Saturday 19 January 2008

My favourite Fischer game

While the legacy of Bobby Fischer as an individual will be open to question (anti-Israeli rhetoric, mental stability etc) he is still in my opinion the greatest chess player ever. While Kasparov (the player with closest claim on this accolade) certainly has a greater tournament record (over a longer career), Fischer's achievements are the more meritorious, simply because he did much of his work on his own. He didn't utilise the apparatus of the state, as his Soviet rivals did in the 60's, or the assistance of a team of helpers (as Kasparov did throughout his career). Consequently every victory of Fischer's was simply the result of his own abilities as a player.
Over his career (which was basically from 1956 to 1972) he played a number of memorable games. However the one that I have always enjoyed was game 13 from the 1972 World Championship Match. This game demonstrated Fischer's tremendous will to win, with the battle raging for 70+ moves until Spassky makes a fatal blunder. Although this game was played just after the halfway point of the match, it was (to me at least) the game that won the Championship for Fischer.

Spassky,B (2660) - Fischer,R [B04]
Wch28 Reykjavik (13), 1972

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 g6 5.Bc4 Nb6 6.Bb3 Bg7 7.Nbd2 0-0 8.h3 a5 9.a4 dxe5 10.dxe5 Na6 11.0-0 Nc5 12.Qe2 Qe8 13.Ne4 Nbxa4 14.Bxa4 Nxa4 15.Re1 Nb6 16.Bd2 a4 17.Bg5 h6 18.Bh4 Bf5 19.g4 Be6 20.Nd4 Bc4 21.Qd2 Qd7 22.Rad1 Rfe8 23.f4 Bd5 24.Nc5 Qc8 25.Qc3 e6 26.Kh2 Nd7 27.Nd3 c5 28.Nb5 Qc6 29.Nd6 Qxd6 30.exd6 Bxc3 31.bxc3 f6 32.g5 hxg5 33.fxg5 f5 34.Bg3 Kf7 35.Ne5+ Nxe5 36.Bxe5 b5 37.Rf1 Rh8 38.Bf6 a3 39.Rf4 a2 40.c4 Bxc4 41.d7 Bd5 42.Kg3 Ra3+ 43.c3 Rha8 44.Rh4 e5 45.Rh7+ Ke6 46.Re7+ Kd6 47.Rxe5 Rxc3+ 48.Kf2 Rc2+ 49.Ke1 Kxd7 50.Rexd5+ Kc6 51.Rd6+ Kb7 52.Rd7+ Ka6 53.R7d2 Rxd2 54.Kxd2 b4 55.h4 Kb5 56.h5 c4 57.Ra1 gxh5 58.g6 h4 59.g7 h3 60.Be7 Rg8 61.Bf8 h2 62.Kc2 Kc6 63.Rd1 b3+ 64.Kc3 h1Q 65.Rxh1 Kd5 66.Kb2 f4 67.Rd1+ Ke4 68.Rc1 Kd3(D)
69.Rd1+ Ke2 70.Rc1 f3 71.Bc5 Rxg7 72.Rxc4 Rd7 73.Re4+ Kf1 74.Bd4 f2 0-1

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