Your description of Tal's personal life leaves out many things, and grossly distorts many others. Mikhail Tal was probably the most generally beloved grandmaster since the Second World War. His fellow grandmasters loved him, his bitterest rivals loved him, and the general chess playing public loved him. Along with hs spectacular chess style, he brought a vibrant, charismatic personality and a passionate love for chess that captivated everyone he met. When he wasn't playing in tournaments, he would play blitz in the park with strangers.
It's true that Tal drank and smoked to excess, and when he went through years of painful kidney disease, he became dependent on morphine for a while, but as a personality, there was never anything unstable about him. Even Botvinnik, who disliked and distrusted everyone, had a grudging affection for Tal.
Thank you for your comprehensive description of Tal's life.
What are peoples' opinions on the late World Champion, Mikhail Tal, the master attacker? What is his most lasting legacy: that of an amazing chess player who attacked like no one else in the history of the game, or of an unstable, absentminded man who drank copiously and smoked like a chiminey?
At any rate, Mikhail Tal was an unparralelled genius over the board, but also a volitile man in general. Opinions?