Always loved the way he played, a few years ago I read his autobiography and I have to say that it ranks at the top of my list of chess books if both entertainment and instruction are taken into account. I don't think anybody could argue that there has ever been a player with better ability to utilize positional sacrifices than him, as evidenced with this impressive game:
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be3 Nf6 7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 O-O 9.O-O-O Qc7 10.Ndb5 Qb8 11.g4 a6 12.Nd4 Nxd4 13.Bxd4 b5 14.g5 Nd7 15.Bd3 b4 16.Nd5! exd5 17.exd5 {The piece sacrifice is a positional one, since it has been used to erect an invisible barrier on the e-file. A number of squares on it (e5 and e6) are controlled by white pawns, and a white rook will soon be moved to e1. -- Iakov Damsky} f5 18.Rde1 Rf7 19.h4 Bb7 20.Bxf5 Rxf5 21.Rxe7 Ne5 22.Qe4 Qf8 23.fxe5 Rf4 24.Qe3 Rf3 25.Qe2 Qxe7 26.Qxf3 dxe5 27.Re1 Rd8 28.Rxe5 Qd6 29.Qf4! {With this simple tactic 29 ...Bxd5 30. Re8+ White keeps his two extra pawns. The finish is straightforward. -- Damsky} Rf8 30.Qe4 b3 31.axb3 Rf1+ 32.Kd2 Qb4+ 33.c3 Qd6 34.Bc5 Qxc5 35.Re8+ Rf8 36.Qe6+ Kh8 37.Qf7 1-0
Originally posted by cmsMaster Always loved the way he played, a few years ago I read his autobiography and I have to say that it ranks at the top of my list of chess books if both entertainment and instruction are taken into account. I don't think anybody could argue that there has ever been a player with better ability to utilize positional sacrifices than him, as evidenced with this ...[text shortened]... d2 Qb4+ 33.c3 Qd6
34.Bc5 Qxc5 35.Re8+ Rf8 36.Qe6+ Kh8 37.Qf7 1-0[/pgn]
Nevermind all that rubbish... i'll be in the blitz room.
Originally posted by torten I read his 'life and games',it's excellent.Great player.
But instructive?No,not to me.Too baffling-jaw dropping-confusing-over my head-etc...
The main lesson I learn from his games is: Don't rule out anything.
Very often, his moves were beautiful because we either would not consider them ourselves, or we would reject them outright, but his imagination saw possibilities where others saw dogma.
06 Sep '11 02:54
Mikhail Tal
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