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.

 

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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