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Robert Eugene Byrne vs Robert James Fischer
"The Brilliancy Prize" (game of the day Jan-19-08)
US Ch. 1963  ·  King's Indian Defense: Fianchetto Variation. Immediate Fianchetto (E60)  ·  0-1


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Given 60 times; par: 27 [what's this?]

Annotations by Robert James Fischer.      [17 more games annotated by Fischer]

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sac: 15...Nxf2 PGN: download | view Help: general | java-troubleshooting

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Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 9 OF 9 ·  Later Kibitzing >
Apr-15-08   shivasuri4: <znprdx>Chess originated in India and not in China and Persia.At least an early version of chess(chaturanga)did.The Mahabharata,the world's longest epic has an account of this.That was around 3000 B.C.
Sep-29-08   ivan verdiskel: in russia we dont sit an rite about wars we could not enter due to impotence! znprdx: if war wer chess match an you didnt hav america to proteck you it woud be checkmate from muther russia!
Nov-01-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Absentee: Isn't this a Grünfeld?
Nov-02-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Gilmoy: Nah, Grünfeld has an early c5 (before d5) to mess up White on the long diagonal.

After 3.g3, Black won't try the KID pawn storm. So he must break out somewhere else. Balancing Rooks on c is draw-ish, so he's already planning the energetic e5. Then he must reinforce d5 to close the long diagonal, so 3..c6 first. That frees his QB to snipe behind White's pawn center.

A fringe benefit of the e5-break was to turn White's 11.Ba3 into a wasted tempo, since Black's KR was going to e8 anyways. More deeply, note how Fischer's BB+R found unopposed lines. Wins come from imbalance, whereas a faceoff is only drawish -- so he avoided every faceoff and straight-up trade. Byrne's QB+KR were equally "unopposed" -- and ended up with no targets all game.

Nov-07-08   normajeanyates: It is well known by now that R. Byrne's 15.Qc2?? was *the* losing move. The '??' annotation is in the objective sense: it would be a superbrilliancy to block the combination that 15.Qc2?? allowed - after all, at the moment Byrne resigned, all the GMs kibitzing were saying 'Fischer might as well resign at this stage...'

Several GMs have written on this. Run rybka or better on the fastest hardware you can access, run it for months, and see.

Nov-07-08   normajeanyates: Plus *come on*, the game *was* a Gruenfeld by transposition!
Nov-07-08   actinia: I wonder if I'm not alone in thinking this to be a much better candidate for "The Game of the Century" than the earlier D. Byrne-Fischer game.
Dec-21-08   patzer of patzers: move 21 <Byrne's reply to Fischer's next move must have been draw dropping!> lol, nice pun, though it doesn't make much sense--I don't know whether it was intentional, but surely no one was thinking about draws in this game!
Jan-04-09   WhiteRook48: It might have been, but Fischer didn't sac queen in this one
Feb-05-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  chancho: After Byrne's 21.Kf1:

<GMs in the pressroom were still arguing that White was winning.>

<Who should resign here? At this point tournament commentators GM Nicolas Rossolimo and IM James Sherwin believed that White had a won game. "Fischer has nothing at all for his piece," declared Rossolimo, one of the finest tacticians who ever lived, before a large audience.>

<GM Arthur Bisguier has said that he believes other famous positions would yield surprisingly speedy wins if we could but find "perfect" lines of play as Fischer does in this game.>

http://reason-and-rhyme.blogspot.co...

Apr-12-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Eyal: <Isn't this a Grunfeld?>

Yes, it is - or "Neo-Grunfeld", as systems where White delays Nc3 are often called. White's e3 & Nge2 lead to a rather rare setup - Nf3 would have led to something more main-linish.

Btw, it's a bit funny (or sad) how this site managed to screw up the name of the opening in both of Fischer's greatest Grunfeld games. In D Byrne vs Fischer, 1956, which is clearly a Bf4 Grunfeld, it gets the thoroughly bizarre appellation of <English Opening: Anglo-Indian Defense. King's Indian Formation> (though the ECO code given there, D92, is actually correct).

Jun-04-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  ketchuplover: 15.Qxd3 is intriguing imo.
Jul-15-09   carlchildress: I'm 72 and I never made more than 1900, so I qualify as a patzer. But someone needs to show me why "mate to follow shortly." Seems to me it should be "longly" ... if at all. So:

21. ... Qd7 If: 22. Qf2, then Bobby's notes are: Qh3+ 23. Qg1 Re1+ 24. Rxe1 Bxd4 (Here's the shortly comment.) Here's the move to prolong the game: 25. Ne4! Bxf2+ (What's better?) 26. Kxc2 Qxh2+ 27. K-f3 f5 (What's better?) 28. Rad1 (WhR must stay of E file so Bl can't take with the bishop.)28. ...fxe4+ 29. Ke3 Qxg3+ 30. Kd2 Qd3+ 31. Kc1 Rc8+ 32. Kb2 Rc2+ 33. Ka1 Qc3+ 34. Kb1 etc.

Of course, Bl had an easy win, but I can't find the quick mate. I didn't see anyone who had discussed 25. Ne4.

What did I miss?

Jul-15-09   carlchildress: Stupid fingers. In my post above, white's 26th move is Kxf2.
Jul-15-09   kurtrichards: Fischer was 20 yrs. old when he played this game. Who could say then that 9 years later, in 1972, he will become world chess champion?
Jul-17-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  ketchuplover: <carlchildress> 34...e6 35.Rd8+ Kf7 36.Rf1+ Rf2 37.Rf8+ Kg7 38.R8xf2 Be4+ 39.Rc2 Bxc2+ 40.Kc1 Bd3+ 41.Kd1 e2#
Jul-17-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  ketchuplover: A nice try for herr Byrne is 35.Rf1 e7??? 36.Rd8+ Kg7 37.Bf8#!!!
Aug-30-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  LIFE Master AJ: http://www.lifemasteraj.com/old_af-...

My analysis of this game ... the older "A.J.'s Downloads / Angelfire" link is no longer valid.

Aug-30-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  LIFE Master AJ: OOOPPPsss! Let's try again.

http://www.lifemasteraj.com/old_af-...

Oct-31-09   Qb6: Can you point me to any more "wrong rook" games?
Nov-01-09   zdhqz: why white resigned?
he could play 22.Ne3
Nov-01-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Phony Benoni: <zdhqz: why white resigned?
he could play 22.Ne3>


click for larger view

No, he can't. But if you mean 22.Nde2 or 22.Nce2, Black wins with 22...Qh3+ 23.Ke1 Qg2, and the threat of 24...Qg1# is decisive (for instance, 24.Qd3 Bh6).

Nov-05-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Tubba324: King's Indian? Hmmm?
It's indeed a Grünfeld - Fianchetto Variation (or neo-Grünfeld, as some call it). Could be perhaps be called a Slav, but never a King's Indian.
Nov-05-09   arnaud1959: The Bishop cannot be on g7 in Slav. I agree though that this is a pure Grunfeld.
Nov-14-09   Damianx: 22 Q g2 23 Re8
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Algebraic edition, 2008
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