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FAVORITES: Spassky vs Tal 1958

NM MrPushwood1,842 viewsEnglish (US)
ChessChess PersonalitiesOver the boardTournamentEndgame
In the last round--and with the Soviet championship on the line--the Magician comes surging back from the precipice (to make it two titles in a row!). :)

Well, first off I gotta say I love that picture! Tal is one demon-driven dude (no wonder Benko needed shades!), while Spassky is sitting there like he's filing his nails or something. Seriously, who knew the guy could look so tweedy? It's like Bradford Dillman going up against the Night Stalker.

Anyway, on to the game. I came across this particular item in Hajtun's book (unfortunately not too auspicious a tome, but there were a coupla cool things about it, I remember: like it had one of those cloth bookmarks--yellow--and the bishops in the diagrams had feathers in their hats, I swear). It was just about my first Serious Chess Book and all of it of course made no sense to me at all.

It seemed like a sprawling major-piece ending came up where Tal was (apparently) hanging on the edge and then somehow or other came back. Even finishing the whole business with some kinda mating net.

Now though to me it's like some gem. One of the greatest struggles in championship history...

https://lichess.org/AddTQN55#0

PS Please don't let yourself get too sidetracked by all those engine doodlings (I do wish you could turn the damn gadget off: "WRONG!!!...WRONG!!!..." lol). Just enjoy it for what it was: a marathon contest between two of the most remarkable (human) players in history.

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