Endgame Riddle: Fischer vs Bronstein, Portoroz 1958

by Karsten Müller
7/7/2022 – At the Interzonal Tournament in Portoroz 1958, the then 15-year-old Bobby Fischer (pictured) finished in 6th place with 12.0/20, and narrowly qualified for the Candidates Tournament. Half a point behind, five players shared places seven to eleven with 11.5/20 each, which was not enough to qualify. One of these five players was David Bronstein, who failed to win a better endgame against Fischer in Round 6. Karsten Müller and Zoran Petronijevic took a closer look at this endgame and invite ChessBase readers to search for a win for Bronstein. | Photo: Tournament book
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Portoroz 1958 - Final standings

Rk. Name Country 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Pts.
1 Mihail Tal
 
   ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 13.5 / 20
2 Svetozar Gligoric
 
 ½   ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 13.0 / 20
3 Tigran V Petrosian
 
 ½ ½   ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 1 1 ½ 1 12.5 / 20
4 Pal C Benko
 
 0 ½ ½   1 ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 12.5 / 20
5 Robert James Fischer
 
 ½ ½ ½ 0   0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 12.0 / 20
6 Fridrik Olafsson
 
 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1   ½ 1 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 12.0 / 20
7 Aleksandar Matanovic
 
 1 ½ 0 0 ½ ½   1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 1 11.5 / 20
8 Laszlo Szabo
 
 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0   1 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 1 1 1 1 11.5 / 20
9 Yuri L Averbakh
 
 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 1 0   ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 11.5 / 20
10 David Ionovich Bronstein
 
 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½   1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ 1 11.5 / 20
11 Ludek Pachman
 
 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0   ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 1 1 11.5 / 20
12 Miroslav Filip
 
 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½   ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 11.0 / 20
13 Oscar Panno
 
 0 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½   1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 ½ ½ 11.0 / 20
14 Raul Sanguineti
 
 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0   1 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 10.0 / 20
15 Oleg Neikirkh
 
 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0   0 ½ 1 1 ½ 1 9.5 / 20
16 Bent Larsen
 
 0 0 1 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 1   1 1 ½ 0 1 8.5 / 20
17 James T Sherwin
 
 ½ 1 0 ½ 0 1 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0   1 0 1 1 7.5 / 20
18 Hector Rossetto
 
 0 0 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 0 0 0   1 ½ 1 7.0 / 20
19 Radolfo Tan Cardoso
 
 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ 1 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 0   1 1 6.0 / 20
20 Boris De Greif
 
 0 0 ½ 0 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ 1 0 ½ 0   0 4.5 / 20
21 Geza Fuster
 
 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ 0 0 0 0 0 1   2.0 / 20

Bronstein lost only one game in the entire tournament: against underdog Radolfo Tan Cardoso in the last round. Had Bronstein won this game, he would have qualified for the 1959 Candidates Tournament.

But in round 6 Bronstein also missed a good opportunity to gain ground on Fischer. In a better endgame Bronstein couldn't find a win and allowed Fischer to save a draw.

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Nd7 10.d4 Nb6 11.Be3 Rb8 12.Nbd2 Bf6 13.d5 Na5 14.Bc2 Nac4 15.Nxc4 Nxc4 16.Bc1 c6 17.dxc6 Qc7 18.Nh2 Qxc6 19.Ng4 Be7 20.Ne3 Be6 21.Qe2 Rfd8 22.Rd1 Nxe3 23.Bxe3 a5 24.Bd3 a4 25.a3 Bf6 26.Bc2 d5 27.exd5 Bxd5 28.Qg4 Be6 29.Qg3 Bc4 30.Bg5 Re8 31.Bxf6 Qxf6 32.Rd2 Rbd8 33.Rad1 Rxd2 34.Rxd2 h5 35.Qe3 Qf4 36.Qe1
36...h4 37.Rd4 Qf6 38.Qe4 g6 39.Rd2 Qf4 40.Rd1 Qxe4 41.Bxe4 Kf8 42.Rd7 Rb8 43.g3 hxg3 44.fxg3 Be6 45.Rd2 Ke7 46.h4 f5 47.Bc2 Rh8 48.Kf2 Bc4 49.Ke3 Ke6 50.Rf2 Kd6 51.Rd2+ Ke7 52.Rf2 Ke6 53.Rd2 g5 54.hxg5 Rh3 55.Kf2 Rh2+ 56.Ke1 Rh1+ 57.Kf2 e4 58.Bd1 Rf1+ 59.Ke3 Re1+ 60.Kf2 Rf1+ 61.Ke3 Re1+ 62.Kf2 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Fischer,R-Bronstein,D-½–½1958C92Interzonal-046

But did Bronstein really miss a win or was the position indeed drawn? Zoran Petronijevic and Karsten Müller took a close look at the endgame and invite you to join them in the search for a win for Black.

Share your analyses, ideas and findings in the comments!

Links

Karsten Müller is considered to be one of the greatest endgame experts in the world. His books on the endgame - among them "Fundamentals of Chess Endings", co-authored with Frank Lamprecht, that helped to improve Magnus Carlsen's endgame knowledge - and his endgame columns for the ChessCafe website and the ChessBase Magazine helped to establish and to confirm this reputation. Karsten's Fritztrainer DVDs on the endgame are bestsellers. The mathematician with a PhD lives in Hamburg, and for more than 25 years he has been scoring points for the Hamburger Schachklub (HSK) in the Bundesliga.

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