Douglas Griffin on X: Brussels, 1987. @JamesPlaskett, Mikhail Tal

Douglas Griffin on X: Tbilisi, December 1978. The 46th USSR Championship final. In conversation, ex-World Champion Mikhail Tal and, at the chessboard, the 15-year-old debutant, and future World Champion @Kasparov63. (Photo source

Douglas Griffin on X: Moscow, October 1973. Mikhail Tal and his third wife, Gelya, are seen passing an advert for the 41st USSR Championship, which was then taking place in the Soviet

Douglas Griffin on X: Wijk aan Zee, 16th January 1976. Pictured in play before their encounter in the opening round of the Hoogovens tournament - ex-World Champion Mikhail Tal (USSR) & Swedish

Douglas Griffin on X: Moscow, USSR. August 1983. Ex-World Champion Mikhail Tal is pictured in play in the traditional open blitz championship, held in Sokolniki Park. (📷: A. Fedorov, #chess /

Douglas Griffin on X: A photo of a frail-looking Mikhail Tal (1936-1992) taken, according to the archive, in 1991. The ex-World Champion was still mentally sharp, however - in 1992 he was

Douglas Griffin on X: A couple of photos of the 8th World Champion, Mikhail Tal. USSR, late 1970s. (Photo credits: L. Tugalev.) #chess / X

Douglas Griffin Soviet Chess History

Douglas Griffin on X: Legends of the chessboard: Mikhail Tal v. @Kasparov63, in play at (I think) the Moscow TV tournament, 1987. (Photo credit: I. Utkin.) #chess / X

Douglas Griffin on X: Ex-World Champion Mikhail Tal (b. Riga, 1936; d. Moscow, 1992), pictured at Wijk aan Zee, January 1988. (📷: #chess / X

Douglas Griffin on X: Three portraits from the Keres Memorial in Tallinn, March 1977 - Mikhail Tal, Oleg Romanishin & Boris Gulko. Tal took 1st place, Romanishin 2nd; Gulko finished in 4th-6th. (

Douglas Griffin on X: Wijk aan Zee, 19th January 1968. Viktor Korchnoi faces Mikhail Tal in what proved to be the last of eight(!) successive victories at the start of this 15-round

Douglas Griffin on X: Mikhail Tal v. Tigran Petrosian, 25th USSR-ch, Riga 1958, which featured the trademark positional exchange sacrifice by Petrosian, 31Rf4! Semyon Furman looks on. ('#Chess in the USSR', No.