A lot of events happened back in the year 1936 but one of them was more significant for the course of history than all the others.
Shortly after Jesse Owens pissed Hitler of in the middle of Berlin, and slightly before the Anti-Comintern Pact was signed between Japan and Germany, on 9 November, a woman named Ida gave birth to a son of a man named Nehemija. From that day, a little boy would be known as Mikhail Nekhemieviech.
Many years later, Mikhail Nekhemievich would become the most famous name in the chess world. At the age of 22, he would win the USSR Championship and the Interzonal Tournament, at the age of 23 he would win the Candidates tournament in Zagreb, Bled and Belgrade, and a year later he would capture the World crown after beating the Patriarch himself, the formidable Botvinnik in the War of the antipodes.
His rapid ascent was rivaled only by the fashion in which it happened. Misha Tal’s style of play was spectacular. Dazzling sacrifices, incredible combinations and labyrinth of possibilities would make the pieces come alive in almost every single Tal game. For Tal, chess was art and initiative was his brush with which he would go on to paint some of the most beautiful pictures of the entire chess history.
As he himself once remarked:
“You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2 = 5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for me”
Unfortunately, his style of life was very similar to his style of play. It can be best described with the term – living on the edge. Tal enjoyed alcohol, cigars and women and he had problems during his whole life. Just a couple of months before his rematch against Botvinnik, he had undergone a kidney surgery, and he would have various health issues until the very end of his life, which ended quite early in 1992 when Tal was only 56 years old.
But I guess that being a genius often comes with a price.
In any case, happy birthday to one of the most remarkable, vivid and memorable players and personalities of the chess history to Magician from Riga.
Many thanks for leaving such a rich heritage behind.
(If you like posts as these, check our complete list of Chess Birthdays )