[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: A selection of Fischer's games

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
A selection of Fischer's games
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1200737869.shtml


   It's hard to distill the best of his Bobby Fischer's chess, as he
   played so many wonderful games. Still, I've selected some of my
   favorites, which you can replay via the link below.
   1. Donald Byrne - Fischer, Rosenwald 1956. The so-called "Game of the
   Century", this put Fischer, just an expert at the time, from "future
   talent" to the "uh oh...heaven help us" category. Just 13 at the time,
   his 11...Na4!! and 17...Be6!! revealed a brilliant tactician on his
   way to beating the world.
   2. Fischer - James Sherwin, U.S. Championship 1957. This game from his
   first U.S. Championship featured a beautiful combination he included
   in Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. (Or did he? Rumors have swirled around
   that he didn't actually write the book.)
   3. Paul Keres - Fischer, Candidates Tournament 1959. Playing Black in
   Round 1 of the Candidates against one of the favorites, he wins - and
   more or less refutes Keres' ingenious new idea in the process.
   4. Fischer - Efim Geller, Bled 1961. Fischer had a poor overall score
   against Geller, but this game is an absolute crush. Geller, like Keres
   in the preceding game, had prepared a novelty, but Fischer mangles it
   on spec.
   5. Fischer - Lajos Portisch, Stockholm Interzonal 1962. A virtuoso
   rook ending by Fischer, on his way to the first big international
   triumph of his career.
   6. Fischer - Julio Bolbochan, Stockholm Interzonal 1962. This is one
   of several games where Fischer, on the White side of an Open Sicilian,
   manages to achieve a good knight (on d5) vs. bad bishop (on e7)
   middlegame, and he wins this in style. Fischer attacks his poor
   opponent all over the board until something finally gives, and it
   does. (Note: I covered this game on a recent [1]ChessBase show;
   interested viewers can look that up in their archives.)
   7. Fischer - Miguel Najdorf, Varna Olympiad 1962. A very impressive
   demolition of the Polish/Argentinian great; made even more impressive
   by his prediction that he'd win in 25. (He went one better, winning in
   24 moves.)
   8. Fischer - Pal Benko, U.S. Championship 1963/4. Not a very difficult
   game (the Rf6 motif so beloved of chess fans was found by the 12 year
   old Tal 14 or 15 years earlier), but it's such a fan favorite I'll
   include it anyway.
   9. Robert Byrne - Fischer, U.S. Championship 1963/4. The gem of the
   championship, which he won with an 11-0 score. Byrne didn't see what
   was coming until very near the end, and apparently the commentators
   thought that it was Fischer who resigned!
   10. Fischer - Lhamsuren Miagmasuren, Sousse Interzonal 1967. Fischer
   would often trot out the King's Indian Attack against lesser
   opposition, and games like this one might encourage you to take it up
   as well.
   11. Fischer - Leonid Stein, Sousse Interzonal 1967. A very hard-fought
   win against one of the world's best (and most luckless) players at the
   time. It's the last game in Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games, and a
   fitting coda to that collection.
   12. Fischer - Dragoljub Minic, Vinkovci 1968. Fischer famously
   pronounced that he had busted the King's Gambit...and then went on to
   play it several times, a few years later. This was the last of his
   wins with the opening.
   13. Milan Matulovic - Fischer, Vinkovci 1968. This is a companion
   piece to the Bolbochan game mentioned above. (I presented this game in
   that same ChessBase show, so you'll get a 2-for-1 if you track it
   down.) There, with White, he exploited the d5 square to get a good
   knight vs. bad bishop scenario; here, he prevents White from using the
   d5 square, and ends up with...a good knight vs. bad bishop scenario.
   14. Fischer - Samuel Schweber, Buenos Aires 1970. The game is justly
   famous for Fischer's stupendously creative combination, starting with
   the semi-bizarre 18.Rg3. Whether or not that move is genuinely good,
   the idea is magnificent.
   15. Fischer - Wolfgang Unzicker, Siegen Olympiad 1970. A terrific
   technical game, with Fischer using the clean 4-3 kingside majority in
   the Exchange Ruy to good effect. Note the move 14.f5, a concept
   originally introduced in the famous Lasker-Capablanca game from St.
   Petersburg 1914. It gives up the e5 square - at least temporarily, but
   in exchange White creates a kingside bind and gets the kingside pawns
   rolling.
   16. Fischer - Ulf Andersson, Siegen (exhibition game) 1970. Fischer
   plays a Hedgehog with colors reversed, before that system really
   existed, and invented an attacking idea that's now considered a
   typical plan.
   17. Fischer - Mark Taimanov, Candidates match (game 4) 1971. Fischer's
   love of bishops was well-known, and the ending of this game is the
   textbook example of a bishop showing its supremacy over a knight in an
   endgame with an open center and pawns on both sides. Probably the
   nicest game in Fischer's 6-0 rout.
   18. Fischer - Bent Larsen, Candidates match (game 1) 1971. The first
   game of their match was a war, and when Fischer won it the remaining
   five games were a snap - another 6-0 rout.
   19. Boris Spassky - Fischer, World Championship match, game 21
   (Reykjavik) 1972. The last game of the match wasn't otherwise
   memorable, but it made him the world champion.
   20. Fischer - Boris Spassky, Sveti Stefan (match, game 1) 1992. The
   first game of their second match had fans wondering what kind of chess
   he'd play after 20 years. While his play in the match had its ups and
   downs, this game proved there was still brilliance in that rusty mind.
   21. Fischer - Boris Spassky, Sveti Stefan (match, game 11) 1992. While
   many of the games from the second match saw the players dispute
   old-fashioned opening lines, here Fischer played the Rossolimo and
   gave it a Romantic twist, sacrificing his b-pawn to blow the position
   open. He went on to win a beautiful, swashbuckling game.
   22. Boris Spassky - Fischer, Sveti Stefan (match, game 30) 1992.
   Fischer closed out the match with a convincing win, repulsing
   Spassky's over-eager attacking play. This was his last competitive
   game.

References

   1. http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1114234449.shtml