Mumbai remembers Bobby Fischer

Mumbai remembers Bobby Fischer

Mumbai is one of the most populated cities in the world and is located on the western coast of India.

Pawn Sacrifice, the movie on Fischer’s life had just been released. Watching the movie alone in the theatre would not have been so interesting. So, I and my wife Amruta formulated the following plan:

1. Meet at R-city Mall, Ghatkopar at 9 a.m. for the movie Pawn Sacrifice, which will begin at 9.15 a.m. The cost of the ticket was Rs 70 (just one Euro!)

2. After the movie ends at around 11.30 a.m. all the players would go to my (Sagar’s) place where they would sit in front of the 42 inch television in the living room and watch the ChessBase DVD Master Class Vol. 1 on Bobby Fischer. The plan was to watch the DVD till 6 p.m. in the evening.

The above plan was decided just one day prior, that is on the 18th September, and a Facebook event was created in order to organize the entire thing.

Even though the city boasts of a population of 18.4 million people,
at 8.30 a.m. the Mumbai roads leading to the mall were empty ...

... and so was the R-city mall

But ChessBase is everywhere!

These kids came right on time, shunning their sleep to see the great Bobby!

My father (on the right) took out time from his hectic September end schedule to watch the movie. Mrs Parul (my aunt) came all the way from South Mumbai to not only watch the movie but to enjoy the company of ten-year-olds like Piya Saxena (middle).

Soon we were a large gang of chess enthusiasts ranging from 10-65 years!

From left to right - Jainam Gala, Sanjeev Mishra, Divyanshu Sheth, Devarsh Shah, Malay Thakkar, Hetvi Pethad, Dhairya Ghelani, Dhairya's father, Rahul Ved, Hetvi's mother, Parulben, Piya Saxena and her grandmother. Two organizers sitting below - Amruta Mokal and Sagar Shah

We had almost two rows to ourselves in the theatre!

Pawn Sacrifice was very interesting – well worth watching for any chess fan. You can find a few inaccuracies in the movie, but in general Toby Maguire has a done a wonderful job in the role of Bobby Fischer.

Some of the parents were worried whether it was wise to let their children see how paranoid Fischer became due to chess. But I think the little ones should see the movie to understand what has to be avoided by them in the future. According to me, what you will go back with is Fischer's dedication and determination towards the game of chess, and his single minded aim of becoming the World Champion rather than his paranoia and delusion. Let me not spill the beans any further; just know that I heartily recommend this movie. You can read a review by one of the most brilliant economists in the world, Ken Rogoff, who also happens to be a grandmaster.

Mumbaikars with the movie poster

If you can't play like him you can pose like him!

Next on the agenda was the ChessBase DVD - Master Class Vol. 1 on Bobby Fischer. There were three GMs: Rogozenco, Marin and Mueller, and one IM Reeh who taught you all about Fischer's style of play.

After the movie was over at around 11.30 a.m. everyone had their lunch and came to my place. We all huddled around in the living room and at 1 p.m. started the DVD.

The DVD played on a 42 inch flatscreen. Everyone was completely engrossed in Fischer's style of play

GM Dorian Rogozenco dealt with Fischer’s openings: we learnt about his treatment of the Ruy Lopez, his affection for the light squared bishop, always playing the Bc4 move in the Sicilian, sac-sac-mate on the h-file in the Dragon, Fischer's favourite Najdorf, King's Indian and Benoni.

In between I would share some bits of my own knowledge. For example when Rogozenco went directly to the eleventh move of the Ruy Lopez, I stopped the DVD and explained the different subtleties until that point.

Next up were the tactical problems posed by IM Oliver Reeh. I hope you recognize the famous position shown over here. Hint: this is the game which made everyone understand what a huge talent 13-year-old Fischer was!

