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Chessville
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"The only thing that displeases him in chess is losing.”
Of course it wasn’t just his unparalleled genius for the game, but his off the board antics that caused the media and public alike to follow his every move. It was the very fact that he was so unpredictable that made him so fascinating. It was like watching the great Karl Wallenda up on the high wire; would he pull off another miracle or would he tempt fate once too often? On a windy day in 1978 the answer came when Wallenda fell to his death before a stunned crowd. However, the enigmatic Fischer was more like Houdini than Wallenda, as he simply disappeared right at the height of his fame. Just when chess players thought they were going to have Bobby around defending his crown for the next twenty years, dazzling them with more of his brilliant manipulation of the pieces, he tricked them all. Yet, such was his impact on our consciousness, that we are still fascinated with him to this day, despite the fact that it is obvious to all but the most blind and deaf, that he now lives in a self-made prison of paranoia, madness, and fear. And thus is to be pitied, rather than hated or reviled. This is why I choose to remember the young Fischer; to focus on the great things he did back in the 1950s, ‘60s, and early ‘70s.
Of course, since many of his battles took place against the Russians, it would be of great interest to read what they thought of the enigmatic Fischer. Well, luckily for us in 1994 Chess World Ltd., a Moscow publisher, put out a small, black, 396-page book called Russians versus Fischer. Although the paper and overall look of the book (with the crudely drawn Russian and American flags on the cover) were not of the highest quality, the material was so good that it quickly sold out. This was due to two reasons: first, the book contained over a hundred great games between Fischer and his main Soviet rivals, with each game being a chess lesson unto itself. Secondly, it also contained transcripts which reveal exactly what the KGB, the Communist Party Central Committee, the USSR Sports Committee and the Soviet Chess Federation, as well as most of the top Soviet GM’s including Botvinnik, Tal, Petrosian, Smyslov, Keres, Geller, Bronstein, and Korchnoi really thought about Fischer, both as a man and as a player. Clearly this is material that anyone with a love for chess would find interesting, to say the least. Recognizing a diamond in the rough when they saw it, Everyman Chess bought the rights to the book, completely overhauled it, and released it in 2005 bigger and better than ever. Not only is the book physically bigger, but it is now a beautiful clothbound hardback with a dust jacket, (as opposed to the first edition, which was bound in cheap looking shiny-plastic-covered cardboard) that features black and white photos of Fischer. And on the inside, the paper is now of a much higher quality as are the diagrams and font selection, making the book much easier to read. Additionally, not only are cross-tables given for all of the tournaments Fischer competed in, but new material has been added as well. In a word, this book has gotten a major overhaul, and what was once a good book is now a great book. In fact, of all the books written about Fischer, this one may be the best. First, because it gives you all of the 158 games he played against his contemporary Soviet grandmasters, many which contain anecdotes about the game itself from the player and/or their second. For example, on page 33, Mikenas says:
Below is the game that Mekenas was talking about, where Keres sacs his queen. Not only do things not work out as planned, but the Soviet super-GM actually gets checkmated in the middle of the board by the 16 year old Fischer!
