Even the greatest...
Submitted by
Dozy on Fri, 07/04/2008 at 4:36pm.
After Round 14 of the 1959 Candidates Tournament in Bled, a lightning tournament was held before the players moved on to Zagreb. Tal won, but his victory was not without incident—or humour.
In his game with Yuri Averbakh he blundered. Big time!
Tal said he did not recall the exact position but the necessary ingredients are shown in the diagram. At this point Averbakh offered a draw but Tal decided to play on. He saw that he had to defend against the threat of Bxh7+ winning the queen and he did so by playing ...h6??
At least, he said, Averbakh didn't offer the draw again.
The candidates tournament that year was remarkably strong and it was uncharacteristic for a player of Paul Keres's stature to blunder—even if his opponent was the newcomer, Bobby Fischer. In the diagrammed position Keres had just played 24.Bb5 threatening black's rook. Before clicking the buttons have a look at the diagram and see if you can find Fischer's reply.
As Pirc has said to me on more than one occasion, “It could happen to anybody.”