Magicians are the ultimate attackers. Magicians don't care too much if their play is objectively correct - they prefer to follow their intuition and fancy, creating complications and confusing their opponent. A Magician sees chess as a creative art, and creative art cannot be held captive by stern and fixed principles. Magicians can calculate well, but they sometimes do so quickly and carelessly, using their calculation to support what their intuition tells them. Magicians enjoy the unusual and spectacular, and can often become bored by slow maneuvering.

Mikhail Tal is a Magician

Mikhail Tal (1936-1992), the eighth world champion, was known as the "Magician of Riga". Tal was famous for his unpredictable, intuitive sacrifices - many of which were scarcely believable. Nevertheless, he set so many traps and problems for his opponents that they often worked in practice. Indeed, he once said: "There are two types of sacrifices: correct ones, and mine." His play was all about creating complications and unusual situations. Although he sought sharp, crazy positions, he typically didn't out-calculate his opponents, but rather out-imagined them.

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