Skip to content
PuzzleCommunity ThreadChaos Thread Finds

Chaos thread: sound attack or just impossible defense?

Posted like a 'how is this not losing on the spot?' thread. White to move. Is Tal objectively right here, or is this one of those attacks that only works because defense is so hard?

Play the Puzzle

Solve it directly on this main board. After each correct move, the opponent reply autoplays and then it becomes your turn again.

Verified SAN line

Last Move Played

8... Qh4+

Stored Continuation

9. g3 · 9... Nxg3 · 10. Qf2 · 10... Nxf1 · 11. Qxh4 · 11... Nxe3

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
a1
b
c
d
e
f
g
h

White to move

Posted like a 'how is this not losing on the spot?' thread. White to move. Is Tal objectively right here, or is this one of those attacks that only works because defense is so hard?

Find the next move. After you move, the opponent reply autoplays and then it becomes your turn again.

💬 5 comments

Notes

Written in the tone of a chaos-thread argument where half the replies call the attack unsound and the other half say the defense is impossible for humans. This seeded post is framed as a public discussion board, not as the demo user's own game. The position itself comes from the exact historical PGN of Mikhail Tal vs Vasily Smyslov, Candidates Tournament (1959), sourced from scripts/data/ghost-games-seed.json and linked there via chessgames.com.

Discussion

5 comments

JulesOnG7

5/12/2026, 8:12:50 PM

Smyslov's defensive level matters to the evaluation discussion. If he struggles to untangle, that tells you how practical the attack is.

Signed-in users can comment and build the discussion under this post.