Carlsen Ranks the World Champions

Not all of them, but I spotted short videos on Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, and Anand; also on Judit Polgar (technically not a women's world champion, but the female player for a very long time) and Hou Yifan on the distaff side. And also, on himself!

John Donaldson's *Bobby Fischer and His World*

I was offered a review copy of IM John Donaldson's massive new book (645 pages!), Bobby Fischer and His World, but declined. It's not that I'm uninterested - it's a book I'm very likely to purchase - but because I didn't want to commit to reading the whole thing as a precondition of writing a proper review.

So, this is not a review, but an FYI and a recommendation. I've read other works by Donaldson and he is, if nothing else, a diligent researcher, and I would be very surprised if this work doesn't break plenty of new ground compared to Frank Brady's Profile of a Prodigy (originally published in 1973, I think) and Endgame (published in 2011 and reviewed by yours truly, here).

In addition to the biographical narrative, there are over 100 pictures and 99 annotated games*, so there's a bit - or rather, a lot - of everything, and the book is very reasonably priced for its size. The Amazon page is here, and although there's no "Look Inside" for the book, New In Chess has an excerpt here. You'll also get a nice sense of the book from this interview Donaldson did with Jesse Kraai shortly before the book's publication. In short, if you're not already overly repulsed by Fischer, or glutted with books on the man, Donaldson't book is almost certainly one that any fan of chess history will want. But, once again, I'm saying this based on what I think about Donaldson's previous work, and not based on first-hand experience with the product itself, so caveat emptor (and see below). If any of you already have the book and would like to chime in, that would be appreciated.

* In the NIC excerpt, the first game of the Fischer-Larsen Candidates match is given and numbered, as if it's one of the 99, but there are no notes. So if someone has the book could please confirm or disconfirm the publisher's "99 annotated games" claim that would be appreciated.

Hort on Fischer, Part 1

Czech grandmaster Vlastimil Hort is a legend in his own right, a former Candidate (and nearly two-time Candidate) who was among the world's best players in the 1960s, '70s, and into the mid-'80s. Less than a year younger than Bobby Fischer, his career spanned the generations, and he played every world champion from Botvinnik through Anand, excepting Kramnik.

Nevertheless, the focus of this article is not on Hort himself, but on Fischer, who would have turned 75 this past Friday. Even those of you who, like me, are very familiar with the usual Fischer stories will find something new here - have a look.

This Week's World Chess Column: Taimanov-Fischer 1971, Game 3

Perhaps it's not the best way to memorialize the late Mark Taimanov, but his 1971 Candidates match with Bobby Fischer was probably the defining event of his chess career, and game 3 - in particular, the 20th move of game 3 - was the defining moment of the match. So it's worthwhile to take a closer look at that moment, Taimanov's great white whale, and to see if we can get to the bottom of it.

A Post-Match Interview...with Spassky

That's Boris Spassky about his own match in 1972, with Bobby Fischer. It's not apropos of anything having to do with the just-finished Carlsen-Karjakin match, but could be of intrinsic interest to chess fans in general. It's just a two-minute clip, here. (HT: Ross Hytnen)

A Short Review of Checkmate: Bobby Fischer's Boys' Life Columns

Most reasonably serious chess fans know about Bobby Fischer's great work My 60 Memorable Games and many more know about Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess. It's less well-known that he wrote Bobby Fisc her's Games of Chess in 1958 (in which he annotates all his games from his first U.S. Championship victory in 1957, along with the "Game of the Century" against Donald Byrne from the 1956 Rosenwald Tournament). It's harder to find copies of this book, and then if one wants to complete their collection of Fischer's chess works it's necessary to get one's paws on old issues of Boys' Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America.

In the late '60s there were typically six million Boy Scouts in any given year, and while not all subscribed to Boys' Life many did, and many more had access to it through their local scouting unit. We think a chess website or video is doing well when it gets a few tens of thousands of hits or views, but when Bobby Fischer wrote his column for Boys' Life from December of 1966 through January of 1970 he must have had at least hundreds of thousands of readers among the millions of individual poring over the pages of that monthly magazine.

The content of these columns was quite diverse. A fair chunk of the material was elementary, including answers to reader questions about en passant, the 50-move rule, whether pawns can move backward, whether one can claim a draw after being checkmated, and so on. There are also a pretty fair number of slightly more sophisticated questions seeking advice, too. At one level it's a pity to see one of the greatest players of all time taking valuable space answering trivial questions, but on the other hand it must have been inspiring to those readers whose questions were answered to interact with this legendary figure. While Fischer became a reclusive figure, his accessibility in such a forum was surely part of what led to such a boom in American chess.

There is sophisticated material as well. Fischer annotates several of his own games, in most cases with fairly serious annotations. Specifically, he annotates the following games: BF-Bednarsky, Havana Ol 1966 (light notes); BF-Gligoric, Havana Ol 1966 (moderate notes); BF-Mjagmarsuren [sic], Sousse IZT 1967 (substantial notes); Nikolich-BF, Vinkovci 1968 (substantive notes); BF-Jovanovac [name not given in the text], Vinkovci 1968 (moderate notes).

