📌 Fischer on the Way to the Summit
Bobby Fischer did not reach the summit of the chess Olympus immediately, and his path there was full of adventures. After leaving Moscow in 1958 not succeeding to play blitz with Mikhail Botvinnik, Fischer tried to earn the right to play with him through the FIDE qualification system. But this was not so simple.
At the 1959 Candidates Tournament, the 16-year-old Fischer finished in sixth place. At the next https://www.newinchess.com/curacao-1962 in 1962 in Curaçao (the same tournament where he visited the ill Mikhail Tal in the hospital — we mentioned this ), he finished fourth behind Tigran Petrosian, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efim_Geller, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Keres. Upset by the result, he accused the Soviet players of collusion and, in protest, refused to participate in the next championship cycle. That cycle took place without him; as we wrote earlier, Boris Spassky won the right to challenge Petrosian, but in their 1966 match, Petrosian managed to defend his world title.
Meanwhile, Fischer continued to work on chess and to play in some tournaments allowing himself also some distractions. Among other things, he read with interest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampff and The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion. In 1965 Fischer came into conflict with the American authorities. The major conflict would occur in 2004, when the aging Fischer narrowly avoided many years in an American prison — we will tell you about that some time later — but in 1965 it was not so serious yet: the authorities just forbade him from participating in the Capablanca Memorial in Cuba.
When the next cycle started, Fischer initially took part in the
https://x.com/FIDE_chess/status/1721134130065490169 in 1967 and was leading after 10 rounds, but then withdrew from the tournament, outraged that the organizers had not fulfilled his demands. In particular, Fischer wanted his games to begin no earlier than 4 p.m., since he was accustomed to waking up late. The organizers even agreed to this, but then Fischer demanded that the other participants also start their games at the same time as him, and this demand the organizers refused to meet. Spassky qualified again. He managed to beat Petrosian this time and become champion.
This is where the main part of today’s story begins. The https://www.365chess.com/tournaments/palma_de_mallorca_interzonal_1970/23022 in Palma de Mallorca passed without scandals. Fischer won it, finishing 3½ points ahead of his nearest rivals! The incredible events that followed have no parallel either in the earlier or later history of chess.
Eight candidates — six winners of the Interzonal Tournament and the two participants from the previous Candidates Final — competed against one another in knockout-format matches. In one of the quarterfinals, Fischer faced https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Taimanov and defeated him with the crushing score of 6–0! In the semifinal he defeated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bent_Larsen by the same score! It should be said that Taimanov and especially Larsen were extremely strong players. Larsen, although he had finished behind Fischer in the recently completed Interzonal Tournament, tying for second through fourth place, was the only player who had managed to defeat Fischer in an individual game. And yet here he suffered a devastating 0–6 loss…
In the final, Fischer met former world champion Tigran Petrosian and crushed him as well, though not by a shutout this time. He won four games, lost one, and drew three.
Of course, I cannot personally judge the quality of Fischer’s play, but according to experts (I listened to a detailed analysis of his games from that period by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Grischuk), his level at the time was phenomenal — Being a live man rather than computer, he made mistakes sometimes (for example, in the second round of his match with Petrosian when Fischer lost), but that was rare. Much more often he played the top lines of modern chess engines. It was difficult to fight against him …
https://lichess.org/video/VwNAL9wbwtY is one of the games (in round 7 of the match) which Fischer won.
The commentaries of kingscrusher (Tryfon Gavriel) (and the game itself!) are rather instructive.
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