Divinsky's Chess Charivari

Back to 1964 News Articles

The Province Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Saturday, January 18, 1964 - Page 66

Divinsky's Chess Charivari
By Dr. N. Divinsky

Bobby Fischer has won the U.S. chess championship for the sixth time. He did it the hard way - he won every game he played!
Eleven straight victories over the cream of American chess is an incredible achievement. Veteran grandmasters like Benko, Bisguier and Reshevsky, young chess giants like Evans, Robert Byrne, Donald Byrne, all went down to defeat.
Fischer, who will be 21 this year, stands in a class by himself. At this point it seems that world champion Tigran Petrosian of Russia is not the best player in the world, and in our opinion the only player who is in Fischer's class is ex-world-champion Mischa Tal of Latvia.
Fischer will probably participate in the inter-zonal tournament this year and will certainly qualify for the challengers' tournament in 1965. If Tal's health is good he may be the only one to prove a serious competitor.
Dr. Barrie Richmond of Winnipeg, now studying in Chicago, visited New York and sent us Fischer's sensational third-round game against Robert Byrne. He included some “live” comment and we are pleased to pass these on to our readers.

White: R. Byrne
Black: B. Fischer
Neo: Gruenfeld defense
1. P-Q4 N-KB3
2. P-QB4 P-KN3
3. P-KN3 P-B3
4. B-N2 P-Q4
5. PxP PxP
6. N-QB3 B-N2
Byrne commented at this point that be had expected this variation. He had read Fischer's recent article in Chess Life and agreed that the symmetric development
7. N-B3, O-O;
8. O-O, N-B3 does not give white any advantage. With this in mind Byrne said be had studied the “Botvinnik” variation of 7. N-R3 (Fifth game of the Botvinnik-Bronstein world championship match; 1951) where white obtained a strong grip on the center with a later N-B4. However in one of the Botvinnik-Bronstein games black retaliated with 7. N-R3, BxN and after 8. BxB black can play P-K3, and the white king bishop is misplaced. Therefore Byrne played:
7. P-K3 O-O
8. KN-K2 N-B3
9. O-O P-QN3
10. P-QN3 B-QR3
11. B-QR3 R-K1
This was a mysterious rook move for Byrne who expected 11…QR-B1 instead. He had played a similar game two weeks previously and the action had occurred on the QB-file.
12. Q-Q2 P-K4!
13. PxP NxP
14. KR-Q1
The black QP, attacked four times and defended only twice, is a dead duck, and besides, white's pieces are well developed. Surely white stands better. (It seems that 14. QR-Q1 would have been much better.)
14… N-Q6!
This caused Byrne to think for half an hour, for he could not see what Fischer could do after
15. Q-B2
See Diagram.
Position after 15…Q-B2

White threatens to win N and B for a rook. If the black N retreats white wins the QP.
15. … NxP!
16. KxN N-N5ch
17. K-N1 NxP
18. Q-Q2
At this point Byrne expected
18 … NxR; and he felt that after
19. RxN he would win the black QP and have two knights for R and P. He certainly didn't feel he had the worst of it.
18. … NxB!
The entire combination is one of surprise, beauty and depth.
19. KxN P-Q5
20. NxP
The only move for it the N at B3 moves, P-Q6 wins. However, most of the analysts, including grandmaster Rossolimo, and Byrne, thought at this point that white stood better and that Fischer, in some mysterious way, had overextended himself.
20 … B-N2ch
See Diagram.
Position after 20…B-N2 ch.

White must now be very careful. If 21. N-B3, QxQch; 22. RxQ, KBxN and black will be the exchange and a pawn up.
If white plays the natural 21. K-N1 then he loses to 21 … BxNch!; 22. QxB, R-K8ch!; 23. K-B2 (if 23. RxR, QxQ), QxQch; 24. RxQ, RxR.
21. K-B1!
Byrne of course, saw all of this as far back as the 15th move.
21 … Q-Q2!
22. Q-KB2 Q-R6ch
23. Resigns.
When Byrne appeared in the open room everyone thought that Fischer had resigned because after 23. K-N1, black is a full piece down.
However after 23. K-N1, R-K8ch1; 24. RxR, BxN; 25. QxB, QN7 mate.
A masterpiece.

