Mikhail Tal Quotes

Quotes about:

• 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, Psychology, Opponents

  279 Copy quote

• There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones and mine

  Mikhail Tal

  Sacrifice, Chess Game, Two

  143 Copy quote

• If you wait for luck to turn up, life becomes very boring.

  Mikhail Tal

  Waiting, Luck, Boring

  150 Copy quote

• 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

  138 Copy quote

• Planning anything is hopeless.

  Mikhail Tal

  Planning, Hopeless

  Source: www.chess.com

  30 Copy quote

• Quiet moves often make a stronger impression than a wild combination with heavy sacrifices.

  Mikhail Tal

  Moving, Sacrifice, Stronger

  95 Copy quote

• 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, Chess Game

  132 Copy quote

• 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

  170 Copy quote

• Some sacrifices are sound; the rest are mine

  Mikhail Tal

  Sacrifice, Sound, Chess

  75 Copy quote

• First, how to sac my queen, then rook, then bishop, then knight, then pawns.

  Mikhail Tal

  Queens, Knights, Bishops

  99 Copy quote

• 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

  155 Copy quote

• 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 Game

  117 Copy quote

• I like to grasp the initiative and not give my opponent peace of mind.

  Mikhail Tal

  Giving, Mind, Opponents

  73 Copy quote

• To play for a draw (at any rate with White) is to some degree a crime against chess.

  Mikhail Tal

  Play, White, Degrees

  118 Copy quote

• You can't avoid mistakes and bad luck.

  Mikhail Tal

  Mistake, Luck, Bad Luck

  Source: www.chess.com

  19 Copy quote

• 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, Errors, Games

  108 Copy quote

• Fischer is the greatest genius to descend from the chess heavens.

  Mikhail Tal

  Heaven, Genius, Chess

  92 Copy quote

• 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

  118 Copy quote

• I'd like to always be romantic in chess. Sadly, this doesn't always work like that.

  Mikhail Tal

  Chess

  Source: www.chess.com

  59 Copy quote

• 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, Technique, Chess

  91 Copy quote

• Fischer is Fischer, but a knight is a knight!

  Mikhail Tal

  Women, Knights, Chess

  97 Copy quote

• 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, Artist, Thinking

  80 Copy quote

• 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

  23 Copy quote

• 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

  Black, Victory, Opponents

  Mikhail Tal (2011). “Tal-Botvinnik 1960: Match For the World Chess Championship”, p.1, SCB Distributors

  70 Copy quote

• 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

  Mikhail Tal (2011). “Tal-Botvinnik 1960: Match For the World Chess Championship”, p.9, SCB Distributors

  78 Copy quote

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