Travis Bickle: Why Fischer was the best. Here are some amazing stats on Bobby.The road to the world championship
Before the Interzonal, in March and April 1970, the world's best players competed in the USSR vs. Rest of the World match in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, often referred to as "the Match of the Century." Fischer allowed Bent Larsen of Denmark to play first board for the Rest of the World team in light of Larsen's recent outstanding tournament results, even though Fischer had the higher Elo rating.[153][159] The USSR team eked out a 20½-19½ victory, but on second board Fischer beat Tigran Petrosian, whom Boris Spassky had dethroned as world champion the previous year, 3-1, winning the first two games and drawing the last two.[160]
After the USSR versus the Rest of the World Match, the unofficial World Championship of Lightning Chess (5-minute games) was held at Herceg Novi. Petrosian and Tal were considered the favorites,[161] but Fischer overwhelmed the super-class field with 19/22 (+17=4-1), far ahead of Tal (14½), Korchnoi (14), Petrosian (13½), Bronstein (13), etc.[161][162] Fischer lost only one game, to Korchnoi, who was also the only player to achieve an even score against him in the double round robin tournament.[163][164] Fischer "crushed such blitz kings as Tal, Petrosian and Smyslov by a clean score".[165] Tal marveled that, "During the entire tournament he didn't leave a single pawn en prise!", while the other players "blundered knights and bishops galore".[165][166]
In April-May 1970, Fischer won easily at Rovinj/Zagreb with 13/17 (+10=6-1), finishing two points ahead of a field that included such leading players as Gligoric, Hort, Korchnoi, Smyslov, and Petrosian.[167][168] In July-August, he crushed the mostly grandmaster field at Buenos Aires, scoring 15/17 (+13=4) and winning by 3½ points.[169] In Siegen right after the Olympiad, he defeated Ulf Andersson in an exhibition game for the Swedish newspaper 'Expressen'.[170] Fischer had taken his game to a new level.[171]
The Interzonal was held in Palma de Mallorca in November and December 1970. Fischer won it with a remarkable 18½-4½ score (+15=7-1), far ahead of Larsen, Efim Geller, and Robert Hübner, who tied for second at 15-8.[172] Fischer's 3½-point margin set a new record for an Interzonal, beating Alexander Kotov's 3-point margin at Saltsjöbaden 1952.[173] Fischer finished the tournament with seven consecutive wins (including a final-round walkover against Oscar Panno).[174] Setting aside the Sousse Interzonal (which Fischer withdrew from while leading), Fischer's victory gave him a string of eight consecutive first prizes in tournaments.[156]
Fischer continued his domination in the 1971 Candidates matches. First, he beat Mark Taimanov of the USSR at Vancouver by 6-0.[175] "The record books showed that the only comparable achievement to the 6-0 score against Taimanov was Wilhelm Steinitz's 7-0 win against Joseph Henry Blackburne in 1876 in an era of more primitive defensive technique."[176]
Less than two months later, he astounded the chess world by beating Larsen in their Denver match by the same score.[177][178][179] Just a year before, Larsen had played first board for the Rest of the World team ahead of Fischer, and had handed Fischer his only loss at the Interzonal. Gary Kasparov later wrote that no world champion had ever shown a superiority over his rivals comparable to Fischer's "incredible" 12-0 score in the two matches.[180] Chess statistician Sonas concludes that this victory gave Fischer the "highest single-match performance rating ever".[181]
In August 1971, Fischer won a strong lightning event at the Manhattan Chess Club with a "preposterous" score of 21½/22.[162]
Only former World Champion Petrosian, Fischer's final opponent in the Candidates matches, was able to offer resistance in their match, played at Buenos Aires. Petrosian played a strong theoretical novelty in the first game, gaining the advantage, but Fischer played resourcefully and even won the game after Petrosian faltered.[182][183][184] This gave Fischer an extraordinary run of 20 consecutive wins against the world's top players (in the Interzonal and Candidates matches), a winning streak topped only by Steinitz's 25 straight wins in 1873-82.[185] Petrosian won decisively in the second game, finally snapping Fischer's streak.[186] After three consecutive draws, Fischer swept the next four games to win the match 6½-2½ (+5=3−1).[187] The final match victory allowed Fischer to challenge World Champion Boris Spassky, whom he had never beaten (+0=2−3).[188] Fischer appeared on the cover of Life.[189]
Fischer's amazing results gave him a far higher rating than any player in history up until that time.[190] On the July 1972 FIDE rating list, his Elo rating of 2785 was 125 points ahead of Spassky, the second-highest rated player (2660).[191][192]
Bishop Berkeley 
