Both Wings, at the World Championship

The game, move by move

A Winawer, and the queen goes hunting

1. 1. e4 King’s pawn
2. 1… e6 e6 — the French
3. 2. d4 d4
4. 2… d5 d5
5. 3. Nc3 The knight out
6. 3… Bb4 Bb4 — the Winawer
7. 4. e5 e5, shutting the centre
8. 4… c5 c5, at it
9. 5. a3 a3
10. 5… Bxc3+ The bishops off, with check
11. 6. bxc3 Recaptured — doubled c-pawns The standard Winawer bargain. What is not standard is what Tal does with the next five moves.
12. 6… Qc7 The queen to c7
13. 7. Qg4 Qg4 — the queen out on move seven She goes g4, g3, xg7, xh7, h5. Five of Tal’s first eleven moves are with the queen and he never castles at all.
14. 7… f5 f5, blocking her
15. 8. Qg3 The queen to g3
16. 8… Ne7 Ne7
17. 9. Qxg7 The pawn on g7, taken
18. 9… Rg8 The rook to g8, at her
19. 10. Qxh7 And the pawn on h7 Two pawns and a queen deep in Black’s position with the rook chasing her. Tal is playing the position rather than the count.
20. 10… cxd4 The pawn taken on d4

Neither king castles

1. 11. Kd1 Kd1 — a king move instead of castling There is nothing to castle to. The king walks to d1 and then to e1 and stays in the middle for the rest of the game.
2. 11… Bd7 Bd7
3. 12. Qh5+ Check from h5
4. 12… Ng6 The knight blocks on g6
5. 13. Ne2 The knight to e2
6. 13… d3 d3 — a pawn on the third rank Black’s pawn arrives one square from White’s back rank with the white king standing on d1 beside it.
7. 14. cxd3 Taken
8. 14… Ba4+ Check from a4
9. 15. Ke1 Ke1
10. 15… Qxe5 The queen takes e5 Black takes the pawn back and is level on material with a queen in the middle. Both sides now have a king on the e-file and an open board.
11. 16. Bg5 The bishop to g5
12. 16… Nc6 The knight out at last
13. 17. d4 d4, at the queen
14. 17… Qc7 The queen back to c7

The rook lifts to h3

1. 18. h4 h4 — the pawn that ends it It goes to h4 on move eighteen and to h5 on move thirty-two, and the move it makes at the end is the one nothing answers.
2. 18… e5 e5, at the centre
3. 19. Rh3 The rook lifts to h3 Along the third rank rather than up the file — it goes h3, e3, and the e-file is where the game is decided.
4. 19… Qf7 The queen to f7
5. 20. dxe5 Taken on e5
6. 20… Ncxe5 The knight recaptures
7. 21. Re3 The rook to e3
8. 21… Kd7 Kd7 — Black’s king walks too
9. 22. Rb1 The rook to b1
10. 22… b6 b6
11. 23. Nf4 Nf4 — a knight offered On a square a knight can take. Tal gives it for the f-file and the pin on the knight on g6.
12. 23… Rae8 The rook to e8
13. 24. Rb4 The rook to b4
14. 24… Bc6 The bishop to c6

The h-pawn

1. 25. Qd1 The queen back to d1
2. 25… Nxf4 The knights come off on f4
3. 26. Rxf4 The rook recaptures — on the file
4. 26… Ng6 The knight back to g6
5. 27. Rd4 The rook to d4
6. 27… Rxe3+ The rooks come off, with check
7. 28. fxe3 Recaptured with the f-pawn
8. 28… Kc7 Kc7
9. 29. c4 c4, opening the last file
10. 29… dxc4 Taken
11. 30. Bxc4 The bishop recaptures — at g8
12. 30… Qg7 The queen to g7, defending
13. 31. Bxg8 The bishop takes the rook on g8
14. 31… Qxg8 The queen takes it back
15. 32. h5 h5 — and Black resigned The pawn steps to h5 and hits the knight on g6, which cannot move because the queen on g8 would go. Botvinnik has thirty-eight legal moves and is losing a piece in all of them. He was world champion and he stopped here.