Mikhail Tal famous quotes

04-17-2025

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

#Games #Feelings #Chess
There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones and mine
-- Mikhail Tal

#Sacrifice #Two #Chess
Some sacrifices are sound; the rest are mine
-- Mikhail Tal

#Sacrifice #Sound #Chess
To play for a draw (at any rate with White) is to some degree a crime against chess.
-- Mikhail Tal

#Play #White #Chess
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

#Art #Play #Chess
Fischer is Fischer, but a knight is a knight!
-- Mikhail Tal

#Women #Knights #Chess
Quiet moves often make a stronger impression than a wild combination with heavy sacrifices.
-- Mikhail Tal

#Moving #Sacrifice #Stronger
I like to grasp the initiative and not give my opponent peace of mind.
-- Mikhail Tal

#Giving #Mind #Opponents
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

#Thinking #Squares #Games
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

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

#Learning #Games #Benefits
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

#Dream #Thinking #Play
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

#Trying #Chess #Technique
I have always thought it a matter of honour for every chess player to deserve the smile of fortune.
-- Mikhail Tal

#Player #Chess #Matter
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

#Player #Games #Chess
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

#Simple #Games #Opponents
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

#Dark #Chess #Path
I go over many games collections and pick up something from the style of each player.
-- Mikhail Tal

#Player #Games #Style
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

#Kings #Moving #Long
It is difficult to play against Einstein's theory -on his first loss to Fischer
-- Mikhail Tal

#Loss #Play #Chess
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

#Moving #Games #Chess
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

#Girl #Imagination #Chess
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

#Games #Psychology #Psychological
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

#Victory #Black #Opponents
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

#Sacrifice #Thinking #Artist
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

#Mistake #Games #Errors

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