Life & Games of Mikhail Tal

This is a great book that everyone should own that cares about Chess. Tal was one of the most exciting players to ever play the game of Chess. He came at a time when matches were just home preperation and memorization. This was not the way to play the game and he shattered Botvinnik. At a time when he was thought almost impossible to even consider beating. Also it was the ultimate challenge of Science vs. Humanity. Would the almost machine like logician be the victor over the Magician... The book is very well written and a real joy to read. I actually bought an original copy from 1976 of this book as well. I still have it wrapped up and kept very well. I bought it after getting the the newer version just to have. The cover on that book is different than one used for this version. What makes this so great is that Tal has a style to his writing unlike anyone else. Also he seems to be a bit nuts and that always helps the enjoyment. He actually takes the role of a journalist asking himself questions. So that is a bit of an odd thing if you consider it. Still he tries to explain situations and even what he is thinking sometimes. He comes off as being a really human person which is important. He makes it clear that he is not a machine he is mortal. He does not try to elevate himself and disrespect anyone etc. Some of the stories are very interesting also. He talks about a game vs. Fischer that most likely he was gonna lose. He explains how Bobby wrote down the move in almost russian notation and showed him. Hoping to get some sort of reaction I suspect. Tal knowing this was the move that just about beat him explains his thought process. The way he reacts causes Fischer to actually change his move and ends up losing or drawing to Tal. This is rather interesting esp since I think Tal had a + score over Fischer. He talks about another game where his opponent planned to wear dark glasses. He hears of this and decides to don his own sunglasses. What happens next you will have to get book to read :). The popular Hippo story is also a favorite of many of his fans. He talks about other not so happy topics as well. I had wrote a really long review for this book some time ago. Yet for some reason it got deleted so hope this one works out better. I have some other books from Tal I have yet to review as well. Reason it takes so long to review them is there is so much to the books. Makes it very difficult to explain just how good the book is. Maybe I am biased cuz Tal is one of my favorite players. Yet I really do not use any of his openings or anything. Just from this book and other things I guess it helped create a strong liking. I am not sure I can really explain it. Yet I know there was and still is something very special about Tal. I regret that I never got to meet him in person etc. Still if your just into the pure chess side of things the book is also good. He did play lots of great players and his career spanned a long time. So consider with great care picking up this book. I enjoy just reading this book, him talking about the games though is priceless.

This book was the first book I purchased from Amazon, and was the reason why I applied to have a credit card to order it online. It's true that Mikhail "Misha" Tal is my chess idol, but nevertheless I wouldn't be biased if I said that of the many chess books I have, I'v never seen a more enjoyable book than this one. The book is written in a form of an interview with a chess player (Tal), and he talks about his Chess career and personal life mixed together in a very witty funny-way that would force you to love him and his style, even if you weren't a chess player already. The Chess theories that Tal has used in the book to illustrate his chess games, might be old and outplayed now. And perhaps I made a mistake to buy an old games book, to learn some openings from it, still, I learnt a lot from his games and personality. Mind you there are four things that you need to know before buying this book: 1- The book is fairly old, as it was written in 1975, lots of the openings he played have changed in order a little bit, so make sure you analyze them right. The poor chap didn't even have the luxury of having Chess engines that time, and yet he was this brilliant. (I'm dead serious, you would think he's crazy in some games where he sacrifices material like crazy, so much like you're watching a thriller!). 2- Some of the cool games played by him, aren't exactly annotated. 3- The worse thing that broke my heart, is that he doesn't talk about his personal (romantic) life as I'v wanted. He mentions his wife and the birth of his son yes, but nothing about his personal problems that his 1st and 2nd wife talked about, nor his daughter Zhana. So you better know this fact from now on. He does mention though on how he grew up learning chess and how did meet and learn things from the other players, most notably his Trainer, Koblents. The latter is mentioned as his trainer in the World Championship final against Botvinnik, not GM Nezhmetdinov, which is very strange that the latter wasn't mentioned at all, despite how much Tal liked him? 4- Am not sure if reading, and using the book too much is the reason, but if you did that the pages might fall! I don't know about the other copies or publishes, but I have an Everyman Chess copy. Still, unlike one of the (1 star) reviewers, pages falling apart is a silly reason not to buy a true chess classic, such as this one. I still carry the book with me if I had to travel, and always read it again and again, you just never get board of this book about Tal. You would really believe that he was the best tactical player ever, and that he was indeed ahead of his time. To me, he is the best Chess player ever, on and off the chess board. The book would just show you what type of a modest, kind, witty personality Tal had, that made him the legend he is today. Finally, to me this is the best Chess book ever written as a review, if not, to many it's at least one of the best 5 Chess books ever written. A must to have in your collection of Chess books. Hope you'd enjoy it too.

