LaviChess

Tal vs. Larsen, Bled 1965

The match is level before the last game, and whoever wins it goes to the final. Mikhail Tal sacrifices a knight in the middle of the board. “If in the end, Misha, you are destined to lose this match,” he told himself, “there is no need for the reason for this to be cowardice.”

In the summer of 1965, Mikhail Tal and the Dane Bent Larsen met in a semifinal of the Candidates matches, in Bled in what was then Yugoslavia. The winner would face Boris Spassky in the final, and whoever won that would challenge world champion Tigran Petrosian.

The match was over ten games. Before the last one the score was 4½–4½: both had won two games, and five had been drawn, including the last three. Tal had the white pieces.

Both Tal and Garry Kasparov have annotated the game in their books, and they do not always agree. Their words come back in the notes below.

The players

Mikhail Tal (1936–1992) from Riga was 28. He had become world champion in 1960 but lost the title in the return match against Mikhail Botvinnik the following year. He was known for his daring sacrifices.

Bent Larsen (1935–2010) from Denmark was 30 and one of the leading players in the West. He was Danish champion six times and reached the semifinal of the Candidates three times. He is considered the strongest player Denmark has had, and the strongest from Scandinavia until Magnus Carlsen.

Read more about 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 Tal has the white pieces, Bent Larsen 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 16.Nd5: Tal sacrifices the knight in the middle of the board.
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After 18…Rf7: Larsen's mistake. With the bishop to d8, Black would have held.
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After 37.Qf7: White threatens mate, and Larsen resigns.

The end

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The final position after 37.Qf7. Black resigned after 37.Qf7.

Why the game is famous

The game decided an even match with one of Tal's best-known sacrifices. Tal won the match 5½–4½. In the final he lost to Spassky, who went on to challenge Petrosian in the 1966 World Championship match.

The game also shows how Tal thought. He knew the sacrifice was risky and called the idea “tempting, though not unhazardous.” It did not hold up, but at the board Larsen did not find the defense, and this time Tal was proved right. Larsen got his revenge four years later, when he beat Tal 5½–2½ in a match for third place in the Candidates.

The whole game with notes, as text

1. e4 c5 The Sicilian Defense. 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. f4 Be7 8. Qf3 “One of the sharpest variations,” wrote Kasparov. 8… O-O 9. O-O-O The players have castled on opposite sides. That usually means both will throw their pawns forward against the other king. 9… Qc7 10. Ndb5 Qb8 11. g4 a6 12. Nd4 Nxd4 13. Bxd4 b5 14. g5 The white pawn drives the knight away from f6, where it was guarding the king. 14… Nd7 15. Bd3 b4 Black's pawns are coming too, and now the knight on c3 is attacked. 16. Nd5 The knight sacrifice. Tal had turned down a sacrifice in the fourth game and regretted it, and now he made up his mind. “If in the end, Misha, you are destined to lose this match, there is no need for the reason for this to be cowardice,” he told himself. With what we know today, the sacrifice does not hold up: with the right defense, Black would have been better. 16… exd5 17. exd5 White has given a knight for a pawn, but the e-file is now open toward the black bishop on e7. 17… f5 “The wrong pawn!” wrote Kasparov. He meant that only 17…g6 could have cast doubt on Tal's bold idea, and that is right: after 17…g6 Black would have been better. After the move played, the position is about equal. 18. Rde1 The rook goes to the open e-file and attacks the bishop on e7. 18… Rf7 The decisive mistake. Kasparov wrote that 18…Bd8 was essential, and with it Black would have held. Now White can open lines against the king. 19. h4 Bb7 20. Bxf5 Tal chose the safe way. He wrote that in any game but the last one he would have played more sharply, with 20.g6, and that he had no doubt there was a forced win there. But in the last game of the match he did not want to risk time trouble by calculating long variations. Today we can see that 20.g6 would have been even stronger, but the move played also gave White a big advantage. 20… Rxf5 21. Rxe7 White takes the bishop on e7. Now White has two pawns for the piece and a strong attack. 21… Ne5 22. Qe4 Qf8 23. fxe5 Rf4 24. Qe3 Rf3 Tal wrote that after this move White wins without great difficulty. 25. Qe2 Qxe7 26. Qxf3 White is now two pawns up. 26… dxe5 27. Re1 Rd8 28. Rxe5 Qd6 29. Qf4 Rf8 30. Qe4 b3 31. axb3 Rf1+ 32. Kd2 Qb4+ 33. c3 Qd6 34. Bc5 “A not altogether necessary (there were many ways to win), but amusing concluding combination,” wrote Tal. The bishop is sacrificed to lure the queen away from d6, so that the white queen can get in on e6. 34… Qxc5 35. Re8+ Rf8 36. Qe6+ Kh8 37. Qf7 Larsen resigned. White threatens 38.Qxf8+ Qxf8 39.Rxf8#, and if Black trades queens with 37…Qxd5+, White comes out of it the exchange and two pawns up.

PGN – the game as text for other chess programs
[Event "Candidates semifinal match, game 10"]
[Site "Bled, Yugoslavia"]
[Date "1965.??.??"]
[Round "?"]
[White "Mikhail Tal"]
[Black "Bent Larsen"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B82"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. f4 Be7 8. Qf3 O-O 9. O-O-O Qc7 10. Ndb5 Qb8 11. g4 a6 12. Nd4 Nxd4 13. Bxd4 b5 14. g5 Nd7 15. Bd3 b4 16. Nd5 exd5 17. exd5 f5 18. Rde1 Rf7 19. h4 Bb7 20. Bxf5 Rxf5 21. Rxe7 Ne5 22. Qe4 Qf8 23. fxe5 Rf4 24. Qe3 Rf3 25. Qe2 Qxe7 26. Qxf3 dxe5 27. Re1 Rd8 28. Rxe5 Qd6 29. Qf4 Rf8 30. Qe4 b3 31. axb3 Rf1+ 32. Kd2 Qb4+ 33. c3 Qd6 34. Bc5 Qxc5 35. Re8+ Rf8 36. Qe6+ Kh8 37. Qf7 1-0

Download .pgn

Sources

  • PGN Mentor, Tal.pgn
  • Mark Weeks: Walk Through Tal – Larsen, Candidates Match (g.10), Bled 1965 (Tal's and Kasparov's notes)
  • Mark Weeks: Tal – Larsen, Bled 1965, game 10 (game viewer)
  • Tidskrift för Schack no. 7, 1965: Tal–Larsen, the tenth match game (game no. 101)
  • Wikipedia: Bent Larsen
  • Wikipedia: World Chess Championship 1966 (the Candidates matches)

The moves compared in three sources: PGN Mentor, Mark Weeks's walk-through, which follows Tal's own book, and the Swedish magazine Tidskrift för Schack, no. 7, 1965 (read on the page image). They are identical, 73 half-moves, except for a misprint in the magazine, 10.Nbd5 for 10.Ndb5. Larsen resigned after 37.Qf7. Weeks's game viewer has 18.Rhe1 instead of 18.Rde1; the positions come together again at 27.Re1. We follow the walk-through, Tal's book and the magazine, where it is the rook on d1 that goes to e1, as in Kasparov's analysis. The match score before the game is counted from PGN Mentor's file of all ten games. Every move has also been replayed by computer and checked against the rules of chess.

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Updated November 14, 2026