♟️ Chess · Grandmaster

Mikhail Tal

Latvia · 1949–1992

The Magician from Riga — sacrificed almost everything, almost always.

1960–1961
World champion: 95 games
Unbeaten streak: 6
Soviet titles: 23
World champion at

Career

Tal played sacrifices that computers have since shown were often objectively unsound, and won anyway, because the resulting complications were beyond any human to calculate at the board. He was the youngest world champion of his era and held an unbeaten streak of 95 games.

Honours

World Chess Champion, 1960
Youngest world champion at the time, aged 23
95-game unbeaten run, a record for decades
Six-time Soviet champion

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