|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 1 OF 3 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
| May-14-03 | | brucehum: This is generally considered Tal's last normal time control game. Interesting point: 38.Ke1 ! The king, sensing his death near, returns triumphant home to get a well deserved rest!!! |
|
Nov-09-04
 | | Benzol: "Mikhail Tal, the man who began his career by bamboozling the older masters in tactical melees, finishes his career by bamboozling the younger masters in tactical melees. This was his last tournament game". - Joe Gallagher. A fitting finale to a career full of brilliant and beautiful games. |
|
| Nov-10-04 | | iron maiden: When viewing this game, consider that Akopian is a player who made the quarterfinals in the last FIDE world championship. The fact that Tal was able to crush him despite decades worth of age difference and poor health shows just how amazing the man really was. |
|
Nov-10-04
 | | tpstar: Surely Tal had a fine positional sense to complement his tactical genius throughout his brilliant career. See how quickly he trades off both Bishops on an open board, yet his Knights remain superior to Black's Bishops for offense and defense. Black was probably very content with his set-up straight out of the opening, only to be outplayed by the mighty Tal in the middlegame. Nice curtain call. |
|
| Feb-20-05 | | Ultra: Truly a nice ending to a fantastic career. I love Tal's games. |
|
| Apr-19-05 | | RookFile: I think it's really something that
Tal's final move turned out to be
Ke1.
The king returns home! |
|
| May-31-05 | | SnoopDogg: I think people need to erase the myth that as just because your a generation ahead doesn't mean the older generations can still whip the youngsters. This game demonstrates that. Just 7 years later Akopian would lose in a WC (FIDE) match to Khalifman. Anyways I think people underestimate the strength and learning ability of old masters. Just look at Vasily Smyslov. He was one more match away from the '84 match with Karpov until Garry showed him enough is enough. Then we have Spassky crushing Short in '01, Korchnoi reached about 2676 in the '00's or '99! Also many others and Tal even beat and finished ahead in I think the '88 Moscow blitz championship! |
|
| May-31-05 | | whatthefat: Such an energetic, yet mature game from Tal. Surely a fitting finale. |
|
| May-31-05 | | hintza: Yes, a beautiful final game by Tal. |
|
| Jun-26-05 | | OneArmedScissor: <"The king returns home!"> Couldn't have said it better. |
|
| Jul-07-05 | | shortsight: Computers are surely solid, but they are not yet perfect. Seeing how ZachS dominated the Freestyle Chess in playchess server, I believe Tal in his best would have able to give any computer a whipping any time. |
|
| Jul-08-05 | | iron maiden: Tal was capable of taking on most human opponents, but a lot of his sacrifices have met with electronic refutation over the last decade. So I wouldn't put him on a shortlist of the best anti-computer players of all time, and I certainly wouldn't bet on him "whipping" Hydra. |
|
| Jul-08-05 | | MrSifter: Ulf Andersson, Anatoly Karpov and Tigran Petrosian would cause Hydra to explode. |
|
| Jul-13-05 | | fgh: <MrSifter>: I certainly do agree about Petrosian. He would keep doing nothing until Hydra would overheat and explode :-) |
|
| Jul-14-05 | | aw1988: <MrSifter> And Lasker, who would use the ultimate psychology of unplugging it. |
|
| Jul-14-05 | | fgh: <aw1988>: Lol. He might try to use that kind of psychology against the programmer :-) |
|
| Oct-13-05 | | Granite: This game almost seems like it's composed. Excellent fighting tactics from both sides with Tal just dodging doom and heading to e1 on his last regular time game. I think the word I'm looking for is 'Unbelievable'. Great game. |
|
May-07-06
 | | chancho: Tal was very ill and about a month away from meeting his maker, when he played this game. Tal was a great ... great player. |
|
| May-07-06 | | RookFile: Too bad akopian could figure out a way to adjourn the game until then. :) |
|
May-07-06
| | chancho: <Rookfile> LOL. |
|
May-17-06
 | | alexmagnus: This game has an interesting pre-history... This Barcelona tournament Tal began with a glance win over Lautier. But his health was very bad and he began to offer fightless draws with white and play almost without a fight (bad health, thinking could be fatal!) with black. The pre-ultimate round. Tal already resigned his game, went to the table where Korchnoi played against Akopian. Akopian had advantage in the ending and Tal offered him a draw in the last round. Akopian agreed. But he couldn't win that ending against Korchnoi and the game ende in a draw. Since Akopian pretended on the first place in the tournament, he came to Tal and said there will be no draw, he needs a win. Tal, who needed a draw, was angry after this. He knew he has to fight - but he knew it will be hard with his health. It came to this wild and nice game. Two weeks later Tal died...
P.S. Korchnoi liked to tell this story to other people, most of them told:"Probably there, above, it was known that it is Tal's last game and he must win it". But one person, after hearing the story, said to Korchnoi "But this game would take place only if you managed to draw Akopian! So, who is the true God?" So, once in his life, Korchnoi felt himself as God... (Partly quoted from:A.Karpov, E.Gik. Everything about chess). |
|
| May-17-06 | | SnoopDogg: <So I wouldn't put him on a shortlist of anti-computer players or bet on him "whipping Hydra> Actually Tal was known for confusing computers and actually outwitting them in tactical melee's. I know this was the 80's and early 90's, but computers would be so confused by his sacrifices and Tal, believe it or not, looked tactically stronger than computers back then. My point isn't that Tal could "whip" Hydra, but its just because a player has a sacrificial/attacking style, doesn't mean it would always get slaughtered by computers if he played this way. Just look at Bronstein's success with computers and against Deep Blue, Sure computers can outcalculate humans. But don't confuse calculation with tactics or vision. A human can sense certain tactical motifs in an instant or sacrifical ideas almost instantaneously which is why GM's often say they'll have to use their creativity and intuition against Computers. While silicon monsters like Hydra have to look at billions of positions and still can't really "feel" the position. Anyways my conclusion to win against a computer doesn't really come down to the style, but the quality of play, whether attacking or defensive. |
|
| Jun-25-06 | | notyetagm: <SnoopDogg: ... Sure computers can outcalculate humans. But don't confuse calculation with tactics or vision.> Very good point. An amateur player like myself is told to work on my calculation skills but until you become stronger you do not know -what- you should be calculating. Just like the earlier chess engines that could calculate my nodes per second but did not really -understand- the positions that they were calculating. |
|
| Nov-19-07 | | Sularus: Game of the Day: RETURN OF THE KING |
|
| Apr-17-08 | | dTal: thanks <alexmagnus>, that is a great story. I knew about the refused draw, but not those details which you provided. To me, Tal was probably the most talented player who ever lived. Not the greatest mind you, just the most talented, because he couldnt fulfil the promise of his unique genius due to ill health. I know others will disagree, and it's a very subjective matter, but I think Fischer had it right when Tal once asked who the greatest was, in his opinion. Fischer reportedly looked at him so strangely that Tal hastened to add that he meant the greatest besides Fischer himself. :-) And Fischer replied: "you're not so bad".
What a player, just what a player. Racked with will health, inebriated most of the time, but still a match for anybody. Rest in peace, Magical King. |
|
 |
|
|
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 1 OF 3 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
Kibitzing
Annotations by 
sac: 31.Ng5