Editing Mikhail Tal (section)

==World Champion==
[[File:Wereldkandidaten schaaktoernooi in Zuid Slavia Tal (Rusland), Petrosjan (Rusland, Bestanddeelnr 910-7198.jpg|alt=|thumb|Tal in 1959]]
In 1959, Tal won a very strong tournament in [[Zurich]], [[Switzerland]]. Following the Interzonal, the top players carried on to the [[Candidates' Tournament]], Yugoslavia, 1959. Tal won with 20/28 points, ahead of [[Paul Keres]] with 18½, followed by [[Tigran Petrosian]], [[Vasily Smyslov]], [[Bobby Fischer]], [[Svetozar Gligorić]], [[Friðrik Ólafsson]], and [[Pal Benko]]. Tal's victory was attributed to his dominance over the lower half of the field;<ref>{{cite book |last=Horowitz |first=Al |author-link=Israel Albert Horowitz |year=1973 |title=The World Chess Championship, A History |publisher=Macmillan |page=188 |lccn=72080175}}</ref> whilst scoring only one win and three losses versus Keres, he won all four individual games against Fischer, and took 3½ points out of 4 from each of Gligorić, Olafsson, and Benko.<ref name="MarkWeeks1959Candidates">{{cite web |url=http://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/5860$cix.htm |title=1959 Yugoslavia Candidates Tournament |work=mark-weeks.com}}</ref> When Benko arrived for his match with Tal, he wore dark glasses in order to avert the gaze of Tal, which could be intimidating. In response and as a joke, Tal wore large sunglasses which he borrowed from a member of the crowd.<ref name="Independent Obituary" />

In 1960, at the age of 23, Tal defeated the strategically-minded [[Mikhail Botvinnik]] in a World Championship match, held in Moscow, by 12½–8½ (six wins, two losses, and thirteen draws),<ref name="Independent Obituary" /> making him the youngest-ever World Champion (a record later broken by [[Garry Kasparov]], who earned the title at 22, and broken again by [[Gukesh Dommaraju]] who earned the title at age 18). Botvinnik, who had never faced Tal before the title match began, won the return match against Tal in 1961, also held in Moscow, by 13–8 (ten wins to five, with six draws).<ref name="Independent Obituary" /> In the period between the matches Botvinnik had thoroughly analysed Tal's style, and turned most of the return match's games into slow wars of maneuver or [[Chess endgame|endgames]], rather than the complicated tactical melees which were Tal's happy hunting ground.<ref name="NYTimes1992TalObit">{{cite news |title=Mikhail Tal, a Chess Grandmaster Known for His Daring, Dies at 55 |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE0D91739F93AA15755C0A964958260 |author=McFadden, R.D. |date=29 June 1992 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> Tal's chronic [[kidney]] problems contributed to his defeat, and his doctors in Riga advised that he should postpone the match for health reasons. Yuri Averbakh claimed that Botvinnik would agree to a postponement only if Tal was certified unfit by Moscow doctors, and that Tal then decided to play.<ref name="Kingston2002AvebakhInterviewPart2">{{cite web |url=http://www.chesscafe.com/text/skittles183.pdf |title=Yuri Averbakh: An Interview with History – Part 2 |author=Kingston, T. |publisher=The Chess Cafe |year=2002}}</ref> His short reign atop the chess world made him one of the two so-called "winter kings" who interrupted Botvinnik's long reign from 1948 to 1963 (the other was Smyslov, world champion 1957–58).

His highest [[Elo rating system|Elo rating]] was 2705, achieved in 1980. His highest Historical Chessmetrics Rating was 2799, in September 1960.