Annotated chess game: Simul, ?

« TAP TO LOG IN

ANNOTATED GAME

Simul, ?
Bobby Fischer vs. Blake
Annotated by: blake78613 (1200)
Chess opening: Sicilian (B90), Najdorf, Lipnitzky attack

Interactive

•

Show all comments

•

All annotated games

•

View chessboard as:

It was 1964 and it cost $5.00 a board to play. There were 49 others playing Fischer.

1. e4	"Wham!" the King pawn came down with a thud, I was amazed at the force with which Fischer slammed the king pawn down.



1... c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6	I looked at Fischer, and saw pure hatred staring back at me. I thought this must be what Jack the Rippers victims must have seen. After that, I concentrated on the board and didn't look at Fischer.



6. Bc4 e5	this is not quite as bad as it looks with the proper follow up. Still e6 has to be the best move. e6 takes the pressure off f7 for a while. White often follows up with f2-f4-f5 and Black has to choose between ...exf5 or ...e5 either of which opens things up for the Sozin bishop. Also there are tactics based on Nd5 exd5, Bxd5 to look out for.



7. Nf5	Wow, I thought Fischer has overlooked something. I am going to win a pawn. 7...Nxe4 8 Nxe4 Bxf5 and I am a pawn up.



7... Nxe4 8. Nxg7+	Well, I guess I don't win a pawn; but look at that mobile pawn center.



8... Bxg7 9. Nxe4	At this point Fischer actually took about 15 seconds to look something over. All his prior moves had been made instantly. It took him about 2 minutes to make the rounds. Which was a fair amount of time to think about your move, but less than I thought I would have. Now I had figure out how to defend my d-pawn.



9... Bf8	This was the only way I could figure out to defend the pawn. I felt slightly sick as I realized all my pieces were on their original squares.



10. Qh5	Now I needed to defend against the mate threat. I did see that Qd7 would lose to Nf6 check. That left Queen to e7 or c7.



10... Qe7	Wrong choice, Qc7 was relatively better. I could have safely resigned here.



11. Bg5	Now I did resign. If ...Qc7 then 12 Nf6 Kd8 13 Nd5 discovered check wins the queen.
	4 comments archduke_piccolo (2332) on 15-Oct-08: Looking at this game and reading the notes gives one a strong sense of the psychological pressure Fischer was able to exert upon his opponents. I'm reminded of a Kiwi newsman's account of his spending a couple of minutes in the ring with Muhammad Ali. This looks to have been a similarly memorable experience! fatcat2 (1200) on 15-Oct-08: Psychological pressure was hugely important in World Championship matches such as Fischer-Spassky and Karpov-Korchnoi. kg07 (1200) on 17-Oct-08: It takes a special sort of insane single-minded focus to play in this manner during a simultaneous exhibition. A bit of insight into why Bobby Fischer was the greatest ever. sligunner (2029) on 21-May-10: I wouldn't say that Fischer was 'insane' during this period in his life. 'Genius', maybe.