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The 'Game of the Century' is a chess game that was won by the 13-year-old future FIDE World Champion Robert James (Bobby) Fischer, against Donald Byrne. The game was played in the '3rd Rosenwald Memorial' tournament at the 'Marshall Chess Club' in New York City, on October 17, 1956. In the Magazine 'Chess Review', Hans Kmoch dubbed it 'The Game of the Century' and wrote: "The following game, a stunning masterpiece of combination play performed by a boy of 13 against a formidable opponent, matches the finest on record in the history of chess prodigies."
Donald Byrne (1930-1976) was one of the leading American chess masters at the time of this game. He won the 1953 U.S. Open Championship, and represented the United States in the 1962, 1964, and 1968 Chess Olympiads. He became an International Master in 1962, and probably would have risen further if not for ill health.
Bobby Fischer (1943-2008) was at this time a promising junior facing one of his first real tests against master-level opposition. His overall performance in the tournament was mediocre, but he soon had a meteoric rise, winning the 1957 U.S. Open on tiebreaks, winning the 1957-58 U.S. (Closed) Championship, and all seven later championships in which he played, qualifying the FIDE Candidates Tournament and becoming in 1958 the World's youngest grandmaster at age 15. He won the FIDE World Championship in 1972, and is considered one of the greatest chess players of all time.
In this game, Fischer (playing Black) demonstrates noteworthy innovation and improvisation. Byrne (playing White), after a standard opening, makes a seemingly minor mistake on move 11, losing a tempo by moving the same piece twice. Fischer pounces with brilliant sacrificial play, culminating in a queen sacrifice on move 17. Byrne captures the queen, but Fischer gets copious material for it – a rook, two bishops, and a pawn. In the end, Fischer's pieces coordinate to force mate, while Byrne's queen sits useless on the other side of the board.
Above is the only known picture of Fischer during the Game of the Century. Incredibly, it was taken while he was pondering the position just before the queen sacrifice. The picture appeared on page 11 of the Lima News, Feb. 12, 1957, and also appeared in the Hammond Times of Feb. 24, 1957 [scan provided by Lawrence T. Totaro]. On the right is the original scoresheet from 1956 with Bobby's handwriting.
You can notice on this scoresheet that Fischer used the rather unusual (for modern days) way of writing down the game. It is called descriptive notation. The number of the square depends on the viewpoint of White or Black. Each file is given a name corresponding to the piece that occupies the first rank at the start of the game (for instance, the queen's file is named 'Q'). FIDE stopped recognising descriptive notation in 1981, but older players still use it in the clubs around the world.
I must be mentioned that the following analysis is based on that of Garry Kasparov (My Great Predecessors) and Karsten Mueller (ChessBase). Many other sources were taken into account to make sure that no blind spots are remaining!
In the following game you can click on the notation or diagrams to follow the moves on a special replay board (which you can resize and reposition on the page). You can also click on the fan button to start an engine which will display the best move, alternatives, even threats.
