8THWorld chess champion

Mikhail Tal

Mikhail Tal was world champion 1960–1961, for 1 year. He won the title in 1960, beating Mikhail Botvinnik 12½–8½ in Moscow.

Born: 9 November 1936 · Riga, Latvia
Died: 28 June 1992 · Moscow, Russia
Learned chess: Joined the Riga Palace of Young Pioneers chess club as a child
Profiles: FIDE World Chess Museum Wikipedia Chessmetrics

1 year
World champion: 1 of 2
Title events won or kept: 2799
Peak (Chessmetrics), Sep 1960: 2826
On today's scale: 12th of 18

Every title event

Year	Opponent	Score	Result	Games	Where
1960	Mikhail Botvinnik	12½–8½	Won	+6 −2 =13	Moscow
1961	Mikhail Botvinnik	13–8	Lost	+5 −10 =6	Moscow

Across 2 title matches, Tal won 11 games, lost 12 and drew 19: a score of 48.8% of the points.

Scores are listed winner first; a dash means the match wasn't played or was a tournament. Games are won, lost and drawn (+ − =) from Tal's side, counted from chessgames.com and shown only where they add up to the official score. Source: Wikipedia, List of World Chess Championships.

Honours

1
World championship titles: 1
Candidates wins: 3
Interzonal wins: 1
World blitz titles: 6
National championships: 8
Olympiad team golds: 5
Olympiad board golds: 6
European team golds

Each year links to its source. * Shared title. † Held before FIDE's official series (blitz events of 1970, 1988 and 2000; the 2000 and 2002 World Cups). World championship titles are title events won or kept. Olympiad board golds are the best score on a board. Most of these events didn't exist before the 1920s.

Compare all 18 champions' honours

Impact at home: Soviet Union and Latvia

HonoursKnown as 'The Magician from Riga' source
InstitutionsPlayed 21 Soviet championships and won six source
PlayersLatvian players such as Alexander Shabalov and Alvis Vītoliņš played in a similar style, leading some to speak of a 'Latvian School of Chess' source
HonoursThe Mikhail Tal Memorial was held in Moscow every year from 2006 to 2014, and again in 2016 and 2018 source
GrowthWon or shared first in 68 tournaments, starting with the 1950 Latvian junior championship source

The Soviet Union had 20 grandmasters when Tal became world champion in 1960. By 1970 the Soviet Union had 36, and by 1991, its last year, 129.

Measure	1960when he became champion	1970ten years on	1991the Soviet Union's last year
Grandmasters	20	36	129
In the world top 100	–	43 Jul 1971 list	45 Jul 1991 list

Soviet grandmasters, 1950–1991

Move over the chart to see any year.

Grandmasters by the year FIDE gave the title, from Wikipedia's list of all 2,162 grandmasters (October 2026); Soviet players are counted to 1991, including those the list now files under a successor state. Top 100 from FIDE's rating lists (OlimpBase to 2001, then FIDE); FIDE's lists begin in 1971. These numbers show what happened around each champion, not what he caused: many things grow a country's chess.

Rivalries

Botvinnik v TalTitle events 1960, 1961

12 wins20 draws · 44 games12 wins

How strong was Tal?

Mikhail Tal's best years came before FIDE's first rating list (July 1971). On Chessmetrics, Jeff Sonas's historical rating system, he peaked at 2799 in Sep 1960. FIDE's lists, which came later, rated him at most 2705 (Jan 1980).

That month the best other player was Tigran Petrosian, at 2775: Tal was 24 points clear. The top 10 averaged 2749; on today's scale (FIDE's Nov 2026 top 10 average 2777) his peak is about 2826, 12th of the 18 champions. How this is worked out.

Chessmetrics also ranks him 18th of all time on three-year average (2786, 1959-Jan to 1961-Dec). Source.

FIDE standard rating on each list where Mikhail Tal was in the world top 100 (lists were published once or twice a year until 2000), and FIDE's own monthly record from April 2003. Sources: OlimpBase, FIDE.

