| Apr-30-04 | | Gypsy: This is the game.
"...After the Mar del Plata tournament Fischer and I spent two weeks in Buenos Aires. We lived in the same hotel and became friends. We even began to prepare together for our next tournament in Santiago. One day, I showed Bobby my new secret weapon---a variation of Sicilian I wanted to play as Black. I had found some interresting complications associated with a piece sacrifice and it all looked very sweet. Fischer did not spare his prize. But later he found a 'hole' in my analysis, and a mighty serious one! The main suprise was White's and it led straight to a mate. "Fischer kept mum about his discovery. He just recorded the whole variariation into his notebook with a note: 'Use on Pachman!' But the tournament draw did not favor him at Santiago; this time he had the black pieces and thus could not use his discovery on me. I have not lived through many games as the one we played Santiago: We were together at the lead of the tournament, moreover Bobby also wanted to revenge his defeat from Mar del Plata. He sacrified a piece and immediately followed by sacrificing a rook. It looked awfully close to a mate, but my king ran accross the whole chesssboard to safety. Bobby wiped pieces of the board, and bolted without first signing his resignation. "In the next round, I played Sanchez from Kolombia. He is an oponent that plays each game 'uncompromisingly for a draw'. I was therefore overjoyed when I pulled him into Sicilian; moreover I pulled him into the variation where I had prepared my secret weapon. Of course I went for the compliations, but then came a suprise and end---my king was in mortal troubles. Incomprehending, I stared at my oponent that showed such attacking genius. And, from behind my back, Bobby exploded in jubilation: 'Thas was not Sanchez that beat you; I blew that variant appart! He just payed what I showed him. How very nice!!!..." (Ludek Pachman) Fischer was fifteen at that time. |
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May-01-04
 | | jaime gallegos: nice story Gypsy... and its completely true ! |
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| May-01-04 | | Gypsy: There actually is a "companion game", Jaurequi-Fischer or Fischer-Jaurequi from the Santiago tournament, with "karmic ties" to this one. This database does not seem to contain it, though. Can you think of a way to trace that game down, <jaime>? |
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Apr-28-05
 | | Benzol: <Gypsy> Try Jauregui Carlos vs Fischer, 1959 |
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| Apr-28-05 | | Gypsy: Thx <Benzol>. It does fit Pachman's description. The rest of the story is now there. |
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Apr-28-05
 | | offramp: And the other game Pachman refers to - the one Fischer lost - must be this one, Pachman vs Fischer, 1959 |
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| Sep-21-07 | | RookFile: Under the circumstances, I thought Pachman defended quite well in this game. |
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Sep-21-07
 | | chancho: What Fischer did was classless. But given that he was a young kid at the time, one can forgive him for his childish actions in this game. The other stuff later on, that's another story... |
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Dec-06-08
 | | Fusilli: <chancho: What Fischer did was classless.> You know, I've been mulling over this and I still have mixed feelings about it. There was no confidentiality agreement between Pachman and Fischer, and Pachman was under no obligation to disclose his secret weapon to Fischer. Am I the only one who wonders why he did that? The most plausible motive I find was that Pachman was trying to use Fischer to find if there were any flaws in his analysis. He must have thought "hey, I got this genius here, I'll show him my new weapon and see if he can refute it; and if he can't, then it's sound". If so, he didn't see the obvious risk he was running. Other explanations make Pachman extremely naive, stupid, or just a suckup (to the young genius whom he thought was befriending.) In short, Fischer's behavior may have been unethical (and I think your word "classless" is an even better definition,) but I doubt very much Pachman deserves our unconditional emphaty. We only have his account and he's not disclosing why he showed his secret weapon to Fischer. GMs don't go around sharing their secret weapons. He was running it by Fischer to get Fischer's feedback. In fact, I would bet that he is right, and Fischer saw the refutation later. I would guess that Fischer would have generously showed him the refutation if he had seen it on the spot. It would have been his knee-jerk reaction. But Fischer thought about it later and had time to think and plot. |
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| Dec-18-08 | | Everett: Fischer was always an ugly person, with a gracelessness that almost prevented him from reaching the title. Now that computers play equally well, and sometimes with more imagination than Fischer was capable of, maybe we can move on to great players who are actually good people as well. |
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Feb-24-11
| | kbob: But where precisely was Pachman's "secret weapon" and which move was Fischer's antidote? From the database, it looks like black's novelty was 12. ...e5.
But that is not a piece sac, and I don't see the "interesting complications." Was Pachman perhaps assuming that WHITE would sacrifice with 13. Ne6? I wish Pachman had given more details. Can anyone help? |
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| Aug-24-11 | | K9Empress: "I was the one who beat you" --B. Fischer to Pachmann after the game |
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| Aug-24-11 | | K9Empress: <12.f5!> was Fischer's idea. "and now you attack him on the king-side and destroy him" he told Sanchez. white won the brilliancy prize for this game, a luxuruous gold watch. |
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| Nov-06-12 | | Eduardo Bermudez: In the next round, I played Sanchez from Kolombia. He is an oponent that plays each game 'uncompromisingly for a draw'. I was therefore overjoyed when I pulled him into Sicilian; moreover I pulled him into the variation where I had prepared my secret weapon. Of course I went for the compliations, but then came a suprise and end---my king was in mortal troubles. Incomprehending, I stared at my oponent that showed such attacking genius. And, from behind my back, Bobby exploded in jubilation: 'Thas was not Sanchez that beat you; I blew that variant appart! He just payed what I showed him. How very nice!!!..." (Ludek Pachman) I dont agree with Mr. Pachmann respect to Sanchez who simply played CHESS and won this chessgame!! |
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| Nov-06-12 | | Gypsy: All in all, looking at the tournament results, Bobby was hoisted by his own petard: <1-2. Pachman>, Ivkov (+6) 3. H. Pilnik (+4)
<4-6. Fischer, Sanchez>, Sanguinetti (+3) <7-8. Jarequi>, Flores (=) ... |
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| Nov-13-14 | | Petrosianic: <K9Empress>: <12.f5! was Fischer's idea. "and now you attack him on the king-side and destroy him" he told Sanchez.> That seems very unlikely. That's a pretty standard move for this kind of line, and in any case it comes before Pachman has had time to play whatever secret weapon he had for this variation. Almost certainly both Pachman's secret and Fischer's bust comes later. |
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| Oct-05-16 | | zydeco: My guess is that Pachman wanted to play 14....Nxe4 15.Nxe4 d5 and black will recover the piece with an active center. But then Fischer and (belatedly) Pachman noticed 16.Qg3 dxe4 17.g5 and white is threatening both 18.f6 and 18.g6. That looks like the "hole." White could also play 16.Bxd5 Bxd5 17.Nf6+ Bxf6 18.Qxd5 and I'm not sure how to evaluate this position. White has the advanced kingside pawns and I think some initiative into the endgame. Maybe Pachman really wanted to play 17....gxf6 and white's kingside progress is blunted while black gets the g-file. Pachman's maneuver with ...h6 and ....Nh7 looks like an improvisation after his initial plan didn't work out. |
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| Sep-04-17 | | 4tmac: Think you got it zydeco. Good back story, too. The line looks easy in retrospect with a computer, but white must play exactly:
14..Nxe4 15. Nxe4 d5 16. g5! dxe4 17. Qh5! wins |
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Kibitzing
sac: 36.Rg2