Mikhail Tal (1936–1992): playing style, games and openings

8th World Champion, 1960–1961. The Magician from Riga: intuitive sacrifices that created chaos opponents couldn't calculate their way out of.

1936–1992 · Known for: Sacrificial attacks · 2,429 games in the collection

Explore Mikhail Tal's games in the analyzer Compare with your own games

Playing style: Solid / prophylactic

Keeps the king safe, avoids early adventures and is hard to beat, at the cost of more draws.

Aggression 30 / 100

Risk-taking 38 / 100

Endgame bias 20 / 100

Solidity 80 / 100

Simplification 39 / 100

These scores come from the 2,358 games used for the style profile (classical-length games), measured the same way the analyzer measures your own games.

Results

Mikhail Tal scored 945 wins, 1160 draws and 253 losses (65% score) in 2358 games.

With White: 577 wins, 521 draws and 97 losses (70% score) in 1195 games.
With Black: 368 wins, 639 draws and 156 losses (59% score) in 1163 games.

Favourite openings

As White

Sicilian Defense: 279 games, 74% score
Ruy Lopez: 217 games, 67% score
English Opening: 122 games, 67% score
Caro-Kann Defense: 84 games, 70% score
Queen's Gambit Declined: 83 games, 63% score
French Defense: 75 games, 74% score

As Black

Sicilian Defense: 297 games, 64% score
English Opening: 135 games, 58% score
King's Indian Defense: 118 games, 65% score
Queen's Gambit Declined: 85 games, 48% score
Nimzo-Indian Defense: 73 games, 48% score
Benoni Defense: 62 games, 68% score

A famous game

Candidates 1965 knight sacrifice (Tal, Mihail vs Larsen, Bent, 1-0, 1965) — replay it move by move and see Stockfish's verdict.