it had been we never would've gotten to witness such an interesting game!" Good grief. Oh yes, and then there was the howler describing Keres as a "fellow Lithuanian" (Keres was from Estonia, Tal was a Latvian). It's amazing that Tal, having just become world champ (and with one of the more captivating styles in the game), apparently didn't rate a better scribe.

This was one of the first books I ever owned btw. I just reread it in the Dover paperback edition, but the one I had was (at least) a very pretty book, hardback with onionskin-type paper and a yellow cloth bookmark sewn in. I also love the typeface (which the Dover preserves) and the diagrams are a kick too: the bishops with little tassels or feathers (or whatever those things are) and the rooks like great towers. That at least was a great memory.

[Justin Thickston · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tal is my favorite player. He was such an attacking genius in the pre-computer age.