Keres,Paul - Fischer,Robert James
53...Qe5# 0-1 The book contains a whopping 462 pages, and covers most of the major tournaments Fischer played in:
As you can see, there are quite a lot of tournaments and thus many interesting games/stories. For example, at the Portoroz Interzonal in 1958, even though the 15 year old Fischer would be going up against some of the greatest minds ever to play the game, including Tal, Petrosian, and Bronstein, his legendary self-confidence left little doubt in his mind that he would make it through to the Candidates tournament. Explaining his strategy with his usual straightforwardness, Fischer said, “I can always catch five ‘small-fry’ in the tournament, whom I’ll easily beat. As for the rest of the games, I’ll draw them.” When asked what he will do if he loses one of his games against ‘a big fish,’ he replied, “Well, then I’ll have to catch a sixth ‘small-fry’.” And sure enough Fischer finished in the top six (sixth place!), which was good enough to qualify for the candidates tournament in Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade the following year. Of particular interest to most chess players is the answer to the question: “What was Bobby really like?” Here is what Bronstein had to say upon meeting Fischer for the first time (pg. 20):
I have italicized this last sentence by Bronstein, because to me this has always been one of the secrets to understanding Fischer. He only paid attention to, focused upon, and responded to that which interested him. So later on, after he won the world championship and traditional chess no longer interested him, no amount of money could bring him back to the table. He just wasn’t interested. For better or worse, this is how his mind tended to work. Thankfully, there were quite a few years that ALL Fischer thought about was chess. Says Kotov (pg. 80): “Fischer’s principal distinguishing characteristic is his boundless love for chess. He is prepared to play from morning to night, and he cannot be persuaded to accept a quick draw. It seems at times that he does not want to end a game, even when he is winning.” And here is what World Champion Petrosian thought of Fischer as a player (pg. 80): “Fischer’s play produced a good impression, and his success was well deserved. In the past two years the young grandmaster has changed noticeably. He has become a versatile player, with a leaning towards positional play. What is staggering about Fischer is what might be called his chess appetite. He always plays with pleasure. This, it seems to me, is one of the reasons for his successes.” And apparently the feelings of respect the two men had for each other was mutual, as here’s what Fischer thought of Petrosian, according to Kotov (pg. 81): “Bobby thinks particularly highly of Petrosian. But he was genuinely surprised that Petrosian was so afraid of taking risks. He felt that if Petrosian were to play more boldly, he would be the strongest player in the world, considering his talent, his ability to evaluate a position, and to calculate variations.” More praise from Kotov, this time on Fischer’s endgame play (pg. 81): “I have discussed Fischer’s play with Max Euwe and Gideon Stahlberg. All of us, experienced ‘tournament old-timers’, were surprised by Fischer’s endgame expertise. When a young player is good at attacking or at combinations, this is understandable, but a faultless endgame technique at the age of 19 is something rare. I can recall only one other player who at that age was equally skillful at endgames—Vasily Smyslov.”
This reminds me of the time I was teaching at an elementary school, and I saw one of my young chess students, a boy about 9 years old, had only his king and few pawns left while his opponent still had almost half his army. Suddenly, the young boy who was completely lost, looked his opponent right in the face, and with his hands on his hips said in complete seriousness, “Do you give up!?”
Upon hearing this, I couldn’t help but crack a big smile and let out a
chuckle. For although faced with certain defeat, the little boy’s
“never-say-die” attitude said a lot about his fighting spirit. The time the Russians played a joke on Fischer One of my favorite stories in the book is about the time GM Eduard Gufeld played a trick on Fischer. Here is the story (pg. 159):
A great story nicely told by the late Gufeld. The Bottom Line What can I say? This is a great book and I have barely scratched the surface of its contents. There are wonderful photos, games, stories, analysis of Fischer’s openings, tournament cross-tables, as well as a complete index in the back of the book of both the openings that were played as well as the names of all of Fischer’s opponents. You will be riveted by what the top Russian grandmasters thought of Fischer, both as a man and a player. Indeed, there are so many great stories in the book that it is tempting to simply skip over the games and read it straight though. However, my guess is you will find this quite difficult to do. Why? Because after reading a story about a particular game, you will want to break out a chess board and immediately start playing through it to see how it all played out. Additionally, many of the games have great notes to them, and so you will not only be entertained, but will learn a great deal from them as well.
Everyman Chess
has done such a great job on this book, that not only am I highly
recommending it, but even if you have the first edition, I think you should
still go ahead and purchase this new edition. I say this because there
are so many great new improvements and additions, that it is basically a
whole new book. So, do yourself a favor and pick up one of the best
chess books ever put out on one of the best players of all time.
The Bobby Fischer Home Page
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As far as I am concerned, Bobby Fischer died in 1972. There, I said
it. After having reached the top of the mountain that year, the
messiah of chess decided to quit the game that he single-handedly thrust
into the consciousness of the world by playing and defeating Boris Spassky
in Reykjavik.
High praise indeed! And here is Kotov remarking on Fischer’s boundless
belief in himself (pg. 81): “Young Bobby has a great deal of
self-confidence… when playing blitz, even in hopeless positions, he keeps
repeating in Russian: ‘I’ll get him now!’”
