ATTACK WITH MIKHAIL TAL MIKHAIL TAL & IAKOV DAMSIKY EVERYMAN CHESSContents Mikhail Tal - A Personal Tribute Introduction The Main Indicator — King in the Centre Breakthrough in the Centre The Assault Ratio Invasion Trajectories Lines of Communication Outposts Eliminating Defenders At the Royal Court Destroying the Fortress Walls Co oOI AA WWD Answers to: What Would You Have Played? Postscript Index of Players List of Illustrative Games vi vii 32 42 51 14 89 105 116 128 167 179 180 183Mikhail Tal: A Personal Tribute YOUNG PLAYERS of today may find it difficult to appreciate what the name of Mikhail Tal means to chess devet- ees of my generation. In the late 1950s I became passionately interested in the game and began subscribing to Chess Magazine, where I first read about Tal. In particular I remember his exploits in the 1958 USSR Championship, where he was striving to retain the title he had sensationally won the year before. Going into the last round level with Tigran Petrosian, Tal had Black against Boris Spassky, who himself needed to win at all costs, in order to progress to the next stage of the World Championship cycle. Petrosian pra- dently agreed an early draw, but after five hours' play Spassky and Tal were sti] locked in battle, and their game was adjourned in a position that looked grim for Tal. I can stil! vecall the words of Salo Flohr, as they appeared i : "Tal and all Riga slept badly . As it happens, the reader can follow this game in Chapter 8, and see how Tal defended heroically, before finally breaking out with a de- cisive counterattack to win his second USSR Championship gold medal. The next year, 1959, saw the thril- ling Candidates Toumament in Yugo- slavia, in which Tal and Keres fought out a ding-dong battle, Tal in par- ticular taking huge risks in striving to win in virtually every gare, Even the legendary Botvinnik was unable to resist his fiery play, but, not long after wresting the World Championship in 1960, Tal suffered the first bout of ill- health that was te dog him for the rest of his life. And after losing the Return Match the following year, he was never again to contest the title, al- though he reached the Candidates stage on several oceasions. With the passing years his playing style inevitably mellowed and became more solid, although in almost every event he could be relied on to provide at east one combinational flash re- calling the Tal of old. I vividly recall one occasion in 1970 at the Moscow University Chess Club, when Tal came to give a talk about the Tecent "Match of the Century" in Belgrade, He spoke modestly and wittily to the packed audience, and a wonderful evening was rounded off by a 12-player lightning toumament, into which the grandmaster threw himself wholeheartedly. As one of the leading foreign players at the University Club, I was invited to take part, but in my game with Tal was too over-awed, and after losing dismally in under 20 moves ] felt too ashamed to engage the great man in conversation... The pleasure I have gained from transtating this book, and which { hope. will be shared by its readers, is tinged by the regret, felt throughout the chess world, that the incomparable Mikhail ‘Tal is no longer with us. Ken Neat July 1994