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ANNOTATED GAME
The Magician from Riga
Mikhail Tal (2475) vs. Vladamir Simagin (2625)
Annotated by: tag1153
(1700)
Chess opening: Caro-Kann defence (B12)
Mikhail Tal (2475) vs. Vladamir Simagin (2625)
Annotated by: tag1153
(1700)
Chess opening: Caro-Kann defence (B12)
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15... Qxb1 |
Simagin accepts the bait, and a series of forced moves follow. | ||||
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16. Qc4+ Kd6 17. Ba3+ Kc7 18. Rxb1 Bxa3 19. Qb3 |
! Attacking the bishop AND b7! Sorry black, you can't save them both! | ||||
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19... Be7 20. Qxb7+ Kd6 |
Once again, black is forced into a series of king escapes. | ||||
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21. dxe5+ Nxe5 22. Rd1+ Ke6 23. Qb3+ Kf5 24. Rf1+ Ke4 |
Black's king is attempting to stay in the middle of the board to avoid losing any more material. The problem is, that is JUST what Tal wants. | ||||
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25. Re1+ Kf5 26. g4+ |
! Taking with the king only brings him closer to white's power - taking with the knight loses his bishop. | ||||
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26... Kf6 27. Rf1+ Kg6 28. Qe6+ |
! Checking AND forking two pieces. | ||||
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28... Kh7 |
Trying to find a hole to hide in and catch a breather. Black's king is now due for his 3000 mile oil change. | ||||
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29. Qxe5 |
Tal opts to take the knight. His pressure on black has momentarily stalled. | ||||
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29... Rhe8 |
Now black tries to get back in the game. | ||||
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30. Rf7 |
Threatening Qxg7#. | ||||
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30... Bf8 |
A weak discovered attack on white's queen. It does, however, force Tal to react (for once!) | ||||
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31. Qf5+ Kg8 32. Kf2 |
!? WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tal INVITES Simagin to attack him! He MUST be drunk! (In reality, Tal's post mortem explained his desire to get his king to g6). | ||||
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32... Bc5+ |
Black now starts his first real offense of the game. | ||||
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33. Kg3 Re3+ 34. Kh4 Rae8 35. Rxg7+ |
!! Tal sees that his king won't make it to g6 after black has doubled up his rooks, so he just SACS ANOTHER ROOK!!!!!!!!!!! All kidding aside - he's drunk. Got to be.............................. | ||||
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35... Kxg7 36. Qxc5 Re8e6 |
?! Many question this play. | ||||
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37. Qxa7+ Kg6 38. Qa8 Kf6 39. a4 |
And Tal starts the run towards promotion. | ||||
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39... Ke5 40. a5 Kd5 41. Qd8+ Ke4 42. a6 Kf3 |
? Re2 was better. | ||||
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43. a7 Re3e2 |
Black now threatens to gobble pawns, but it is too late. | ||||
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44. Qd3+ Re6e3 45. Qxe3+ |
And black resigned as he can't stop the a pawn from promoting. When it comes to sacrifices, no one could match Tal! Both rook sacrifices in this game were genius (especially the first one on move 15). Because of inspiring play like this, Tal went on to win the World Championship from Botvinnik four years later (he turned right around and lost it to Botvinnik a year after that). While his reign at the top may have been short, Tal continued to be considered an upper echelon GM some 30 years after he lost the title. And I wasn't kidding around with drinking jokes - Tal was a chain smoking booze lover (who allegedly got hooked on morphine as well). The toll that his vices took on his body was severe. I guess that his addictions were the great equalizer with the rest of us. He was only a man - but his chess was truly magic. I hope you have enjoyed:) - Thomas | ||||
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