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Robert James Fischer vs Mikhail Tal
"Running on M.T." (game of the day Jul-25-09)
Curacao Cand. 1962  ·  Sicilian Defense: Old Sicilian. Open (B32)  ·  1-0


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Given 18 times; par: 106 [what's this?]

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 2 OF 2 ·  Later Kibitzing >
Oct-30-07   Udit Narayan: This is a very underrated game....Fischer makes it look so easy...
Oct-31-07
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: <This is a very underrated game....Fischer makes it look so easy...>

Easy? I think this is a great game, but it looks about as easy as root canal surgery. Fischer gets less than nothing out of the opening, but just keeps grinding away.

Oct-31-07   RookFile: Kasparov actually chose this game to annotate in OMGP 4. He says that he opening was a shrewd choice by Tal, and Tal got a good position, but then Fischer outplayed him.
Nov-27-07   Tomlinsky: Just going through some endgames and remembered this peach. Bobby must have been so proud of his play here. Absolutely wonderful.
Nov-27-07   D4n: This is an absolutely wonderfuly great game...
Nov-27-07   Petrosianic: <Really? Surprising that fisher is now a paranoic freak at the edge of insanity, believing that anyone wants him dead and forth...he had a kind heart, deep inside.>

Actually, it's been suggested that he went partly to make sure Tal was really sick and it wasn't just some Soviet plot. But it's also true that he and Tal were on good terms. It was probably a little of both.

Mar-15-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  RandomVisitor: After 36.Bd6:

1: Robert James Fischer - Mikhail Tal, Curacao Cand. 1962


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Analysis by Rybka 2.3.2a mp : 30-ply

1. (0.00): 36...Nb6 37.Kg5 Nc4 38.Bf4 b5 39.Rd5 b4 40.g3 a5 41.Rb5 Kd7 42.Rb7+ Ke8 43.Rb8+

2. (0.00): 36...b5 37.Kg5 Nb6 38.Bf4 Nc4 39.Rd5 b4 40.g3 a5 41.Rb5 Kd7 42.Rb7+ Ke8 43.Rb8+

Mar-25-09   Andrijadj: It seems that nobody could defend this type of endgame against bobby...
May-24-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Eyal: <Analysis by Rybka 2.3.2a mp : 30-ply 1. (0.00): 36...Nb6 37.Kg5 Nc4 [etc.]>

Yeah, this might be the last chance Tal had to save the game - a key continuation is 38.Be7 Ne5 39.Bf6 Nd7, kicking the bishop from f6 and holding on to g6.

A few moves earlier, 33...Nf6 - allowing the white king to f4 - was already quite risky. Instead, Black could pretty much force a draw with 33...Kd7 34.Rxd5+ Ke6 35.Ra5 b6 36.Rxa6 Kxe5; 33...Rc5 34.Bxg7 Kd7 was also safer.

Kasparov, in his notes to the game, says that in a sense Tal's troubles began with 23...f5, giving scope to Fischer's bishop, though of course that by itself shouldn't have led to the loss. He could have played instead 23...exd4 24.cxd4+ (24.Rxd4 Re5) Kd7, with a blockading knight on the d5 square, in order to consolidate a minimal advantage.

Jul-25-09   Gambit All: Why not 37... Rxa2?
Jul-25-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  ROADDOG: Incredible battle, quite a sluggfest. Wonder how long the game took to play?
Jul-25-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: Petrosian didn't fare much better in a 2R&B vs. 2R&N endgame in the 1971 match (Fischer vs Petrosian, 1971), but the pawn sacrifice in this game is incredible. Who else would have seen it and tried it?
Jul-25-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  WannaBe: Yes, this is one of the best game ever, in the annals of the history of chess.

And yes, it is also true, "Bobby Fischer Goes to War", it is recorded, that Tal was ill, and Bobby was the only visitor...

What a good bood that is!

Some of the other games can also be found in "Fischer vs. Russians".

Jul-25-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Ishaan: What a game!
Jul-25-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Gilmoy: A boggling endgame: It's All About The Passed Pawn. At <25.dxe5> Fischer is already envisioning an aggressive King march to attack weak g7/g6. <28.Rcd1> He "drops" his c-pawn to re-activate his King, because he sees it's really just a <delayed exchange> for Black's undefendable g-pawn. <31.Bf4 32.Be5> is a delightful and mesmerizing way to vacate the f4/g5 path for his King, with two free tempi.

<Gambit All: 37..Rxa2> 38.Kg5 and White wins both pawns back, and has a passed pawn with close King support, which surely costs Black a piece. In contrast, White's B can single-handedly stop Black's dreaded Two Connected Passed Pawns on the Q-side. A Bishop is the only non-Queen piece that can do this, which is precisely one of its strengths in a B-v-N endgame. Conversely, White's K trumps a lone N, so Black's K-side was already hanging by a thread. Tal agreed that <38..Re6> was the only possible defense of g6.

Corollary 1: If Fischer only had an N instead of a B, then he wouldn't have dared to attack with his King vs. pawns on both wings.

Corollary 2: Fischer surely saw all that around or before 20, when he was selecting his long-term plan. <20.Rad1> hangs his a2-pawn because <It's All About The Passed Pawn On The Kingside>.

Jul-25-09   TugasKamagong: Great game, great pun! I mean, the pun's really good even if you didn't know the Jackson Browne song.
Jul-25-09   costachess: what about 11. ... f6 ?
Jul-25-09   redsoxnation: I believe Tal played Fischer evenly over the course of their games. If Tal hadn't been in ill-health after 1961, we might have seen more of this brilliant chess between two of its greatest players.
Jul-25-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  whiteshark: What's wrong with the pawn-grabbing move <32...Nxa2>?


click for larger view

e.g. <33.Rxc6+ bxc6 34.Bxg7 Kd7 35.Kf4 Ke6 36.Kg5>


click for larger view

<36... c5 37.Kxh5 c4 38.Kg6 c339. h5 c2>


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Jul-25-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  kevin86: A great one-could you expect less from two players this good?
Jul-25-09   WhiteRook48: nice endgame manuevering
Jul-25-09   tivrfoa: after 33, black was with a good position and a pawn ahead... :/ I think the problem is that white king was better placed.
Jul-25-09   MorphysMojo: Jackson Brown was a wimp on many levels, eg. song lyrics, what a whiner! Also, Brown would wistfully eye 10LB dumbbells with his sunken chest and ectomorphic body. He hardly belongs in the same sentence as Fischer; but pehaps Tal, as he was no athlete, but Tal had more fun with women than Jackson Brown ever did, despite Bronws' significantly greater opportunities.
Jul-25-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  blacksburg: omg what the heck did i just read?!?!?

i suspect that jackson browne met a few ladies in his day, but compared to Tal, who knows.

i promise you that browne pulled more tail than fischer, though. heck, i've pulled more tail in the last year than fischer probably did in his whole life.

what am i talking about here? something's gone horribly wrong on this page.

Jul-25-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Check It Out: lol the last two posts have me in stitches!

Anyways, what a game. Most the questions I had while playing through this masterpiece were asked in earlier posts, such as why not take the g2 pawn, why not take the a2 pawn, what the heck is going on anyways??, etc.

Fischer's play seems like the next level of Capablanca's game. And Tal's play is just other-worldly to me.

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Algebraic edition, 2008
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