Tal Demystified Part One

Hello Chess Lovers

I would like to use this space to demystify Tal and his "total chess". Any serious chess player who has read a lot about the world champions will see that Tal is one of the most loved of all the Champions.According to Seirawan in his book on facing champions, Tal's presence in any tournament hall was a celebration of chess.
Humour, sharing chess wisdom, writing analyses. He embraced life and chess in a complete way. This blog is about celebrating his zenith brand of chess but also to demystify his voyages of discovery on the board.

We will look now at one of his signature violent attacks on the board. When playing with white Tal would assemble a huge repertoire-something copied by Kasparov- and like a versatile tennis player he would learn to hit his opponents in many different ways.This of course bolstered his reputation.

 Tal v Tolush
Moskow 1957

1.c4Nf6 2.Nc3g6 3.e4d6 4.d4Bg7 5.f3e5 6.Nge2Nbd7 7.Bg5c6 and here we have the Saemisch system of the King's Indian Defence. This variation is characterised by uncompromising play and requires a number of different skills: calculation, fantasy,knowledge of opening specific tactics, understanding of the sustainable initiative in chess.

8.Qd2 Tal is direct here. He seeks the removal of the dark square defender. 8....0-0 ?! Looking back at this game I would say this was a critical decision against Tal who has not committed his King.


9.d5c5? A very bad strategic mistake. This cuts of black's counterplay. 9...Nb6 keeps the tension. It is a phenomenon in chess that one can have this string of bad moves which together gives the signal to the opponent.

10.g4!a6 11.Ng3Re8 12.h4Qa5 As the position is still closed the attacker must mount a pawn storm.
Its important to see that now the second rank is open for the Queen on d2.This means the ability to switch to h2. Its also noteworthy that the greatest players opted for space with white.

13.Bh6Nf8 14.h5Qc7 15.Bd3b5 16.0-0-0 having made as many active moves as he can, Tal commits his King to the left side.This requires no small amount of courage.

16....bc4 17.Bb1!Bh8 18.Rdg1 Tal invites everyone to the party. 18...Rb8 19.Nf5! This is where pattern recognition and fantasy come into play. Material takes second place to opening lines. Tal has built up as much as he can.Now to engineer a breakthrough.

19.....N6d7 20.Bg5! and now the threats increase. Tal threatens Nh6. 20...Bg7 21.Ng7 A small success for white. A vital defender has been removed.

21....Kg7 22.Bh6Kg8 now for the next wave and this is where we must demystify and break down Tal's methods:

1) Aggressive development dictated by the variation and the opponent's decision to commit his king to the right of the board.

2) Bringing as many pieces to bear against the king.

3) Keeping central lines closed

4) Castling queenside knowing that b2 is held by the King and queen.

5) Hunting and seeking the removal of important defenders around the white king

6) Opening lines.

23.f4! threatening f4-f5. 23...ef4 24.Qf4Qd8 25.hg6Ng6 26.Qh2Nde5 27.Bf4Nf8 black tries to defend h7.
28.Qh6Neg6 29.Bg5f6 and here Tal finds the line opening
30.e5! now every white attacking unit is released! Its important to break the attack into chunks.

30....Re5 31.Bg6Rb7 second rank defense. 32.Ne4!fg5 33.Rf1Re4 34.Be4Rg7 black defends resourcefully but Tal continues
35.Rf6Bg4 36.Rhf1Nd7 37.Rd6Qe7 38.Ra6 and the rook is rampant. What started as a king side attack is now becoming a oard wide raid.

38....Kh8 39.Bh7Nb8 40.Bf5+Kg8 41.Be6Be6 42.Re6 and black had enough.So what were the important points that we could take from the game:

1) The choice of variation.

2) Decision making. Once the opponent castled king side Tal made up his mind to throw every thing at the black fortress. This is a commitment.

3) Inviting everyone to the party. Rooks, knights, bishops, pawns and the Queen were all used.

4) Opening files and diagonals and attacking along ranks.Attacks have a certain geometry to them.

5) Finding decisive moves which have a bit of fantasy about them. Nf5 was one and e4-e5 was another.
These are highly commital.

6)Ensuring king safety throughout.

I hope this is clear.