Blitz Brilliancies

I'm pretty sure we've all played a 'blitz brilliancy' or two in our time. A fast time limit game where you decide to play a sacrifice 'to see if it works', only to find that it succeeds beyond all expectations, at which point you claim that you had planned it all along. Apart from your innate brilliance, the other contributing factors are the fact that blitz chess is played more frequently than serious games, defending at 5s a move is harder, and if you fail to win the game, the result is soon forgotten.
This of course applies to club players, as blitz games played by more famous players tend to be remembered a lot longer. Of course the 'filtering factor' still occurs, with the spectacular wins remembered, while the more mundane games becoming part of a players overall reputation. Here is an example from early on in Mikhail Tal's career. Played during (but not part of) the 1956 World Under 26 Teams Championship, Tal plays a series of sacrifices to destroy his opponent in 20 moves. Of course the first few sacrifices are unsound (moves 11, 12 and partially 13), but White mis-defends (at 5s a move), and after that Tal wins in fine style. If White had found 13. O-O-O (or 13.cxb7) then the game would have been soon forgotten, but he didn't, so here it is.


Szukszta,Janusz - Tal,Mihail [E86]
WchT U26 03th Upsala, 1956