Mikhail Tal, 1992

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July 01 1992

The Modesto Bee, Modesto, California, Wednesday, July 01, 1992

Mikhail Tal
Chess champion
Mikhail Tal, a Latvian grand master who held the world chess championship in 1960-61 and was one of the game's most popular and exciting players died in Moscow on Sunday after a long illness the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported. He was 55.
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Tal had hoped to represent Latvia in this month's world chess Olympiad in Manila but was unable to make the trip because of illness.
Known in chess circles as a swashbuckling attacker who reveled in daring sacrifices and all-but-unfathomable complications over the board, Tal won the world championship in 1960 at the age of 23 — becoming the youngest person to hold the title in this century — by defeating Mikhail Botvinnik who had been the champion since 1948.
Although Tal lost the championship in a return match with Botvinnik a year later and never became a title challenger again he continued to play at world-class levels of competition and steadily won tournament and brilliancy prizes in an illustrious chess career.

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