Later achievements Mikhail Tal

tal in 1988

soon after losing rematch botvinnik, tal won 1961 bled supertournament 1 point on fischer, despite losing individual game, scoring 14½ nineteen games (+11−1=7) world-class players tigran petrosian, keres, gligorić, efim geller, , miguel najdorf among other participants.

tal played in total of 6 candidates tournaments , match cycles, though never again earned right play world title. in 1962 @ curaçao, had serious health problems, having undergone major operation shortly before tournament, , had withdraw three-quarters of way through, scoring 7 points (+3−10=8) 21 games. tied first place @ 1964 amsterdam interzonal advance matches. in 1965, lost final match against boris spassky, after defeating lajos portisch , bent larsen in matches. exempt 1967 interzonal, lost 1968 semifinal match against viktor korchnoi, after defeating gligoric.

poor health caused slump in play late 1968 late 1969, recovered form after having kidney removed. won 1979 riga interzonal undefeated score of 14/17, next year lost quarter-final match lev polugaevsky, 1 of players hold positive score against him. played in 1985 montpellier candidates tournament, round-robin of 16 qualifiers, finishing in tie fourth , fifth places, , narrowly missing further advancement after drawing playoff match jan timman, held tiebreak advantage tournament proper.

from july 1972 april 1973, tal played record 86 consecutive games without loss (47 wins , 39 draws). between 23 october 1973 , 16 october 1974, played 95 consecutive games without loss (46 wins , 49 draws), shattering previous record. these 2 longest unbeaten streaks in modern chess history.

tal remained formidable opponent got older. played anatoly karpov 22 times, 12 of them during latter s reign world champion, record of +0-1=19 in classical games , +1−2=19 overall.

one of tal s greatest achievements during later career equal first place karpov (whom seconded in number of tournaments , world championships) in 1979 montreal tournament of stars , unbeaten score of (+6−0=12), undefeated player in field, included spassky, portisch, vlastimil hort, robert hübner, ljubomir ljubojević, lubomir kavalek, jan timman , larsen.

tal played in 21 soviet championships, winning 6 times (1957, 1958, 1967, 1972, 1974, 1978). five-time winner of international chess tournament in tallinn, estonia, victories in 1971, 1973, 1977, 1981, , 1983.

tal had successes in blitz chess; in 1970, took second place fischer, scored 19/22, in blitz tournament @ herceg novi, yugoslavia, ahead of korchnoi, petrosian , smyslov. in 1988, @ age of 51, won second official world blitz championship (the first won kasparov previous year in brussels) @ saint john, ahead of such players kasparov, reigning world champion, , ex-champion anatoly karpov. in final, defeated rafael vaganian 3½–½.

on 28 may 1992, @ moscow blitz tournament (which left hospital play), defeated kasparov. died 1 month later.