We solved all of the fourteen tactical positions from Fischer's games. There was the Game of the Century against Donald Byrne, and also the Rf6!! blockade against Benko, and not to forget Reshevsky's king drag with Bxf7 followed by Ne6! Solving these problems took us quite some time as everyone was contributing with their answers and discussing them was a lot of fun. But it meant that the other two parts of the DVD had to be left unfinished.

We were unable to complete Mihail Marin’s section on strategy, but anyone who is well versed with the
Romanian grandmaster’s analysis knows that there is some high quality material sitting in those four clips.

Karsten Mueller discusses many different endgames in his section and also solves the famous riddle
whether the move Bxh2?! in the first Spassky-Fischer game in 1972 was really losing or not.

Edward Zwick’s movie was excellent, but I would say ChessBase’s DVD on Fischer was even better. Seeing both of them in a day, like we tried to do, is the best way to remember and pay our homage to the legend called Fischer!

On a parting note there was one combination of Fischer which everyone loved. It did not happen in his game but he mentions it in the notes in his famous book, “My 60 memorable games”.

Variation from Fischer-Gligoric 1966

White to play and win

Many of us worked on this DVD till 6 p.m. in the evening. Even though we couldn't finish it entirely, everyone went back home with a feeling of having learnt about not only Fischer but also the game of chess. It was truly a memorable day and one which I will cherish for a long time to come. 25 chess players from different places of Mumbai came together to enjoy the game of chess – that's the power of Bobby Fischer!

Here is what some of the participants of the event had to say:

Shubham Kumtekar: Honestly, it was fun! A lot of people from Mumbai's chess community coming together to watch the movie and then, indulging in a training session of sorts - what more could you ask from a day! Indeed, a day well spent remembering the great Bobby. Thanks a lot Sagar and Amruta for organizing this excellent event!

Sanjeev Mishra: I agree with Shubham. You don't get a training session with an IM every day. Movie was good but the DVD was even better. Learnt a lot.

Jainam Gala: The movie was great and so are Fischer's brilliancies. A day full of chess to honour him. #19thSept.

Ketan Patil: The movie is awesome. I used to think that five to six hours of chess every day is more than enough. But after seeing Fischer's dedication, five to six hours seemed nothing. It really inspires us to work harder on chess. I think you Sagar Shah were correct in saying that if someone wants to be like Fischer, he needs to be a chess fanatic like Fischer. The DVD class after the movie helped us to understand Fischer in more depth. It was like a cherry on cake. Thanks a lot.

Tejas Jayade: I honestly loved the event. Thank you Sagar for taking this initiative.
Many tips, many ideas, a movie, a DVD session and one game! All in all, a perfect chess day.

ChessBase India website is coming soon. Until then get all updates from its Facebook page.

Pictures by Amruta Mokal

Previous ChessBase stories on Pawn Sacrifice

Pawn Sacrifice - movie of the 1972 match
6/11/2015 – Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky are coming to a theater near you in a film based on the life of the recluse genius and his epic 1972 showdown for the world title. Whatever one may think of it, the all-star cast leaves nothing to be desired, with Edward Zwick, director of The Last Samurai, and Tobey Maguire who championed the project for ten years.

Watch Fischer enact his mental chess match
8/20/2015 – Pawn Sacrifice, the 2015 American biographical thriller film directed by Edward Zwick and starring Tobey Maguire (whom we remember as Spiderman, or more fondly from Seabiscuit) as Bobby Fischer, is set to be released in the US on September 18, 2015. Huffington Post has posted an exclusive featurette, to which we have added some clips from the past. Happy viewing.

Rogoff on the Fischer movie "Pawn Sacrifice"
9/18/2015 – Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff is a world famous economist – and a chess grandmaster. He thinks that in the Hollywood movie actor Toby Maguire portrays Fischer with remarkable authenticity "indeed, pitch-perfect for those of us who met Bobby in his prime" (as Rogoff did). In his review Ken speculates how Fischer would not be Fischer in today's world.

Recent general news reports on "Pawn Sacrifice" (about 94,000)