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The Move Tal Did Not Mean to Play

Bobby Fischer vs Mikhail Tal, Bled International Tournament, round 2 1961 · Sicilian Defence, Taimanov Variation · 1-0

Coach

Fischer was eighteen and had never beaten Tal. Six games, two draws, four losses. This one was decided on move six, and not by analysis: Tal played his move, walked off across the stage to wait, glanced at the demonstration board and saw a white knight somewhere it had no business being. He came back to the board and discovered he had played a different move from the one he intended. Everything after that is Fischer refusing to relax, and Tal writing it all down afterwards with a candour that no annotator watching from outside could match.

Before move one

Step through the game; it stops where a move is worth finding.

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Arrow keys step through the game. Explore tries your own moves; Stockfish answers.

  • Watch the knight that jumps to the fifth rank on move seven. It is only playable because Black never spent a move taking the square away, and everything that follows is White cashing in that one tempo.
  • Read Tal's notes at moves 9 and 16. He tells you which move he wanted to play, which he thought was objectively best, and why he chose neither. That is the part of a game no diagram records.
  • Compare the two accounts at moves 6 and 21. Tal and Fischer remember the same game differently, and the translator sides with neither of them.
  • At move 23 White lets his queen be taken. Work out what he gets for her before you read the note.
  • The last twenty moves are queen against two rooks. Look at where the rooks go rather than at the material count.
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