achieve: Hola <Jess>, I'm feasting on Chess Duels as you'll imagine, and Yasser especially pulled out the stops in the first part of the book; some high literary quality there... But jumping to an anecdote that involved a Fischer-Petrosian game, Candidates Final 1971. Written by <Robert Byrne>, for a chess column:CDs (Chess Duels), page 21:
"It was during [...] in Buenos Aires with Tigran Petrosian. I was in the press center preparing my column. All the soviets were there watching the monitors and analyzing the game openly on one of the central tables. Najdorf was holding court and kibitzing after every move. Miguel thought that Bobby had a good position, and then almost unbelievably BF played [...]!?
"Najdorf practically flew out of his chair, 'My god! He is crazy!' he started yelling. 'Trading such a Knight for such a Bishop!' Najdorf held up the Knight for all to see. 'He understands nothing, NOTHING, about Chess!'
"The Soviets practically laughed and embraced themselves; they were all so delighted with what they all agreed was a terrible trade. A trade that would get Petrosian off the hook, you see?
"They all looked at me, expecting that as an American I would try to defend Bobby's decision, but I just kept quiet, explaining that I had a column to write and was too busy to come over. SECRETLY, I knew precisely what Bobby was thinking, because I had analyzed with him so often. For Bobby it was all so simple: he prized Bishops over Knights. Full stop. For him, in the resulting position his bishop was much better than the black knight. He could see that he could centralize his king, blockade the d-passer and then the rooks and bishop would coordinate better than the rooks and knight and the game is over. For Bobby, that capture of knight for bishop was like putting the last nail in the coffin.
"A few moves after the trade I was looking at GM Suetin, TP's coach, and his mouth was open and just getting more and more agape. By the time Petrosion was about to resign his jaw was nearly on the table when he whispered, 'he plays so simply'. I tried hard to contain myself, to be polite, not to laugh but it was just impossible. You see, that was the way Bobby played. Simple Classical Chess."
Fischer vs Petrosian, 1971
CDs, page 22, YS:
"There's something about this story that strikes a deep chord with me, the idea that the World Champion is a clear cut above the rest in his understanding.He has his concepts and with his moves says: 'This is what I'm about. Refute me.'"
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Wonderful, eh? Struck the exact same (deep) chord we me as well, and no doubt with millions of others who closely follow and observe one of the Legends, in any Sport, from any era.
<This is what I'm about, REFUTE ME>
That's why they become our heroes, as they continually square off in a position 99% of even expert players would flee from with their tale between their legs.
So - there's a piece from Yasser and me for you, Jess. Btw, Yasser includes (opens with) a lovely well written introduction informing us on his youth and upbringing, and that he was a very physical person, surfer, ogling girls at the beach... All the more remarkable is the fact that Yasser only first started playing chess at the age of <12>, and rocketing to the World Youth Champion in 1979, a litle over 6 years later! Earning him an invitation for Hoogovens 1980, where he won his first two rounds, second one over Big Viktor, who upon that defeat hired Yasser to become his second/coach/trainer !!
That account (on his coop with Korchnoi) is superiorly written down in CDs as well; a veritable Feast for the reader.
Kibitzing
