When Bobby Fischer Played Chess Like Misha Tal
By GM Lubomir Kavalek
Reckless sacrifices were not his style, but for one day, one game and one moment
in 1959 Bobby Fischer threw caution to the wind, went va banque and
played like Mikhail Tal. His opponent was the Czech grandmaster Ludek Pachman
and the game was played in Santiago de Chile.
Tal mesmerized his opponents with a demonic look, quick mind and unsurpassed
imagination. Sometimes his combinations were wrong, but it was always fun to
watch him find his way through turbulent complications he created on the chessboard.
In 1956, Tal and Fischer slowly lifted their chess careers and began to fly.
Bobby created his "game of the century" against Donald Byrne. Tal
won the first seven games at the Student olympiad in Uppsala, Sweden, and during
that streak he produced an astonishing miniature against a Polish player.
Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to
follow the game.
It was a little preview of what was going to happen and we knew chess was going
to be a lot of fun. Tal advanced fast: in one year he became the Soviet champion,
in four years he was the champion of the world. And for the next half century
"playing like Tal" was the highest accolade you could bestow on attacking
players.
Last week, the world's top rated grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, 21, won the Tal
Memorial in Moscow, the year's strongest tournament, a tribute to one of the
most popular world chess champions. When he burst on the international chess
scene in 2004, Magnus was compared to Tal before many more world champions,
together with one famous musician, were added to describe his style.
Hou Yifan, 17, the women's world champion defended her title in Tirana, Albania,
defeating India's Humpy Koneru 5,5 - 2,5. Her aggressive attacking style comes
close to Tal's, but her favorite player is Fischer. But Hou and Tal have one
thing in common: they are the only players who with the black pieces tried the
Ragozin defense (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4) in a world championship
match. Tal was not very successful against Mikhail Botvinnik in 1961, but Hou
won two decisive games.
It was named after the Soviet grandmaster Vyacheslav Ragozin, who played it
in the 1930s, but he was not the first one. The legendary commentator Hans Kmoch,
an Austrian International Master who settled in New York, poked fun at the name:
"It is a rare side-line of the Queen's Gambit Declined which dr. Josef
Noa (1856-1903) used to play before Aaron Nimzovich (1886-1935) and which Ragozin
(1908-1962) re-invented after Nimzovich and the Nimzo-Indian Defense."
The Soviets were obsessed with naming chess openings after their players, and
Ragozin was a well-known grandmaster and a world correspondence champion. But
it was the Ukrainian International Master Isaac Lipnitsky who took the defense
apart and published incredible analyses in 1956. His life was short, just 36
years, but his 430-page blue book enriched the lives of many chess generations.
The first part of the book, covering problems in the opening and middlegame
was published by Quality Chess
as Questions of Modern Chess Theory. The second part covers the actual
Ragozin defense. The text has been retained by Vladimir Barsky in his 350-page
book The Ragozin Complex, published by New
In Chess. But the Russian IM brought Lipnitsky's work into the 21st century,
enhancing the original ideas with new games and new developments, and creating
a unique opening manual.
Fischer studied Lipnitsky's original work in Russian and the Ragozin defense
became one of his favorite openings in the late 1950s. He played it in many
games, but none was as exciting as the duel against Ludek Pachman in Santiago
in 1959. It is the privilege of the victors to belittle those they vanquish
and the Czech grandmaster was no exception when he was showing us the game after
he came back to Prague from the South-American tour . I remember how proud he
was about his king's walk, escaping from the full blast of Bobby's heavy pieces.
Pachman commented on the game in July 1959 in the magazine Ceskoslovensky
Sach. In the same month, Hans Kmoch published his notes, based on a conversation
with Fischer, in Chess Review. I have added new comments and checked
it with analytical engines.
This unbelievable game gathers speed after 16 moves, when both players begin
to fight for an advantage. There are a few missteps, but that is to be expected
when imagination clashes with logic.
Original
column here – Copyright
Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and aggregated blog founded
by Arianna Huffington and others, featuring various news sources and columnists.
The site was launched on May 9, 2005, as a commentary outlet and liberal/progressive
alternative to conservative news websites. It offers coverage of politics, media,
business, entertainment, living, style, the green movement, world news, and
comedy. It is a top destination for news, blogs, and original content. The Huffington
Post has an active community, with over one million comments made on the site
each month. According to Nielsen NetRatings, the site has around 13 million
unique visitors per month (number for March 2010); according to Google Analytics
the number is 22 million uniques per month.