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Bobby Fischer vs Bent Larsen
"Denver Omelette" (game of the day Oct-26-2007)
Fischer - Larsen Candidates Semifinal (1971), Denver, CO USA, rd 1, Jul-06
French Defense: Winawer. Advance Variation (C19)  ·  1-0

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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Bobby Fischer vs Bent Larsen (1971) Denver Omelette
Fischer holds out his fists to let Larsen pick who has white for the first game of the candidates match, 1971.


Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 11 OF 11 ·  Later Kibitzing>
Apr-23-20  SChesshevsky: < He's Bobby...what he's talking about.>

Guessing once he saw...f6, he remembered that if the now weaker e6 can be exploited it's probably very good.

I'm sure how Lasker took advantage of the e6 hole was stuck in Fischer's mind. But it probably got a huge memory boost when he went over the loss to Mednis where he looks like he might've got side tracked.

Jun-26-20  Howard: So, 34...Ke6 would have led to equality according to Stockfish.
Dec-30-20  areknames: In his book on the Match of the Century, Mario Monticelli writes that Fischer himself described this game as one of the best he had ever played. Any primary source for this? Not that I doubt that Bobby would have thought this mind you, obviously this game is an Ode to Chess.
Dec-30-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  harrylime: To any USER on this site who wants to put up their computer analysis re this game ...

I don't give a MONKEYS

This match was in 1971 .

Foooook off . Move on . Fischer was the best chess player on Earth back then. Live with it.

Dec-30-20  Petrosianic: <harrylime>: <I don't give a MONKEYS >

Nobody cares if you care. What an ego to think that they do. You don't even play chess, and you hate Fischer. What's your opinion worth lol lol duh lol zzzzzzzzz

Dec-30-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  harrylime: <<Petrosianic: <harrylime>: <I don't give a MONKEYS > Nobody cares if you care. What an ego to think that they do. You don't even play chess, and you hate Fischer. What's your opinion worth lol lol duh lol zzzzzzzzz>>

Petrosian lost to Bobby ...

Is this nooos to you ?? I'm not sure lol lol lol

Dec-31-20
Premium Chessgames Member
  MissScarlett: < <Bobby Fischer's chess memory, for example, is formidable. In 1971, I interviewed him in New York just after he had returned from winning a chess tournament in Buenos Aires, becoming the challenger for Boris Spassky's title. In his previous candidates' matches, he had beaten the Soviet Union's Mark Taimanov by a score of 6-0, and had followed that by absolutely pulverizing Bent Larsen, the Great Dane, by another 6-0 whitewash.>

One small problem. Fischer won in Buenos Aires in 1970, (Buenos Aires (1970)), before he'd played Taimanov and Larsen. Fischer did beat Petrosian in Buenos Aires in 1971, of course, but that doesn't fit with Schonberg's narrative.

I'm calling bullshirt on the whole quote. Doesn't sound like Fischer to me.

Jan-28-22  Justin796: If g5 was a losing move for Larsen, I feel bad for Larsen who didn't play badly at all. Kudos to Fischer who was in top form.
Jan-28-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  fredthebear: Let's eat! https://www.bing.com/images/search?...
Jul-30-22  Allanur: Bobby Fischer on this game:

"we started our first game and around the 10th move he threw something at me. He figured to catch me by surprise. But when I looked at the position, I remembered it was something that Steinitz had tried against Lasker in the 1894 championship match. If I hadn't known that position, I might have spent a lot of time figuring it out and maybe I couldn't even have done it on my clock. But once I saw the position, I remembered that I had once analyzed it, and I knew Larsen was dead. When I played the right move, Larsen knew that I knew, and he lost the game and also the next five."

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/27/...

Jul-30-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: <it was something that Steinitz had tried against Lasker in the 1894 championship match. If I hadn't known that position, I might have spent a lot of time figuring it out and maybe I couldn't even have done it on my clock.>

Anyone care to tell me what the hell Bobby is talking about?

Jul-30-22  Cassandro: <keypusher> It's bogus. Either Fischer misremembered and the game he was thinking about was between some other players, or Schoenberg's recollection is wrong. Because none of the 1894 Lasker-Steinitz games bear any resemblance to this game.
Jul-30-22  Olavi: Well that Schoenberg piece... Karpov Grandmaster at 15, Fischer playing Mecking nine years prior to 1971 (and Schoenberg duplicating Mecking's move up to the 19th!). As for this game, the quote is pure fabrication, Fischer would never misremember anything like that.
Jul-30-22  stone free or die: I'm tending to lean in <Missy>'s direction here.

