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Botvinnik vs. Tal, Game 6

The 23-year-old Mikhail Tal sacrifices a knight against world champion Mikhail Botvinnik. The sacrifice is not quite sound, but at the board Botvinnik does not find the way, and short of time he makes the decisive mistake.

In the spring of 1960, Mikhail Tal from Riga challenged world champion Mikhail Botvinnik. The match was played in Moscow and began on March 15. The chief arbiter was the Swedish grandmaster Gideon Ståhlberg, and it was he who started the clock in the first game.

Tal won the first game, and the next four were drawn. So before the sixth game he led 3–2. Botvinnik had the white pieces, and Tal answered with the King's Indian Defense.

The game was annotated that same spring in the Swedish magazine Tidskrift för Schack by Bengt Hörberg, and it is his words that are quoted in the notes below.

The players

Mikhail Botvinnik (1911–1995) was 48. He had been world champion since 1948, with a break of one year after losing to Vasily Smyslov in 1957. He was known for his thorough preparation.

Mikhail Tal (1936–1992) was 23. He had won the Soviet championship in 1957 and 1958 and the Candidates Tournament in 1959. He looked for sharp positions and gladly sacrificed pieces to get there.

Read more about Mikhail Botvinnik and Mikhail Tal among the great chess players.

The game move by move

Step through with the arrows or tap a move. Moves with a dot have a comment.

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Mikhail Botvinnik has the white pieces, Mikhail Tal the black.

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Play like Tal

Guess the moves Tal played, one at a time. The move from the game earns two points, and a move Lavi thinks is about as good earns one. The other side's moves and the game's notes come as you go.

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The moments that decided it

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After 21…Nf4: Tal sacrifices the knight. Botvinnik is already short of time.
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After 24…f3: the pawn attacks the queen and the bishop. Here White should have taken with the bishop on f3.

The end

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The final position after 46…Kd4. White resigned after 46…Kd4.

Some versions have one more move, 47.Rd7+, before Botvinnik resigned. We follow the Swedish magazine Tidskrift för Schack of April 1960, where the game ends with 46…Kd4 and “Resigned”, and two databases that end the same way.

Why the game is famous

Of all the games in the match, this one is especially famous, thanks to the knight sacrifice. The Soviet grandmaster Salo Flohr wrote in Tidskrift för Schack that in the sixth game Tal played the first elegant move of the match, and that Botvinnik became visibly nervous: “Instead of forcing a draw he wanted to punish Tal for his aggression, miscalculated and lost.”

With the win Tal led 4–2, and he won the next game as well. He won the match 12½–8½ and became world champion at 23, the youngest in the open section up to then. The following year Botvinnik won the title back in a return match.

