Word: tal
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...midst of a tense, 24-game match for the world's chess championship were Mikhail Botvinnik, 48, who has held the title since 1948 with one year's lapse and Challenger Mikhail Tal, 23. As the competition developed, the conflict of their personalities became more important than their technical skills...
Brash, hawk-nosed Challenger Tal is Botvinnik's exact opposite. A graduate of the philology department at the Latvian State University in Riga, he has made chess his profession; when he is not playing the game he is writing about "it in a Riga chess journal, which he edits. During a game, he makes his moves swiftly. Between moves, he circles endlessly around the table. Then, as though in response to an electric brain-flash, he stops in his tracks, hovers over the board, and, when his turn comes, swoops down like a hawk on the piece he intends...
...Tal's game is unorthodox, often appearing to the chess purist to fly in the face of reason. Against Botvinnik, he several times seemed to sacrifice a piece without apparent advantage. But he also achieved his primarily psychological purpose: that of confusing and spoiling the precise calculations of his opponent. Time and again, unexpected Tal moves forced Botvinnik to hesitate so long that he ran into trouble with his time limit, then rushed into making weak moves. Last weekend, with 13 games left to play, Tal led by 6½ to 4½-And in the ninth game...