Tal v Botvinnik, 1960, game 1: the king walks to d1

Mikhail Tal played this game against the world champion Mikhail Botvinnik on 15 March 1960, the first game of their world championship match in Moscow. Tal won the match 12½–8½ and became world champion. Botvinnik chose the French Defence, which he rarely played in the match; he switched to the Caro-Kann in the next game.

The whole game

The opening is the Winawer Variation. Tal's queen goes straight to g4 and takes the pawns on g7 and h7, and his king stays in the centre.

What Stockfish makes of it

We had Stockfish check every move. It rates White better almost from the start, and Black never gets back into the game.

11.Kd1: the king walk

11.Kd1 looks like it breaks every opening rule, but Black's pawns keep the lines closed, so the king is reasonably safe in the centre. Stockfish rates 11.Qh5+ and 11.Ne2 a little stronger, but after 11.Kd1 White is still about a pawn better. Botvinnik's replies didn't help: the Lichess study we used calls 11...Bd7 too slow, preferring 11...dxc3, and 14...Ba4+ an empty check, preferring 14...d4. Stockfish agrees with both. 14.cxd3 and 15.Ke1 were each the only move that kept White's advantage.

28.fxe3 and 29.c4

28.fxe3 is an unusual recapture, away from the centre, but it stopped Black's f-pawn and prepared 29.c4. Tal said 29.c4 gave White a forced material advantage, and Stockfish rates both moves best. After 32.h5 Botvinnik resigned.

How we checked

• The moves are from Wikipedia's page on the 1960 World Championship and a Lichess study of the game, which agree. We replayed every move with python-chess: all are legal. The date is from the study.
• The engine: Stockfish 16.1 checked every move at depth 22, and the key moments again at depth 26. "A pawn better" is Stockfish's measure of the position, not a count of material.
• The history and the named opinions are from the same two sources.

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