E.g. Schoenberg goes on to relate a 15 minute game he played with Fischer:

<'How about a game?'' I asked. He was amused. I grabbed the white pieces, not even giving him the chance to draw for color - what the hell, he was Bobby Fischer - and played a Queen's Gambit. It was the best game I ever have played. I held out for about 30 moves, and when I resigned, it was with flags flying and bands playing ''The Stars and Stripes Forever.'' I went down with honors. The game took about 15 minutes, of which 14 were mine. He would move instantly, with a bored look on his face.

''Know what was interesting about this game?'' he asked. No, I didn't. ''Up to the 19th move, it was an exact duplicate of a game I played against Mecking in Brazil nine years ago. You and Mecking both played the same 19th move, and it looks natural, but it loses in all variations. Let me show you.'' Fischer swept the board clean, instantly set up the complicated 19th-move position and showed me six variations in a row proving why White must lose.>

Did Fischer ever play a Queen's Gambit (as Black!) against Mecking?

Jul-30-22  stone free or die: (<Olavi> just beat me to it! Synchronicity.)
Jul-30-22  stone free or die: Schoenberg - the original Jayson Thomas Blair?!?
Jul-30-22  SChesshevsky: <It's bogus.> <...the quote is pure fabrication...>

Maybe. But Fischer's recollection isn't going to be about some Winawer move order. Likely going to be much more the concept. Which I believe is that black's ...Qc7...c4...f6...Ng6 is aimed at dominating the dark squares in the center. Namely e5. The problem is that it severly weakens the white squares especially e6.

In the Lasker-Steinitz game 3 linked above. Black does get a bind on the dark squares in the center with a nice outpost on e5. Unfortunately, seems the weakness on e6 allows white to get a much better outpost.

Here, this looks like the game is mostly about light squares for white and dark squares for black. Where black does get some play. Noticeable that the black queen only lands on a light square once. With a pawn snatch late in the game. But as in Lasker-Steinitz, the light squares come out on top.

Yeah, the author and maybe Fischer probably embellished for the story. But it seems reasonable that the ...f6 dark square push, e6 hole light square advantage sunk into Fischer's mind through analyzing that 1894 game.

Jul-31-22  Olavi: <SChesshevsky> I see no similarity between the games.
Jul-31-22
Premium Chessgames Member
  keypusher: Here is a candidate.

Steinitz vs Lasker, 1896

Position after 12th move of White.


click for larger view

Aug-02-22  stone free or die: (Hmmm, is <CG> back to B&W diagrams again?)
Feb-06-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  Sergio X Garcia: Hmmm, 1896 way.
Jul-04-23
Premium Chessgames Member
  PawnSac: When playing through the game, I was really wanting white to play 21.Bd6! mainly to keep the rook off e5 and to break communication between the Qc7 and h2, but also to counter ..Nf4 . I was perplexed to see Bobby's move was Bf3, and thought i was missing something. But Stockfish did in fact prefer Bd6. So I tried to fathom what Bobby saw that I missed. I couldn't find the answer. I think he was so tactically advanced that he could find alternate pathways to positions that it really didn't matter. I was just content that SF agreed with my instinct. But one can only imagine what its like to rise above the standard as he did.
Nov-13-23  keithbc: I have several sources to this game and most give black's 34th as f4 (not g5). The move on this site is also g5 but this loses quickly and it is not a move the engine agrees with (well perhaps 10th choice) so I am querying that 34. g5 was NOT played!
May-08-24  DanLanglois: After 20...Kf6:


click for larger view

Fisher misses 21. Bd6!, plays 21. Bf3? Loses all advantage, which was overwhelming, all edge now gone.

21...Ne5 22. Qd4 Kg6 23. Rxe5 Qxe5 24. Qxd7 Rad8 25. Qxb7 Qe3+ 26. Kf1 Rd2 27. Qc6+ Re6 28. Bc5 Rf2+ 29. Kg2 Rxg2+ 30. Kxg2 Qd2+ 31. Kh1 Rxc6 32. Bxc6 Qxc3 33. Rg1+


click for larger view

For all that has happened, White has no edge here.

33...Kf6 34. Bxa7


click for larger view

And Black plays 34...g5?


click for larger view

The move was 34...Ke6. Now Black is in trouble again.

Dec-01-24  andrea volponi: dopo 34Bxa7 (=) patta 34...Qxc2- a5 Qd2! -a6 c3 -Bb7 c2 -Rf1 f4 -Bg1 Qe2 -Rxf4+ Kg6 -Rf2 Qxa6 (=)
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