Mikhail Tal: Master of Sacrifice - Mikhail Tal's Best Games of Chess, 1951-60

viii, 195 pp. Few players have captured the imagination of the chess playing public in the way that Mikhail Tal has done. Over a long and successful career he has continually proved himself to be one of the most exciting players the world has ever seen. He rose to fame in dashing fashion beating the world's best players with a series of dazzling sacrificial attacks, culminating in his becoming the youngest holder of the World Championship in 1960 at only 23 years of age, a record which stood until Garry Kasparov's victory in 1985. In this collection Peter Clarke has selected fifty games from 1951 to 1960, covering Tal's meteoric rise from schoolboy to World Champion. One can only marvel at the range of tactical genius which is revealed in these games, which still provide chess players throughout the world with rich enjoyment and valuable instruction.