Curious how the Latvian Mikhail Tal is so often the inspiration for clues. He was world champion for only one year in 1960-61 because of Botvinnik's regular insistence on a return match clause. I realise the three-letter name may facilitate wordplay, but it's not beyond the wit of setters to use other world champions such as Spassky, Fischer (admittedly both also well known and used), Kasparov, Anand and Carlsen. Ding Liren and Gukesh Dommaraju, the current champion, suffer from the Chinese and Indian naming customs which blur our concept of surnames, though actually the Indian Viswanathan Anand seems to have Anand as a definite surname.