Hi, all. I hope you are alright, and having some semblance of peace and joy in your life.
Recently I have been looking at the book Tal wrote about his World Championship Match with Botvinnik in 1960.
It is considered by some to be the greatest chess book ever written. Why? Because of the way Tal writes; he makes you feel like you are at his house, drinking a cup of tea and listening to his riveting stories about the match, about the critical moments in each game. He shares with you his joys and sorrows, his successes and failures, all in the same spirit.
First off, Tal played better, both tactically and positionally.
Botvinnik showed he was rusty; Tal's 1st 3 victories were highly tactical in nature.
Game one was all Tal; he established one of those fantastic positions that only he could think up:
In game 6 Tal, from the Black side of a King's Indian Defense, surprised Botvinnik with a knight sacrifice, and was superior, tactically, from then on.....
Game 7 was pretty even, until Botvinnik blundered by overlooking a simple combination....
Game 8 was Tal's first defeat, but he was winning the game! At the crucial moment, and with Botvinnik in time pressure, Tal moved the wrong rook, and from then on his game was lost.
This is the game that made me write this little blog post. Here is the point: Tal was outplaying Botvinnik until he blundered in this game.
This loss broke Tal's spirit:
"Koblentz and I began to play through the game and in the process of analysis we simultaneously discovered that black could have forced a win on his 34th move with 34....Rec8. There was nothing to say [actually, in his 'Life and Games,' Tal writes that 'various unprintable words were uttered'] and we didn't sleep a wink the whole night. It seemed as if my spirit had been hopelessly broken."
Game 9 was just a reflection of Tal's spiritual and mental/emotional state...he played a very speculative piece sacrifice, and then exchanged Queens, and ended up losing the game:
Game 11 decided the match, according to Tal. He beat Botvinnik positionally; It was a very mature game by Tal, and showed everyone (including Botvinnik) that Tal was not just a flashy, tactical player.
Game 17 baffled everyone; Tal avoided a draw and played a "positionally dubious move" (12.f4), and after some maneuvering, somehow worked up a mating attack. His punch was stronger than Botvinnik's defense. This game showed that Botvinnik was maybe somewhat fatigued......
And finally, game 19, which Tal felt was his best artistic achievement of the match. He completely outplayed Botvinnik in a highly positional style......
That is my presentation for today; just to share with you two things:
1) Tal was a great positional player, just like Morphy
2) This World Championship Match, and Tal's book about it, is definitely worthy of study.
Best wishes to everyone.
Peace.
