Famous Quotes & Sayings

Mikhail Tal Quotes & Sayings

Enjoy the top 32 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Mikhail Tal.

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Famous Quotes By Mikhail Tal

Mikhail Tal Quotes 1287117

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

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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

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I prefer to make my annotations 'hot on the heels', as it were, when the fortunes of battle, the worries, hopes and disappointments are still sufficiently fresh in my mind. Much as I would like to, I cannot say this about these few games which will be given below. In fact, if the annotator should begin to use phrases of the type: 'in reply to...I had worked out the following variation...', the reader will rightly say 'Grandmaster, you are showing off', since the 'oldest' of these games is now more than 25 years old, and even the 'newest' more than 20. Therefore, I would ask you not to regard the following 'stylised' annotations too severely. — Mikhail Tal

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

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There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones and mine — Mikhail Tal

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If (Black) is going for victory, he is practically forced to allow his opponent to get some kind of well-known positional advantage. — Mikhail Tal

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

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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

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Some sacrifices are sound; the rest are mine — Mikhail Tal

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Fischer is Fischer, but a knight is a knight! — Mikhail Tal

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Young man, consider that the train has left, and all you can do is loudly slam the door in farewell. — Mikhail Tal

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

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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

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

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...That is my biography from the first day of my chess life to the present.

JOURNALIST. And your plans.
PLAYER. To play! — Mikhail Tal

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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

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

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Fischer is the greatest genius to descend from the chess heavens. — Mikhail Tal

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

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