Four-Way Tie in First Place in the Sixth Interzonal Tournament

Back to 1964 News Articles

The Boston Globe Boston, Massachusetts Sunday, July 05, 1964 - Page 42

Four-Way Tie in First Place in the Sixth Interzonal Tournament
Bent Larsen, Denmark, and three Russians, Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal and Boris Spassky, posted identical scores for a four-way tie for first place in the sixth interzonal tournament.
This penultimate stage in the search for a world championship challenger has usually been dominated by one player. Last time it was Bobby Fischer; before it had been Kotov, or Bronstein, or Szabo. And now, a jam.
The leaders had 17 points each. They were followed by two more Russians, Leonid Stein (16½), and David Bronstein (16). Then came Boris Ivkov, Yugoslavia, 15; Sam Reshevsky. U.S.A., and Lajos Portisch, Hungary, 14½: and Svetozar Gligoric, Yugoslavia, 14. Pal Benko and Larry Evans, the other American representatives finished far back in the field with minus scores.
F.I.D.E. rules qualify the top six in the interzonal for the challengers tournament, but the rules also state that no more than three players from the same country can make the grade. Thus, Stein and Bronstein have been eliminated and Ivkov will move into one of the vacated posts. Reshevsky and Portisch will play a match for the last position.
After this has been settled the six men from the interzonal will join former world champion Mikhail Botvinnik and Paul Keres in the final phase, the candidates tournament. This will have a new format: a series of elimination matches. The king of the hill will meet Petrosian for the title.
Eleven years ago Reshevsky made his strongest bid for a world championship match in the marathon Zurich candidates tournament. In that event he finished in a triple tie for second behind Smyslov. After the tournament Reshevsky vowed he wouldn't waste his time in these contests because, as the rules were set up, no one but a Russian could win.
Unlike Fischer, Reshevsky did not accuse the Russians of collusion or cheating; he just felt the odds were overwhelming. There were nine Russians in the Zurich tournament; Reshevsky, strongest of the West, was the only American.
Reshevsky is proud of his match record (he has never lost a match) and, if he gets by Portisch, cares not how many Russians he is called upon to face mano a mano.
Larsen was Fischer's second in the Curacao tournament. Since the Dane's performance at Amsterdam is the best of his career there has been some amused speculation as to whether he was responsible for Fischer's failure at Curacao or Fischer was responsible for Larsen's success at Amsterdam.
Here the game was drawn by agreement. Al Horowitz (N.Y. Times) said: “Tal lost a piece, since he was unable to make the last recapture with-out being mated. Tal, however, had won three pawns. Thus, with material relatively even and the situation extremely unclear, neither side wished to jeopardize his standing in the tournament. The point was divided.”

Amsterdam Winners and Losers

Back to 1964 News Articles

The Guardian London, Greater London, England Thursday, July 02, 1964 - Page 6

Amsterdam Winners and Losers
“ … The results of the world title interzonal in Amsterdam indicate that it is not Bobby Fischer who is handicapped by the present championship eliminating methods, but the Russians. Though all five of them finished in the top six, Bronstein and Stein are knocked out in favour of players who finished two points behind them because of the rule that only three Russians could qualify for the Candidates' …
“Tal, Smyslov, and Spassky, the Russian qualifiers …”

Fischer Chess Exhibition in Los Angeles and Top Ten List

Back to 1964 News Articles

The Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, California Sunday, March 29, 1964 - Page 59

Fischer To Exhibit In Los Angeles
Los Angeles chess enthusiasts will have a rare opportunity to play against and watch in action one of the great chess virtuosos of our time with the arrival of U.S. champion Bobby Fischer.
Fischer is due here in two weeks on his cross-country lecture and exhibition tour. He has achieved many other firsts, including his recent victory in the U.S. championship in which he won 11 straight games.
This was Fischer's sixth success in title competition, starting when he was 14½ years old. Now 21, he is the youngest grandmaster in the history of the game.
Fischer's first appearance here will he at 1 p.m. Sunday. April 12, at the Knickerbocker Hotel, 1714 Ivar Ave. in Hollywood, where he will play simultaneously against 50 opponents.
The charge for playing will be $3.50. Reservations may still be made by advance payment to the sponsoring organization, the Herman Steiner Chess Club, 8801 Cashio St. Anyone interested should act promptly, because of the limited number of boards. Spectators to the exhibition will be charged $1.
The following Sunday, on April 19, Fischer will play a similar exhibition at the Club Del Mar in Santa Monica. The 50 players have already been selected for this event, and the Club has asked that no others apply. Spectators are invited.
The Recreation Center in Santa Barbara will be another stop for Fischer, on Saturday, April 18. Write to Jack Tanner, 1505 Grand, Santa Barbara, for reservations and further details.

Report On Chessworld
In our report last week on the first issue of Chessworld, we stated that the most controversial article is by Bobby Fischer, who gives his list of the 10 greatest masters in chess history.
Here are the names, in order of birthdate:
Howard Staunton. Wilhelm Steinitz. Paul Morphy, Mikhail Tchigorin, Siegbert Tarrasch, Jose Raul Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Samuel Reshevsky, Mikhail Tal and Boris Spassky.
An impressive list, to be sure, and some of the names are unquestionably first magnitude. On some we would question whether they belong in this exalted company. Missing from the list are such names as Emanuel Lasker, who held the world championship for 27 years from 1894 to 1921. In 1924, when he was presumably long past his prime. Lasker won the New York tournament, one of the strongest ever held.
Also missing is Mikhail Botvinnik, who won the world championship in 1948, and held it, except for two short periods, until his defeat by Tigran Petrosian last year. The depth and originality of his play did much to advance chess knowledge.
Another entry we would offer though of another age, is Andre Danican Philidor, 1726-95. He was the first player in history who understood the positional concepts on which the modern game is founded.
Philidor was far and away the greatest player of his era. He was the first to play three games simultaneously blindfold, a feat then considered almost incredible. One other entry that should be considered, after he has gained a little maturity, is Robert J. Fischer.
Among other items in the first issue, for January-February, 1964, are Chess Curios, by Irving Chernev: Shakespeare's Checkmate, by Paul Leith, and How the Blind Play Chess, by Jerome Tarshis.