I have met many fine chess players in my time, but very few I would deign to describe as geniuses: Mikhail Tal was one of them. He was a pitiable physical specimen, short and oligodactyl since birth, with the bones on his right hand fused together. He had a kidney removed in 1969, at the age of 33, but it is questionable whether his remaining one was very much healthier. As to his liver: well, suffice it to say he drank very heavily. For a while he suffered from morphine addiction. Chain-smoking caused arteriosclerosis. Once, in Yugoslavia, I saw the ursine figure of Vladimir Bagirov carrying the flimsy frame of his Latvian comrade, who was crying out in agony: Tal's leg was literally blue. It was something of a medical miracle that he survived into his 50s. Whenever people talk about chess as a sport, I think, "Yes, but ..."

He was a funny man, gentle-natured and full of intelligence. It is a pity that I only met him at the fag-end of his life. When I beat him (by time-out) in the first round of the World Cup in Skelleftea, Sweden, in 1989, he looked so sick that I actually felt sorry for him - almost the only time that emotion has surfaced in my long career. With his sharp tactical eye, Tal was a fantastic blitz player. Despite conceding a near three-decade handicap, he annihilated me in a series of friendly games in Reykjavik 1987, after a tournament in which I had cruised to victory. The following year, at the advanced age of 52, he won the World Blitz Championship ahead of Garry Kasparov.

Six times champion of the Soviet Union, Tal enjoyed his greatest period when he surged to become world champion in 1960. His chess was iconoclastic to the point of recklessness during this era. Even now, these games are thrilling to peruse.

Tal, Mikhail - Nievergelt, Erwin, Zurich, 1959

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 h6 8.Bxf6 gxf6 9.0-0-0 a6 10.f4 Bd7 11.Be2 (Intending Bh5) 11...h5 12.Kb1 Qb6 13.Nb3 0-0-0 14.Rhf1 Be7 15.Rf3 Rdg8 16.Bf1 Kb8 17.Rd3 Bc8 18.a3 h4 19.Qe1 Rg4! 20.Nd5!? (Sensing that the strategic tide has turned against him, Tal decides to create mayhem) exd5 21.exd5 Ne5! 22.fxe5 fxe5 (Rebuffing the initial thrust and straightening out his pawn structure in the process.) 23.Na5 Bd8 24.Nc6+ Ka8 25.Rb3 Qc7! ( If 25...Qc5 26.Nxe5!) 26.Rc3!? ( Brilliant and typically Tal. Objectively, this is unsound, but Tal doubtless did not like the look of the mundane 26.Nxd8 Qxd8 after which Black is comfortable.) 26...bxc6 27.Rxc6 Qb7! 28.Rxd6 (Recouping material with 28.Bxa6 leads to an inferior game after 28...Qxa6) 28...Ra4 29.Rd3 (If 29.Qxe5 Bc7) 29...Bc7 30.Rf6 Bd8?! (Until this point the Swiss master has coped with the pyrotechnics very effectively. After the energetic 30...e4! 31.Rc3 Be5 32.Rfc6 f5! - disdaining the rook - the Magician from Riga would be hard pressed to conjure up any attack.) 31.Rc6 e4?? (A catastrophic misjudgment, fatally weakening himself on the diagonal. 31..Re8 still leaves Black on top.) 32.Rb3 Ba5 (Black had relied on this counterattack. If 32...Qd7 33.Qc3 is game over.) 33.Qe3 (33.Qf2! is also possible but nowhere near as aesthetic.) 33...Qa7 DIAGRAM 34.Qh6!! (A stunning deflection sacrifice. The difficulty is not in calculating the simple main variation but in visualising this unexpected blow to the right when all eyes are concentrated on Black's exposed queenside.) Rd8 (If 34...Rxh6 35. Rxc8+ leads to mate.) 35.Bxa6 (Now it is all over.) Bd2 36.Qf6! (hitting the rook) Qd7 37.Bxc8 1-0