I thought the (last chance for some counterplay would be 23.Kh2 foll. by Rd2 -- Kh2 lifting the f2 PIN and the Rxg3 tactical shot... as well as having a f-pawn march for counterplay... maybe...

I would say that 13..Kxe7 is not a d5 controlling move rather a d6 protecting move. d6 needed protection 6 moves later! How did he see such things? Mind boggling.

No, probably not. We're talking about a backwards pawn on an open file. It doesn't take a slide rule to see that it needs protecting. 13...Qxe7 14. Rd1, and Black already needs to contort himself to hang onto the pawn, with something unnatural, like Rb6. Ugly stuff.

Much as I admire the brilliance of his play, not every move of Fischer's deserved an exclam.

Another thing that frosts me a little, especially as Raiders are one of my favourite teams, is how the media licks Mike Shanahan's feet because he has two rings.

Compare Fischer's actual performance over time with that of Lasker, Karpov, and Kasparov. All won first place in major tournaments over a much longer period of time than Fischer, and all were world champions over a much longer period also. You could also throw in Capablanca and Alekhine into the list if one looks at both their tournament performances while at their peak and the duration of their world championship reign. So in my opinion that puts Fischer no higher than 6th in the list of most "dominant" players of all time.

Could Fischer have been the most dominant player of all time? Possibly. His chess genius, commitment to the game, and work ethic were probably second to none. And he was only 29 in 1972! What he could have accomplished had he played for another 20 years! But his personal demons prevented him from establishing his dominance for a long period of time. And this would like trying to determine how dominant Capablanca could have been if his work ethic matched his talent, if Alekhine didn't become an alcoholic, or if Tal didn't have kidney ailments. We will never know.

Of the 3 links I provided above the article by Jeff Sonas, http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail..., most closely addresses the issue of "dominance" (the other 2 links address the issue of "greatest", "best", or "highest ranked" which are not the same thing). Below are the results of Sonas' 10 categories for "dominance" and how Fischer fits within them. Of course, any criteria that takes longevity into account will penalize Fischer.

(1) Longest time as world champion: Lasker (26.9) years. Second (maybe) was Steinitz depending on when you "formally" consider him the world champion; 8.2, 21.7, or 27.8 years. Fischer was 11th with 2.6 years.

(2) Largest rating gap between #1 and #2 player: Steinitz, 199 rating points ahead of Bird in 1876. Second was Fischer, 146 rating points ahead of Boris Spassky in 1971.

(3) Most years with #1 ranking: Lasker, 24.3 cumulative (active) years between 1890 and 1926. Second was Kasparov, 21.9 cumulative years between Sep-1982 and Oct-2004. Fischer was 6th, 9.1 cumulative years.

(4) Highest rating ever: Fischer, 2895, Oct-1971. Second was Kasparov, 2886, Mar-1993.

(5) Highest single-match performance rating: Fischer, 2887, vs. Larsen in 1971. Second was Lasker, 2882, vs. Steinitz, 1896.

(6) Highest single-tournament performance rating: Karpov, 2899, Linares 1994. Second was Kasparov, 2881, Tilburg, 1989. Fischer best single-tournament performance rating was not in the top 10.

(7) Most tournament performance ratings of 2820+ (50 tournaments): Kasparov, 17 tournaments. Second was Lasker, 6 tournaments (what a gap between 1st and 2nd!). Fischer was tied 5th - 8th with Alekhine, Keres, and Capablanca with 2 tournaments each.

(8) Longest straight time (years) as #1 ranked player: Kasparov, 19.8 straight years, Feb-1985 to Oct-2004. Second was Lasker, 12.6 straight years, Jun-1890 to Dec-1902. Fischer was 4th, 7.9 straight years.

(9) Most top performing years (years with the best performance rating): Kasparov, 16 years. Second was Lasker, 12 years. Fischer was 11th with 4 years.

(10) Most top 2 performing years (years with either the best or 2nd best performance rating): Karpov, 23 years. Second was Kasparov, 21 years. Fischer was tied 12th – 16th with 6 years along with Keres, Tal, Petrosian, and Zukertort (!)

I always break ad-lib the Robin Williams "Mr. Keating" quote from <Dead Poets Society> , the bit about J. Evans Prittchard, Phd and how to measure poetry, when people start quoting stats in their quest to prove their hero Grandmaster X was the greatest ever. To wit:

"Be gone J. Evans. NO! I don't want a group of chess players going about measuring chess as if it were American Bandstand. 'I'll give Fischer a 26 but I can't dance to him.'" ;-)

J'adoubovic very often thus availed himself in lost positions, so as to postpone that dreadful nought against his name in the following day's sports pages.