Top 36 Quotes & Sayings by Mikhail Tal

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Latvian chess player Mikhail Tal.

Last updated on December 25, 2024.

Mikhail Nekhemyevich Tal was a Soviet Latvian chess player and the eighth World Chess Champion. He is considered a creative genius within the game of chess and one of its best ever players. Tal played in an attacking and daring combinatorial style. His play was known above all for improvisation and unpredictability. It has been said that "Every game for him was as inimitable and invaluable as a poem". His nickname was "Misha", a diminutive for Mikhail, and he earned the nickname "The Magician from Riga". Both The Mammoth Book of the World's Greatest Chess Games and Modern Chess Brilliancies include more games by Tal than any other player. He also held the record for the longest unbeaten streak in competitive chess history with 95 games between 23 October 1973 and 16 October 1974, until Ding Liren's streak of 100 games between 9 August 2017 and 11 November 2018. In addition, Tal was a highly regarded chess writer.

Latvian - Chess Player | November 9, 1936 - June 28, 1992

Source: Wikipedia

The cherished dream of every chessplayer is to play a match with the World Champion. But here is the paradox: the closer you come to the realization of this goal, the less you think about it.

Mikhail Tal

It's funny, but many people don't understand why I draw so many games nowadays. They think my style must have changed but this is not the case at all. The answer to this drawing disease is that my favorite squares are e6, f7, g7 and h7 and everyone now knows this. They protect these squares not once but four times!

Mikhail Tal

Planning anything is hopeless.

Mikhail Tal

When I asked Fischer why he had not played a certain move in our game, he replied: 'Well, you laughed when I wrote it down!'

Mikhail Tal

For pleasure you can read the games collections of Andersson and Chigorin, but for benefit you should study Tarrasch, Keres and Bronstein.

Mikhail Tal

I can take care of myself! But the "external barriers", my opponents, do indeed concern me.

Mikhail Tal

There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones and mine

Mikhail Tal

Quiet moves often make a stronger impression than a wild combination with heavy sacrifices.

Mikhail Tal

Chess isn't football or hockey.

Mikhail Tal

Later, I began to succeed in decisive games. Perhaps because I realized a very simple truth: not only was I worried, but also my opponent

Mikhail Tal

Naturally, the psychological susceptibility of a match participant is significantly higher than a participant in a tournament, since each game substantially changes the over-all position.

Mikhail Tal

I believe most definitely that one must not only grapple with the problems on the board, one must also make every effort to combat the thoughts and will of the opponent.

Mikhail Tal

To play for a draw (at any rate with White) is to some degree a crime against chess.

Mikhail Tal

As long as my opponent has not yet castled, on each move I seek a pretext for an offensive. Even when I realize that the king is not in danger.

Mikhail Tal

You can't avoid mistakes and bad luck.

Mikhail Tal

Many Chess players were surprised when after the game, Fischer quietly explained: 'I had already analyzed this possibility' in a position which I thought was not possible to foresee from the opening

Mikhail Tal

Fischer is the greatest genius to descend from the chess heavens.

Mikhail Tal

First, how to sac my queen, then rook, then bishop, then knight, then pawns.

Mikhail Tal

Some sacrifices are sound; the rest are mine

Mikhail Tal

I like to grasp the initiative and not give my opponent peace of mind.

Mikhail Tal

Playing in your home city is very special. You feel the support and attention. When everything goes well, it's very great, but when it doesn't, you might as well turn off your phone: the advices seem endless.

Mikhail Tal

I'd like to always be romantic in chess. Sadly, this doesn't always work like that.

Mikhail Tal

I will not hide the fact that I love to hear the spectators react after a sacrifice of a piece or pawn. I don't think that there is anything bad in such a feeling; no artist or musician is indifferent to the reactions of the public.

Mikhail Tal

Without technique it is impossible to reach the top in chess, and therefore we all try to borrow from Capablanca his wonderful, subtle technique.

Mikhail Tal

Of course, errors are not good for a chess game, but errors are unavoidable and in any case, a game without ant errors, or as they say 'flawless game' is colorless.

Mikhail Tal

Fischer is Fischer, but a knight is a knight!

Mikhail Tal

If you wait for luck to turn up, life becomes very boring.

Mikhail Tal

In my games I have sometimes found a combination intuitively simply feeling that it must be there. Yet I was not able to translate my thought processes into normal human language.

Mikhail Tal

Botvinnik's right! When he says such things, then he's right. Usually, I prefer not to study chess but to play it. For me chess is more an art than a science. It's been said that Alekhine and I played similar chess, except that he studied more. Yes, perhaps, but I have to say that he played, too.

Mikhail Tal

You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one

Mikhail Tal

I go over many games collections and pick up something from the style of each player.

Mikhail Tal

It is difficult to play against Einstein's theory -on his first loss to Fischer

Mikhail Tal

I think that the FIDE leaders have to reconsider the current drawing rules - their advantages aren't very clear, but their shortcomings are obvious. Artificial drawing of the lots is detrimental for everyone.

Mikhail Tal

I have always thought it a matter of honour for every chess player to deserve the smile of fortune.

Mikhail Tal

Just as one's imagination is stirred by a girl's smile, so is one's imagination stirred by the possibilities of chess.

Mikhail Tal