There are other games, too: Chercix-Cherepkov, Russia 1965; Kaplan-Timman, Jerusalem 1967; MacHack IV (an early computer)-Landey (no date); two readers' games; Lipman-Zolotnos, Russia [no date]; Rogoff-Spencer, US Junior Championship 1969.

There are some oddities. : About every other month the column is dedicated (wasted) on the solution to a "puzzler", a problem that was offered at the end of a normal column. These were tough positions - not basic tactics based on forks, pins, skewers and the like but mate-in-X positions bearing no resemblance to actual chess games. The first correct solutions (generally the first 10) would win a prize, typically an autographed picture of Fischer himself. (I wonder how much those autographed pictures would go for these days!) Did you know that Fischer was interested in chess problems, as opposed to merely gamelike positions? I didn't - but see below, about ghostwriting. Anyway, it's a pity for posterity that every second column was given over to solutions.

Another oddity - a fun one, really - is that many readers address him as "Bob" in their questions, and he never corrects them. Good for Fischer!

A bit weirder is that he uses the term "box" instead of "square" when referring to a particular spot on the board, like e4. As on occasional moniker for variety it might be understandable, but if one only had this book to go by they'd take "box" as the official label. Another oddity is his regular use of "castle" for "rook", at least in some earlier columns.

Finally, there's a little speculation in GM Andy Soltis's Foreword that the columns might have been ghostwritten, at least in part. I won't add to the speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if Fischer supplied the chess content and gave spoken answers while someone else put everything into publishable form. Given Fischer's fastidiousness about his intellectual content it would be surprising if he didn't at least take veto power over what was published in his name.

In sum, it's an entertaining book with nostalgic value, and some of the chess content will be of interest to club players (and up) as well. If you're a Fischer fan, you'll probably want to get it; if your chess interests are more utilitarian, than probably not.

This Week's World Chess Column: A Look Back at the Second Piatigorsky Cup in 1966

The Second Piatigorsky Cup took place 50 years ago this month, and was at the time the strongest tournament on U.S. soil since New York 1924. World Champion Tigran Petrosian participated, as did his recently vanquished challenger (and later conquerer) Boris Spassky, and Bobby Fischer too. I take a look back at the event, complete with lots of annotated games, here.

Bobby Fischer's Worst Win?!

It's a very interesting idea: trying to figure out what a player's worst win was at a point when they were already a reasonably mature player. Brian Karen offers this horrid game as Fischer's worst, played when Fischer was already a grandmaster, and it certainly looks like a good candidate. To take just two very obvious points, Fischer could have forced instant resignation after White's 21.Rc1?? by playing 21...Qxe3. After missing this, he lost an exchange a few moves later, and even as late as move 39 White in turn could have forced instant resignation with 39.Qd4+. Instead, he resigned two moves later after blundering into mate.

Can you think of alternative candidates for Fischer's worst win, or extend the conversation to include other players' worst losses?

Looking Back at Fischer-Spassky 1972, From Both Perspectives

From Brian Karen: First, a Chicago Tribune article on Bobby Fischer as he trained (on the heavy bag) in the Catskills; next, a very long look back by Nikolai Krogius (in translation) as he attempted without much success to get Boris Spassky to train diligently for the match. The latter in particular is highly recommended, even to those who have read plenty on the '72 match already.

A Mildly Sadistic Joke in Fischer-Tal From the 1959 Candidates

Emphasis on mild. The background to the little video is this: Bobby Fischer repeatedly played the Two Knights Variation against the Caro-Kann in the 1959 Candidates Tournament, with a serious lack of success. It got so bad that people who seldom or never played the Caro-Kann did so, as his results and the positions he received with the Two Knights were harmless at best. Fischer lost with it against Tigran Petrosian in round 2, drew with Vassily Smyslov in round 7 and then lost to Paul Keres - not a Caro-Kann practitioner - in round 8 (and then again in round 22).

So by the time of round 13, when Fischer faced Mikhail Tal with white for the first time in the tournament, this happened:

Candidates 1959: Tal makes a first-move joke (1...c6/1...c5); Fischer keeps a straight face. https://t.co/JgG9kLfF4C pic.twitter.com/SegRTGpPCq

— Olimpiu G. Urcan (@OlimpiuUrcan) May 4, 2016

Tal fakes the move 1...c6 before giving the pawn a shove to c5, then offers a priceless smile to Fischer, who remains impassive. Fischer's non-reaction is a pity. Could he not take a joke (very possible), or was his poker face a matter of competitive strategy? As for the joke itself, it almost wasn't one. According to Tibor Karolyi (page 413 of his excellent Mikhail Tal's Best Games 1: The Magic of Youth) Tal seriously considered playing the Caro-Kann in that game. Fortunately for everyone but Fischer, he didn't, enabling us to enjoy his joke, his infectious grin, and the very nice game he went on to win.

(HT: Brian Karen)