Every month as a table

FIDE list	Rating
Jul 1991	2575
Jan 1991	2565
Jul 1990	2580
Jan 1990	2585
Jul 1989	2585
Jan 1989	2610
Jul 1988	2610
Jan 1988	2630
Jul 1987	2625
Jan 1987	2605
Jul 1986	2600
Jan 1986	2600
Jul 1985	2565
Jan 1985	2565
Jul 1984	2605
Jan 1984	2620
Jul 1983	2620
Jan 1983	2620
Jul 1982	2610
Jan 1982	2605
Jul 1981	2560
Jan 1981	2555
Jan 1980	2705
Jan 1979	2615
Jan 1978	2625
Jan 1977	2620
Jan 1976	2615
Jan 1975	2645
May 1974	2635
Jul 1973	2660
Jul 1972	2625
Jul 1971	2620

The road to the title

1949
Simultaneous Exhibition vs. Ratmir Kholmov^[1]
Won with an imaginative combination, aged 13
Against Ratmir Kholmov, a young master, in a simultaneous exhibition
1957-02
24th USSR Chess Championship (Moscow)^[1]
Won
The youngest winner, at 20
1958-02
25th USSR Chess Championship (Riga)^[1]
Won again
Retained his Soviet title
1958-09
Portoroz Interzonal Tournament^[1]
Won
Then helped the USSR win the 1958 Olympiad in Munich
1959-06
Zurich Jubilee Tournament^[1]
Won
A very strong tournament
1959-10
Candidates Tournament (Bled / Zagreb / Belgrade)^[1]
Won with 20/28
Ahead of Keres (18½), Petrosian, Smyslov, Fischer and others; it earned a title match
1960-05-07
World Chess Championship Match vs. Botvinnik (Moscow)^[1]
Won 12½–8½ (6 wins, 2 losses, 13 draws)
At 23, the youngest world champion up to then

What Tal changed about chess

strategyKnown as "the Magician from Riga": a very aggressive style with heavy calculation, often sacrificing material for activity and initiative.^[1]
otherTwo major anthologies of brilliant games include more games by Tal than by any other player.^[1]
otherOther Latvian players have played in a similar vein, leading some to speak of a "Latvian school of chess".^[1]

Achievements

1960-05-07Eighth World Chess Champion (1960–1961)^[1]
1978Six-time Soviet champion (1957, 1958, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1978), from 21 championships played^[1]
1974-10-1695 games unbeaten (Oct 1973–Oct 1974), once the record^[1]
1982Eight Olympiads for the USSR, team gold at every one^[1]
1988Won the second official World Blitz Championship, aged 51^[1]
1979-10Won the 1979 Riga Interzonal unbeaten, 14/17^[1]

Famous games

Mikhail Tal v Alexander Tolush, USSR Championship 1957 1957 · 1–0^[1]
From the 1957 Soviet Championship, which he won at 20.
Alexander Tolush
Mikhail Tal
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43. 1–0
Arrow keys step through the moves; click any move to jump to it. Pieces by Colin M. L. Burnett (BSD licence).
Game score: chessgames.com
Robert James Fischer v Mikhail Tal, Candidates Tournament 1959 1959 · 0–1^[1]
From the 1959 Candidates, which Tal won to earn his title match.
Mikhail Tal
Robert James Fischer
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53. 0–1
Arrow keys step through the moves; click any move to jump to it. Pieces by Colin M. L. Burnett (BSD licence).
Game score: chessgames.com
Mikhail Botvinnik v Mikhail Tal, World Chess Championship 1960, game 6 1960 · 0–1^[1]
From the 1960 match that made Tal world champion at 23.
Mikhail Tal
Mikhail Botvinnik
Start position
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48. 0–1
Arrow keys step through the moves; click any move to jump to it. Pieces by Colin M. L. Burnett (BSD licence).
Game score: chessgames.com

In his words

"Later, I began to succeed in decisive games, perhaps because I realised a very simple truth: not only was I worried, but so was my opponent."^[2]

"To play for a draw, at any rate with White, is to some degree a crime against chess."^[2]

Quick answers

When was Mikhail Tal world chess champion?

1960–1961: 1 year. He won the title in 1960, beating Mikhail Botvinnik 12½–8½ in Moscow.

Sources

[1] en.wikipedia.org: "In 1949, he played Ratmir Kholmov, a young master who had recently competed in the Chigorin Memorial chess tournament in 1947, in a simultaneous exhibition. Tal used an imaginative combination to win his game at the age of 13."
[2] en.wikiquote.org: "Later, I began to succeed in decisive games, perhaps because I realised a very simple truth: not only was I worried, but so was my opponent."