MARK RUBERY CHESS
Former world champion, Garry Kasparov, gives a brief view on the challenges the young Bobby Fischer faced when he came up against the formidable preparation and experience of the top players in the Soviet Union: ‘A rapid ascent in chess undoubtedly generates a number of problems, one of which is the amount and quality of knowledge that is required for a young talent to compete successfully in super-tournaments. An opening repertoire, which has served him faithfully in middle-ranking events, proves completely inadequate for play against highly experienced grandmasters. In my time I was greatly helped by intensive sessions with trainers and also consultations with Botvinnik himself. But Fischer always worked practically alone. At that time (1959) his repertoire was still very restricted and each of the participants in the Candidates tournament in Yugoslavia tried to exploit this, in particular Bobby’s problems playing White against the Caro-Kann Defence.’ The great Paul Keres was a consistent 1…e5 player thus his employment of the Caro Kann indicates that he was virtually certain Fischer would repeat the doubtful line that he played against Petrosian and Smyslov in earlier rounds. Interestingly during this game Fischer was 16 years old and Keres was 43, which in today’s computer era might favour the younger player, but at that time experience was the decisive factor.
Fischer,Robert James - Keres,Paul [B11]
Candidates Tournament Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade (8) 1959
1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Nf3 (60 years later this fairly rare line is enjoying a new lease of life)… Bg4 4.h3 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 Nf6 6.d3 e6 7.g3 Bb4 8.Bd2 d4 9.Nb1 Qb6 10.b3?! (10 c3 Ba3!? 11 Nxa3 Qxb2 12 Rb1 Qxa3 13 cxd4 Qxa2 14 Qd1 with compensation for the pawn-Mednis
‘How to beat Bobby Fischer’)…a5 11.a3 Be7 12.Bg2 a4 13.b4 Nbd7 14.0–0 c5 15.Ra2 0–0 16.bxc5 Bxc5 17.Qe2 e5 18.f4 Rfc8 19.h4 Rc6 20.Bh3 Qc7 21.fxe5 Nxe5 22.Bf4 Bd6 23.h5 Ra5 24.h6 Ng6 25.Qf3 Rh5 26.Bg4 Nxf4 27.Bxh5 N4xh5 28.hxg7 Qd7 29.Kg2 Ng4 30.Nd2 Ne3+ 0–1
The French number one uses the same ‘doubtful’ line to register a quick knockout.
Vachier Lagrave,M (2775) - Navara,D (2734) [B11]
Riga FIDE Grand Prix 2019 Riga LAT (1.1)2019
1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 Bg4 4.h3 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 Nf6 6.Be2 e6 7.0–0 Bc5 8.Rd1 Bd4 9.Qf4!? e5 10.Qg3 dxe4 11.d3!? exd3 12.Bxd3 Nbd7 13.Ne2 0–0 14.Bf5 Nc5? (14…Re8 is to be preferred) 15.Bh6 Nh5 16.Qg4 Qd6 17.Qxh5 Qxh6 18.Qxh6 gxh6 19.c3 (And the bishop is trapped)
1–0
All chess players should have a hobby. – Saviely Tartakower