Mikhail Tal
Early Life
Mikhail was born November 9, 1936 Riga, Latvia to a Jewish family. He learned to play chess at the age of 8 from his father, and soon after he was on his way to achieving tournament success and growing as a player. He qualified for the USSR Chess Championship Final in 1956, and soon after, he was on the road to the World Chess Championship.
Becoming The World Champion and Life After
Tal soon became the World Chess Champion in 1960, defeating Mikhail Botvinnik at the age of 23. Tal also won the USSR Chess Championship an astounding six times, as well as other various tournaments. Later on in his life, Tal encountered health problems due to being a chain smoker much of his life, and died June 28, 1992 of kidney failure.
Playing Style
Perhaps more than anything else, Tal was known for his aggressive and attacking style of play. He would play very tactical lines that would lead to complicated positions in which he took advantage of his merciless attacking style. Tal also was known for his piece sacrifices that accompanied his attacking play, and sometimes he would make the positions so complicated that he would sacrifice a piece even if it resulted in a losing position. The positions would favor him, and he'd recover from the loss to take down his opponent in style.