Tal said there were two types of sacrifices, sound ones and his. He also observed that errors are not good for a chess game, but they are unavoidable and a game without any errors is colorless. If you don’t believe him then a book of games between engines or of any of the recent world correspondence championships is for you! Kasparov said, “He (Tal) was the only one I knew who didn't calculate the variants, he saw them.”
I got to wondering, what was Tal’s greatest game? I came to the conclusion that the question has no answer because defining great is hard to do and no matter what definition you use, there are just too many of his games that would qualify.
The following game is Tal vs. Gurgenidze from the 1968/69 USSR Championship. Tal faced a Caro Kann in which he got space advantage, dangerous Bishops and Queen.
On move 16 he played a nice P-sac with the idea of either weakening the K-side or opening the h-file. When the h-file open his R was already in position and on move 21 he cut loose with a series of sacrifices that ripped Gurgenidze’s K-side to shreds.
The 36th USSR Championship played in 1968/69 was held in Alma-Ata (now called Almaty) in Kazakhstan. The tournament was a second straight victory for Polugaevsky, who along with Tal had won the 126 player Swiss system championship tournament the year before.
This year it was Alexander Zaitsev who tied with Polugaevsky. A six game playoff was won by by a score of 3.5-2.5. It turned out to be Polugaevsky's final Soviet championship title.
1-2) A. Zaitsev and Polugaevsky 12.5
3) Lutikov 11.5
4-5) Liberzon and Tseshkovsky 11.0
6-10) Vasiukov, Klovans, Podgaets, Tal and Kholmov 10.5
11-13) Averbakh, Lein and Osnos 10.0
14) Sakharov 9.0
15-17) Bagirov, Gurgenidze and I. Zaitsev 8.5
18) Platonov 6.5
19) Cherepkov 4.5
20) Nikitin 3.5
[Event "USSR Championship 1968/69"]
[Site "Alma-Ata (Almaty)"]
[Date "1969.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Mikhail Tal"]
[Black "Bukhuti Gurgenidze"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteELO "?"]
[BlackELO "?"]
%Created by Caissa's Web PGN Editor
{Caro-Kann} 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 b5 {Gurgenidze has a variation of the
Caro-Kann named after him, but this isn't it. His system is 3...g6.
Gurgenidze played 3...b5 three times in this championship. In the other two
games he drew with Igor Zaitsev and lost to Janis Klovans. The idea of the
immediate advance of b-Pawn is to gain the square d5 for his N in lines
similar to main line of Caro-Kann. The move weakens the Q-side, but in this
game it's a moot point!} 4. a3 {Introduced by Tal, this move is now standard
in this line.} 4... dxe4 5. Nxe4 Bf5 {Also coming into consideration is
5...Nf6} 6. Bd3 {The alternative is 6.Ng3 and 7.Nf3.} 6... Bxe4 7. Bxe4 {White
has the pair of Bs and black's Q-side is weak, but as mentioned, it's a moot
point in thsi game.} 7... Nf6 {You would expect 8.Bf3, but that's not the Tal
way. Instead he offers a dubious P-sac.} 8. Bd3 e6 {Gurgenidze is scared to
take the P which against Tal has some rationality. Objectively though white
has no immediate, forceful continuation that would cause black any harm.} 9.
Nf3 Be7 10. Qe2 Nbd7 11. O-O O-O 12. Re1 {This is one of those positions where
you just know white is goping to work up a dangerous K-side attack. It's
instructive to watch how Tal does it.} 12... Re8 13. Ne5 Nxe5 14. dxe5 {Of
course he take with the P so as to drive the N away from the K-side.} 14...
Nd5 15. Qg4 {The storm clouds are gathering. Engines don't appreciate black's
predicament because by examining a gazillion moves they can pick their way
through the minefield and come out OK; humans can't do that. For example,
SugaR puts the evaluation at 0.14. Fritz has a little gizmo called the Hotness
Meter that tells you when the position enters a sharp tactical phase or when
there is a significant change in positional features. Here it's starting to
creep up...it's at 4.0 out of 10. The Mate-O-Meter warns you if the Kings are
in danger.; it's only on 1.0 here.} 15... a5 {White has a slight advantage
here in that he has more space and looking at black's position, it's clear he
may be in danger owing to the paucity of pieces available to defend his King.
Things are starting to get interesting.} 16. h4 {A really swell move...black
should have avoided opening up the h-file and played something like 16...Qc7
maybe.} 16... Bxh4 17. g3 Be7 18. Kg2 {Gurgenidze has failed to appreciate how
dangerous this file is going to be. The Hotness Meter is up to 6.4, but the
Mate-O-Meter is just a touch over 1.0 so black's K is still pretty safe.}
18... g6 19. Rh1 Bf8 {Gurgenidze obviously reasoned that the fianchettoed B
would be more than adequate to defend his K.} 20. Bg5 Qc7 { Attacking the
e-Pawn. Black doesn't suspect a thing. Hotness = 7.2, Mate-O-Meter = 2.4}
21. Rxh7 {When Tal made this move a loud report was heard throughout the
tournament hall (Just joking...nobody heard anything). If black takes the R
he can only avoid immediate mate by shedding heavy plastic.} 21... Qxe5 {Black
probably figured he could slip out of trouble after 22.Rah1 B67 23. Bh6 Bxh6
24.R1xh6 Nf6 25.Rxg6+ Kf8 26.Rxf6 Qxf6 and he is the exchange up.} 22. Rxf7
{Another big surprise that bumps the Hotness Meter to 9.0. Black has no good
defensive move, but mate is not imminent.} 22... Kxf7 {Fritz has this to say,
"Sad, but how else could Black save the game?"} 23. Bxg6+ Kg8 {Taking the B
loses the Q.} 24. Bxe8 Bg7 {Material is equal, but white's attack continues to
rage.} 25. Bd7 {Even stronger was 25.Bg6! threatening 26.Qh4.} 25... Nc7 26.
Bxc6 Rf8 27. Rd1 Qc5 28. Bf3 Qxc2 29. Rd7 Rf7 30. Rd8+ Rf8 31. Bf6 {The
Mate-O-Meter is at 5.5} 31... Qh7 32. Be4 Qh6 33. Bg5 Qh8 34. Rd7 {White ha a
mate in 10 after 34... Rf7} 1-0
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