Florin Gheorghiu vs Bobby Fischer (1970)

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Florin Gheorghiu vs Bobby Fischer
Siegen Olympiad Final-A (1970), Siegen FRG, rd 2, Sep-15
King's Indian Defense: Saemisch Variation (E80) · 1/2-1/2

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 2 OF 2 · Later Kibitzing>
Nov-21-05		MoonlitKnight: Fischer's last trap was 56.Kf4?? Bh6+ and black wins.

Mar-30-09		WeakSquare: Gheorghiu beat Fischer with Samisch Nimzo and Samisch KID.

Jun-10-09		Brown: <WeakSquare> Do you have the score of the win in the Samisch KID? It's not in the database.

Oct-18-09		WhiteRook48: why would Gheorghiu play 56 Kf4??

Oct-19-09		Peter Nemenyi: <Gheorghiu beat Fischer with Samisch Nimzo and Samisch KID.> Only thirteen men beat Fischer more than once in formal play, and Gheorghiu wasn't one of them. So either this alleged victory by Gheorghiu in a KID was a casual game, or--as I strongly suspect--it doesn't exist.

Oct-19-09		virginmind: yes, gheorghiu has equal score with fischer: one win(in havana olympiad '66), one loss and two draws. as about casual games, i don't know.

Jan-08-10		Fusilli: <Peter Nemenyi: ... Only thirteen men beat Fischer more than once in formal play, and Gheorghiu wasn't one of them.> Is Geller the only player who has a positive score against Fischer after playing a significant number of games? According to this database, Geller beat Fischer +5 -3 =2. And after the first eight games Geller was winning +5 -1 =2!

Jan-08-10		keypusher: <Fusilli: <Peter Nemenyi: ... Only thirteen men beat Fischer more than once in formal play, and Gheorghiu wasn't one of them.> Is Geller the only player who has a positive score against Fischer after playing a significant number of games? According to this database, Geller beat Fischer +5 -3 =2. And after the first eight games Geller was winning +5 -1 =2!> There is Tal, but they didn't play after 1962. Also, the database is wrong if it says Geller ever lead Fischer 5-1. Fischer won their first encounter at Bled 1961 and also won in the last cycle at Curacao 1962 (after two losses in earlier cycles). Then Geller won three straight, at Havana 1965, and Monaco and Skopje 1967 (not sure which one was played first). Fischer got his third win at the 1970 interzonal.

Jan-08-10		Fusilli: <keypusher> You are right. If you search for Fischer v Geller (link below), cg.com tells you that Geller wins 5 v 3, but if you actually count the games, it was 5 v. 4. Since I saw that the last two were Fischer wins, I assumed Geller was 5-1 at some point. If Fischer's win at Curacao 1962 came before Geller's two wins at Curacao 1962 then Fischer won five games straight: 2 in Curacao, Havanna 1965, Monaco 1967 and Skopje 1968: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ches... What do all those games in Curacao mean, btw? Can you refresh my mind? I know 2 must be the interzonal, but what are the other two?

Jan-08-10		arctic tern: <If you search for Fischer v Geller (link below), cg.com tells you that Geller wins 5 v 3, but if you actually count the games, it was 5 v. 4.> That's because one of those four wins was actually against Uzi Geller, not Efim Geller. The 5-3 record for Efim Geller is still correct, according to the cg database.

Jan-08-10		keypusher: Fusilli: Curacao was a Candidates tournament. That is how they picked the opponent to the World champion back then. The top finishers from the interzonal were put in a tournament with the ex-champ (Tal) and Keres (because he'd finished second in the most recent Candidates tournament? I don't know.). Everyone at Curacao played four games against everyone else. Fischer-Geller went like this: Fischer Win (Bled 1961), then draw (Stockholm Interzonal 1962) then Geller win (Curacao 1962), Geller win (Curacao) draw (Curacao) Fischer win (Curacao), Geller win (Havana 1965) Geller win (Monaco 1967), Geller win (Skopje 1967, but Monaco and Skopje might be in the wrong order), Fischer win (Palma interzonal 1970).

Jan-08-10		Petrosianic: <That's because one of those four wins was actually against Uzi Geller, not Efim Geller.> That's correct. There's a similar snafu in Capablanca's record against Rubinstein, since one of the games was actually a win against an unknown American player named Solomon Rubinstein. Uzi Geller was an Israeli player, famous for being able to bend bullets purely by the power of the mind.

Jan-08-10		CruyffTurn: <keypusher: Geller win (Monaco 1967), Geller win (Skopje 1967, but Monaco and Skopje might be in the wrong order)> Monaco was first, the game was 4th April 1967, Skopje was held during August 1967 but I don't have the exact date, although Fischer-Geller was played in round 2.

Jan-08-10		TheFocus: <Petrosianic> <Uzi Geller was an Israeli player, famous for being able to bend bullets purely by the power of the mind.> Aren't you thinking of the psychic URI Geller? Two different people.

Jan-08-10		Petrosianic: I believe the Monaco win, in which Geller played the Poisoned Pawn line against Fischer, was played in the last round. Smyslov drew with Gligoric quickly, giving Fischer a lock on first, so Geller decided to have some fun with a wild line. Geller won three straight games against Fischer, not 5. His two wins at Curacao came in the first two cycles. Cycle 3 was a draw, and in Cycle 4, Fischer won, although Geller had built up a winning position, wrote the winning move down on his scoresheet, then erased it and played something else.

Jan-08-10		keypusher: <Aren't you thinking of the psychic URI Geller? Two different people.> Given that Uzi is a famous make of gun, and Uri bent spoons, I am going to go out on a limb and guess Petrosianic was joking.

Jan-08-10		markwell: Some people are immune to irony.

Jan-08-10		TheFocus: But I am not immune to lead.

Jan-08-10		CruyffTurn: <Petrosianic: I believe the Monaco win, in which Geller played the Poisoned Pawn line against Fischer, was played in the last round.> Absolutely correct.

Sep-02-13		Zugzwangovich: What's so strong about 21...Bh1 that it gets an exclam in both the Fischer game collections?

Sep-02-13		Zugzwangovich: To elaborate: what does the bishop do on h1 that it wouldn't do on, say, a8? And wouldn't it be more flexible to put it on b7, c6, or f3 where it could shift to another diagonal if need be? Far be it from me to question Fischer's judgement, but I just can't see the reason for putting it on h1 or why that move deserves an exclam.

Sep-03-13		perfidious: <Zugzwangovich>: If Fischer had played instead 21....Ba6/Bb7, without analysing in depth, there are ideas where he could become tied up once he plays ....Nc6, with White's knight hopping to b5 and d6 with tempo gain. After 21....Bh1, it is much more difficult for Gheorghiu to activise his light-squared bishop. On the other hand, I don't understand either why 21....Bh1 rates a <!!>.

Sep-03-13		Zugzwangovich: <perfidious> Thanks for the insight, Alan, but actually the move only got a <!> in the Wade/O'Connell and Hays collections.

Oct-25-18		zanzibar: Here's a great photo of the two playing this game: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CqNObdy... It's Fischer's move, (pretty sure) after 54.b4. And there's video of Fischer striding to the board at Siegen (1970) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usg... I'm pretty sure on this, but not 100% sure.

Jun-09-19		diceman: <Zugzwangovich: What's so strong about 21...Bh1 that it gets an exclam in both the Fischer game collections?> Keeping the bishop in front of the knight allows Fischer to play Nc6 if white plays Nb5 attacking black's a pawn. If Ba8 or Bb7 white can pin the knight to the bishop with Bg2.(after Nb5 and Nc6) Bf3 is also OK instead of Bh1

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