The whole game with notes, as text

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. d4 d6 The King's Indian Defense. White has put his bishop on g2, and Black does the same on g7. 6. Nc3 Nbd7 7. O-O e5 8. e4 c6 9. h3 Qb6 Hörberg wrote that it was no surprise that Tal chose the most aggressive option. 10. d5 cxd5 11. cxd5 Nc5 12. Ne1 Bd7 13. Nd3 Nxd3 14. Qxd3 Rfc8 Tal gathers his rooks on the c-file and starts to press against White's queenside. 15. Rb1 Nh5 16. Be3 Qb4 17. Qe2 Rc4 18. Rfc1 Rac8 19. Kh2 f5 20. exf5 Bxf5 The bishop attacks the rook on b1. 21. Ra1 The rook steps away. White is better, and now the sacrifice comes. 21… Nf4 The knight sacrifice. “That's how Tal plays!” wrote Hörberg. “The move took Botvinnik completely by surprise, and he was already short of time. Whether it is entirely correct is beside the point. Refuting it at the board proves impossible even for a Botvinnik.” With what we know today, we can say that the sacrifice is not quite sound: with the right defense, White should still be better. 22. gxf4 Botvinnik takes the knight. After 22…exf4 the black bishop on g7 has a clear path along the diagonal, all the way to the knight on c3. 22… exf4 23. Bd2 Here Botvinnik lets his advantage slip. With 23.a3 White would have been clearly better. 23… Qxb2 24. Rab1 f3 The pawn attacks both the queen on e2 and the bishop on g2. At the same time, the black queen on b2 is attacked by the rook. 25. Rxb2 The decisive mistake. Botvinnik takes the queen, but after 25…fxe2 his own queen falls too, and Black's pieces become far too active. Hörberg wrote that 25.Bxf3 was the best move, and he was right: White would then have been clearly better. 25… fxe2 Both queens are gone, and the black pawn on e2 is one step from promotion. 26. Rb3 Rd4 27. Be1 Be5+ 28. Kg1 Bf4 29. Nxe2 Hörberg wrote that this move was forced, and that Tal now had a decisive advantage. 29… Rxc1 30. Nxd4 Rxe1+ 31. Bf1 Be4 32. Ne2 Be5 33. f4 Bf6 34. Rxb7 Bxd5 Black has an extra pawn and two strong bishops against White's bishop and knight. 35. Rc7 Bxa2 36. Rxa7 Bc4 37. Ra8+ Kf7 38. Ra7+ Ke6 39. Ra3 d5 40. Kf2 Bh4+ 41. Kg2 Kd6 42. Ng3 Bxg3 43. Bxc4 dxc4 44. Kxg3 Kd5 45. Ra7 c3 46. Rc7 Kd4 Botvinnik resigned. The black king and the c-pawn are too strong.

PGN – the game as text for other chess programs
[Event "1960 World Championship match, game 6"]
[Site "Moscow"]
[Date "1960.03.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Mikhail Botvinnik"]
[Black "Mikhail Tal"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E69"]

1. c4 Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. d4 d6 6. Nc3 Nbd7 7. O-O e5 8. e4 c6 9. h3 Qb6 10. d5 cxd5 11. cxd5 Nc5 12. Ne1 Bd7 13. Nd3 Nxd3 14. Qxd3 Rfc8 15. Rb1 Nh5 16. Be3 Qb4 17. Qe2 Rc4 18. Rfc1 Rac8 19. Kh2 f5 20. exf5 Bxf5 21. Ra1 Nf4 22. gxf4 exf4 23. Bd2 Qxb2 24. Rab1 f3 25. Rxb2 fxe2 26. Rb3 Rd4 27. Be1 Be5+ 28. Kg1 Bf4 29. Nxe2 Rxc1 30. Nxd4 Rxe1+ 31. Bf1 Be4 32. Ne2 Be5 33. f4 Bf6 34. Rxb7 Bxd5 35. Rc7 Bxa2 36. Rxa7 Bc4 37. Ra8+ Kf7 38. Ra7+ Ke6 39. Ra3 d5 40. Kf2 Bh4+ 41. Kg2 Kd6 42. Ng3 Bxg3 43. Bxc4 dxc4 44. Kxg3 Kd5 45. Ra7 c3 46. Rc7 Kd4 0-1

Download .pgn

Sources

  • Tidskrift för Schack no. 4, 1960: the title match (Salo Flohr) and game 6 with notes by Bengt Hörberg
  • PGN Mentor, Tal.pgn
  • Mark Weeks: 1960 Title Match Game 6, Botvinnik – Tal
  • Wikipedia: World Chess Championship 1960

The moves compared in three sources: Tidskrift för Schack no. 4, 1960 (read on the page image), PGN Mentor and Mark Weeks. They are identical, 92 half-moves, and all three end with 46…Kd4, where Botvinnik resigned. Wikipedia has the same moves but adds 47.Rd7+. We follow the magazine of the time and the databases. That the game was played in March follows from Tidskrift för Schack: the match began on March 15, and the eighth game was finished on April 1. Every move has also been replayed by computer and checked against the rules of chess.

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Updated November 14, 2026