Friday, February 5, 2010

Classic video of Mikhail Tal blindfold chess

Lately, I'm browsing youtube for any chess related videos of interest and worth sharing with everyone when suddenly, I came upon with this classic video of a blindfold simul done by former world champion Mikhail Tal against ten opponents. The audio is in Russian, I presume but the ever so cocky that was Tal is so evident in this one. Puffing cigarettes, leaning sideways on his chair, and the way he speaks during the interview, all speaks for itself the super ego of this man possessed. Nevertheless, after the games, he warmly acknowledged everyone's applause and shook the hands of his opponents with a genuine smile and a nod. We weren't so sure though on what's the result of the simul but it looks like it's a sweep.

Enjoy!

3 comments:

Ted Teodoro said...

Thanks for posting this video. It's a great show but in reality a blind simul of 10-12 boards isn't up there with the greats. Alekhine, for one, took on 28 boards in Paris in 1925. If anything else, the video depicts Tal's legendary basilisk stare.

BTW, I commend you for supporting PAWS on your website.

Dave Felton said...

Tal was a great character, as well as player.

Sounds silly but I hadn't really considered trawling UTube or the other video sites for chess videos.

Thanks for the idea.

Dave.

Des Catolos said...

@chessbuff, thanks for the info. Myself was a former volunteer of PAWS. Linking the PAWS site is my own little way of getting involved.