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Robert James Fischer vs Bent Larsen
"Petty Larseny" (game of the day Jan-02-13)
Portoroz Interzonal (1958)  ·  Sicilian Defense: Dragon Variation. Yugoslav Attack Main Line (B77)  ·  1-0
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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 4 OF 6 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Jul-25-10  tentsewang: Fischer then was only a child, and a child to beat down a top master of the age was truly like slaying the dragon. Just amazing!!
Aug-09-10  Grantchamp: Be7 Qh6#
Dec-15-11  Zugzwangovich: Rather remarkable career results between these two--only one draw in 14 games played and they had to play 92 moves before agreeing to that one draw!
Dec-15-11
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: Thats a great stat--never seen anything like that, between two high ranked players.
Dec-15-11  ughaibu: Anderssen vs. Steinitz: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... Eleven wins each, no draws.
Dec-15-11  Zugzwangovich: <ughaibu> That's a great stat too, although there was probably a considerable difference between the 1860s and the 1960s in the overall draw percentage among top players.
Dec-16-11
Premium Chessgames Member
  RookFile: It's not the same thing. Fischer slapped Larsen around, Anderssen held his own against Steinitz.
Dec-16-11
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: <tentsewang: Fischer then was only a child, and a child to beat down a top master of the age was truly like slaying the dragon. Just amazing!!>

Despite his youth, Fischer had a much better tournament (12-8, qualifying for the Candidates' tournament) than Larsen (8.5-11.5).

Dec-16-11
Premium Chessgames Member
  FSR: btw, if anyone has the impression that Fischer always won against the Dragon, this game will come as a surprise: Fischer vs C Munoz, 1960
Dec-16-11
Premium Chessgames Member
  HeMateMe: Does this mean Bob's B x h7+ patent will have to be rescinded?
Dec-16-11
Premium Chessgames Member
  harrylime: Who's Bob?
Dec-16-11  Penguincw: Fischer wins their first meeting.
Jul-11-12  screwdriver: Can someone validate the date and the exact quote where Fischer declared the dragon is no longer a viable option in the Sicilian for black?
Jul-11-12  kasparvez: Fischer didn't say that the dragon is no longer a viable option in the Sicilian for black, but yes, he clearly had a negative opinion for it. His exact words are:

"Larsen was one of the diehards who refused to abandon the dragon until recently. White's attack almost plays itself...weak players even beat grandmasters with it. I once thumbed through several issues of Shakhmatny Bulletin, when the Yugoslav Attack was making its debut, and found the ratio was something like nine wins out of ten in White's favor. Will Black succeed in reinforcing the variation? Time will tell." from- MSMG [p:18]

Jul-11-12  Petrosianic: Openings go in and out of fashion, as new lines are discovered. Another example is the King's Indian, which was almost unplayable at one point, until new methods of handling it were found.

When the Yugoslav Attack in the Dragon was introduced, Black was doing extremely poorly with it for a long time. Improvements have been found for Black since then, but the Dragon has never become quite as popular as it once was. It's far from unplayable, though.

Korchnoi and Reshevsky were both somewhat fond of it. Korchnoi tried it twice in his match with Geller, getting a draw and a loss out of it, but this is the game that really put him off the stuff for good.

Karpov vs Korchnoi, 1974

I think this is my favorite Dragon game. Karpov's improvements, 14. Nde2 and 19. Rd3! put the Dragon back on the shelf for a while. These days, Black's defense is based on playing h5 before White does.

Aug-29-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  TheFocus: This is game 2 in Fischer's <My 60 Memorable Games>.
Sep-12-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Conrad93: This is so awful compared to his later years. Why did Larsen allow himself to be subjected to all these issues? And you can sense a lot of arrogance in Fischer's play. He wants to play the flashiest move, rather than the best one. Just look at his mate for example.
Sep-12-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Conrad93: 15...Nxd5 Bxg7 16.Nc3+! Bxc3 17.bxc3 Qxc3 (or bxc3 which results in the same pawn structure)18.Qxc3 bxc3.


click for larger view

And if white takes with the pawn instead you have: 15... Nxd5 16. exd5 Qxd5 17. Bxg7 Qxd2 18. Rxd2 Kxg7 19. Re1 e6.


click for larger view

Both positions are theoretically drawn.

Sep-12-12  Jim Bartle: "This is so awful compared to his later years."

Let's see. A 15-year-old kid defeats one of the world's top players, and all you can do is think to criticize him. Naturally his play got stronger as he became an adult, but this is plenty good. Not his fault if Larsen errs.

Sep-12-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Garech: <Conrad>

From My Sixty Memorable Games:

"15...Rac8? The losing move. After the game Larsen explained he was playing for a win, and therefore rejected the forced draw with 15...Nxd5 16.Bxg7 Nc3+ 17.bxc3 (17. Bxc3 bxc3 18.Qxc3 Qxc3 19.bxc3 Rfc8 renders White's extra pawn useless). 17...Rab8! 18.cxb3 Qxb4+! 19.Qxb4 Rxb4+ 20.Bb2 Rfb8 etc. After 15...Nxd5, however, I had intended simply 16.exd5 Qxd5 17.Qxb4, keeping the game alive."


click for larger view

Fritz 12 agrees that this is the strongest approach.

Incidentally, Fisher also points out that 31.Qd6+ was a mistake and that Qh6+ of course mates quicker.

He beat Larsen 6-0 - I'd say it was more confidence than arrogance. Larsen was a gifted player but Fischer was at untouchable heights.

Cheers,

-Garech

Sep-12-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Garech: P.s. - my mistake; I thought this was from the 1972 candidates, but as <Jim> points out above, it perhaps even makes it more impressive that Fischer crushed Larsen at such a young age.

-Garech

Sep-12-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  perfidious: < RookFile: It's not the same thing. Fischer slapped Larsen around....>

The score between these players in serious games was only 3-2 in Fischer's favour before the match at Denver. One would think that this hardly qualifies as Fischer 'slapping Larsen around.'

It should be noted that in that match, Larsen could have forced draws in more than one game if he had wished, but as Levy noted, Larsen was an outstanding practical player who realised this would merely get his opponent one step closer to the goal.

Sep-12-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  RookFile: Except that the context of that old discussion, established by zugzwangovich, was <career results>. The results are what they are - yes, Larsen might have forced a couple of draws. If he had, you still look at the career results and say that Fischer slapped him silly, when viewing their carer results as a whole.
Sep-13-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  Garech: <perfidious>

It's a little unusual not to include this very significant match in their overall career scores against each other. According to the CG database, Fischer beat Larsen 10-2 in classical games, with one draw.

I'd be very interested to know where Larsen could have forced draws in their match? All six games were crushing victories for Fischer that, at least optically, look without hope for Larsen.

Cheers,

-Garech

Sep-13-12
Premium Chessgames Member
  SteinitzLives: I never get tired of replaying this game. The maturity of young Fischer's play seen in the prophylactic moves first, respecting Larsen's attacking chances, followed by forcing move after forcing move to complete the victory is not only fundamentally instructive, but a real joy to see.
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