#8 – In the Spirit of Mikhail Tal

This was a rapid game – 10 minutes for each player – played on chess.com and the first game of Bratya’s to be shared widely and commented upon by high profile players, commentators and YouTube personalities – after Agadmator, the famous Croatian chess YouTuber retweeted it – and the attack with which the game culminates is one that is, indeed, in the spirit of Mikhail Tal; seeing the opponent’s pieces lacking space and access into black’s position, or any target points, an exchange sacrifice followed by a bishop sacrifice rips open the king’s safety and, had the player with the white pieces not resigned, mate would have soon followed. This game would bring a lot of attention to some of Bratya’s other, wilder games which – while not as accurate – are just as brutal and unyielding.

The one mistake flagged by engines and evaluation software is the free rook I didn’t attack with the light-squared bishop; instead, on move I castled. In the final analysis, the game would be a poorer showing had I played the engine’s suggestion, and likely these fireworks would have been much more dull, instead I’d be up the exchange and in a slightly better position.

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