Tal's Decider

Tied at four and a half points each heading into the tenth and final game of their Candidates semifinal, Tal and Larsen produced a Sicilian Scheveningen that decided which of them would advance. Tal, playing White, launched the thematic kingside pawn storm with 11.g4, and when Larsen's position started to creak under the pressure Tal found the piledriving 21.Rxe7!, giving up the exchange to rip open the position around Larsen's king.

The point of the sacrifice was not a forced mate but a permanent initiative: Tal's queen and remaining rook kept finding checks and threats faster than Larsen could consolidate, and by the time White's rook infiltrated to e8 the Dane had no defence left. Larsen, one of the strongest attacking players of his own generation, was reduced to a spectator in his own game, a fate that happened to him against Tal more than once in their long rivalry.

Tal's win took the match and sent him through to the next round of the Candidates cycle. The game is still cited as one of the clearest examples of Tal's calculating style: a material sacrifice made not for a forced win in hand but because the resulting position was simply too dangerous for the opponent to survive over the board.