All About Chess...

MIKHAIL TAL’S STARE was infamous, and to some ominous. With his deep brown, almost black eyes, he’d glare so intently at his opponents that some said he was attempting to hypnotize them into making a vapid move. The Hungarian-American player Pal Benko actually donned sunglasses once when he played Tal, just to avoid the penetrating stare. Tal's burning stare... Bobby had tolerated Tal’s stare when they first met over the board in Portorož, Yugoslavia. That game had ended in a draw. At his first game against Tal, in Bled, Bobby was already at the board when the twenty-three-year-old Mischa arrived just in time to commence play. Bobby stood and Tal offered his right hand to shake. Tal’s hand was severely deformed, with only three large fingers appended, and since his wrist was so thin, the malformation resembled a claw. Bobby, to his credit, didn’t seem to care. He returned the gesture with a two-stroke handshake, and play began. Within a ...

Over the years I have come to observe Anatoly Karpov's style of play, his deep and at times phenomenal strategic vision. I have enjoyed countless of his games. In Karpov's play I have always been staggered by his amazing ability to soberly and absolutely accurately evaluate the position on the board. To evaluate quickly without spending much time on analysis. This comes from his fantastic chess intuition, from innate talent. In his time, it is primarily this that distinguishes the young Karpov among the leading grandmasters in the world. By his style of play Karpov can be compared with the Cuban genius, the great Capablanca. Although there is one important distinction. When you play through Capa's games, you begin to think: Oh, it's all so simple, even I could do that. By contrast, Karpov's games initially startle you by their strategy, which seems illogical, but soon it becomes clear that in fact his play is extremely logi...