One of the most enigmatic chess champions, Mikhail Tal, reveals his extraordinary life and career. The 100 complete games and nearly as many positions plus Tal's annotations make the book truly unique. However, how a gifted person builds on his many talents and interests to become an acclaimed chess master is a topic interesting not only for chess players. It is about the human effort and the innumerable impediments that a man should overcome including the problems of his own organism in order to accomplish his dream.

The book is a chess classic, one of the finest written by a world champion in the second half of the 20th century. It is a sort of 'monologue intérieur' in which Mikhail Tal (Riga 1936 - Moscow 1992) interviews himself about his life and career, meanwhile presenting a selection of important and illustrative games. The book (covering up untill 1975) was first published in the seventies; it was reprinted in 1997, worked over by the best chess editor there is, the British grandmaster John Nunn. That is the edition this Kindle version is based on. For a chess player, of which many 'read' such a book with a board and pieces at the table, the original printed version(s) had a drawback: it was a very unhandy 500 pages fat paperback. The Kindle is much more convenient for playing over the games. The only pitty is (again, as with more chess books over here) the poor graphic quality of the chess diagrams with the games in the Kindle edition. For the rest it is as John Nunn says: "This is one of those rare chess books which is not only splendidly instructive, but also conveys a real impression of the author's personality." And quite a personality Mikhail Tal was.

Mikhail was a captivating chess player! He definitely kept the initiative in his games. When my skill level was beginner, I always played with the take, then immediately take back mindset. In Tal's tournament games, he mentioned that he might think for 40 minutes regarding his move. If a piece had been captured, he would consider the immediate recapture and how that might play out with one of his pieces or the immediate recapture with another one of his pieces. As you'll see in his games, his next move after a capture might take place on the complete opposite end of the board because he has determined it plays out more to his advantage. Some of the combinations in his games are truly fascinating and they speak to Mikhail's creativity and precision. I loved the games it shows Tal versus Botvinnik, Dvoretsky, Evans, Fischer, Gligoric, Bukhuti Gurgenidze, Keres, his trainer Koblents, Korchnoi, Larsen, Najdorf, Petrosian, Reshevsky, Spassky, and others.

This book is one of the all-time best chess books ever written. I won't repeat what all the other reviewers have said. If you can find this book, buy it and do not hesitate. That said, there are a couple of things about this most recent republishing that leave a lot to be desired. 1) The cover photo is terrible. It is very blurry and not at all high quality. 2) The back cover has a horrible translation error - The final sentence in the original said recounts every psychological twist and turn - The translation says every pathological twist and turn. embarrasing.

This is a great book and a must have for any chess enthusiast. I admire Tal for his humble approach to analyzing his own games and discussing his extrodinary accomplishments. Through this book I have learned an artistry and attention to detail, and possibly enhancement in my own games. The autobiographical accounts discussed by Tal give you a good perspective of the competitions he takes part in. There is also accounts of when and how he became a smoker, details into his medical procedures and how it affected him in his play and mood. I feel very thankful to have this unique account of Tal through his own words and through his own assessment of his games. Be prepared to be inspired by his colorful calculations that seem to come alive at the board the creativeness and amazing use of the pieces. I believe chess players that try to aspire to one brilliancy in all of Tal's games will benifit by the creative approaches and look beyond the simplification towards more complexity, and to not be afraid to sacrifice a piece for activity, initiative, or tactical devilry. A very distinguished and talented player.

Tal manages to combine his many experiences in chess in a manner both lucid and entertainingly witty!

Mein Lieblingsspieler Michail Tal unternimmt eine Reise durch sein eigenes Schachleben - und lädt den Leser herzlich dazu ein, mitzukommen. Und zwar unabhängig von dessen eigener Spielstärke, denn Tal beschreibt seine Gedanken und analysiert die Partien so, dass jeder vom Amateur bis zum GM seine Ideen nachvollziehen kann. Und natürlich kommt bei Tal auch eine gehörige Portion von Tals ganz eigenem Humor nicht zu kurz! Jeder, der mehr über den "Schachzauberer" erfahren will - wie er mit seinem revolutionären Stil zum Weltmeister wurde und auch viele Anekdoten außerhalb des Schachbrettes - dem möchte ich dieses Buch wärmstens empfehlen.

Excellent book with bad print quality.

This is an absolutely splendid book. I have many books of games by Tal and this is the best. Written in an entertaining style with many games annotated by Tal himself without the plethora of computerised variations which normally accompany modern collections of chess games. Other reviewers have said that it is the best chess book ever written and I'm inclined to go along with this but with my personal reservation that it is ONE of the best chess books ever written and can be placed comfortably in the company of Kasparov's best work, Chernev's Golden Dozen and Bronstein's coverage of the Zurich Interzonal Tournament of 1953. Worth every penny or cent of the price and a definite for inclusion in the desert island allocation!

Absolutely love this book. I have many others, among them Fishers' 60 memorable games, Modern chess masterpieces, to name a couple, but this book is by far the more enjoyable read. I would highly recommend this one to anybody that loves chess, and loves attacking chess.

発送も早く、商品の状態も良く満足しております。