[Event "Riga LAT"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1961.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Mikhail Tal"]
[Black "Alexander Koblents"]
[Result "*"]
[ECO "B99"]
[Annotator "RCA"]
[PlyCount "69"]
[EventDate "1961.??.??"]

{[%evp 0,69,19,38,40,41,66,66,57,33,33,27,60,47,68,25,25,12,54,50,14,-15,-4,4,
-6,-77,-80,-70,-59,-49,-49,-146,-33,-33,-33,-30,-30,-38,-43,-21,37,-48,87,-36,
-38,-61,187,10,171,170,178,181,191,191,212,224,216,260,268,280,293,294,298,316,
318,347,369,363,359,389,376,394]} 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5.
Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 e6 7. f4 Be7 8. Qf3 Qc7 9. O-O-O Nbd7 10. Be2 {Complete your
development.} h6 11. Bh4 b5 12. e5 $1 {“If you wait on luck to turn up, life
becomes very boring.”} Bb7 13. exf6 {During a game before Christmas, Tal
tied a ribbon on his queen and, upon sacrificing it, exclaimed "Merry
Christmas!"} Bxf3 14. Bxf3 d5 15. Nxe6 $3 {Mention that it was in a movie.
Nicholas Cage joke.} (15. fxe7 Qxf4+) 15... fxe6 16. Bh5+ {“You must take
your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is
only wide enough for one.”} g6 $3 (16... Kf8 17. fxe7+ Kg8 18. e8=Q+ Rxe8 19.
Bxe8 Qxf4+ 20. Kb1 Qxh4 21. Bxd7) 17. Bxg6+ Kf8 18. fxe7+ Kg7 (18... Kg8) 19.
Bg3 {At first point his opponent was probably like "is this a mouse slip? Oh,
it's 1961"} Nf6 {mistake} (19... b4 $1 20. f5 $1 {At this point even Stockfish
pretends the position is equal and hopes nobody asks any questions.}) (19...
Kxg6 20. f5+) 20. Rhe1 b4 (20... Qxe7 21. f5) 21. Rxe6 {“There are two types
of sacrifices: correct ones, and mine.” Many of us would agree with this
statement.} bxc3 22. f5 Qb7 (22... cxb2+ {Why didn't Black play an obvious
move cxb2? By the way it was also the best move for Black. My theory is that
taking into account the amount of Tal's sacrifices, Black was afraid that Tal
would just sacrifice his king.} 23. Kb1 Qd7 {was better} 24. Be5 Qxe6 25. fxe6
Kxg6 26. Rf1 Ne4 27. Bxh8 Nd2+ 28. Kxb2 Nxf1) 23. b3 Qd7 24. Be5 Qxe6 25. fxe6
Kxg6 26. Rf1 Nh7 27. Bxh8 Rxh8 {By now Tal has sacrificed all his pieces
except 1, and now he fixes this pending issue.} 28. Rf8 $1 Rxf8 (28... Nxf8 29.
e8=Q+) 29. exf8=Q {That's already the 2nd sacrificed queen} Nxf8 30. e7 Kf7 31.
exf8=Q+ {And the third Q got sacrificed, and Black decided that enough is
enough and resigned.} Kxf8 32. Kd1 {Black resigned due to} Ke7 33. Ke2 Kd6 34.
Kd3 Kc5 35. Kxc3 *