I am always learning something new from Yury V. Bukayev (Букаев Юрий Вячеславович). The other day he emailed me, pointing out that, "based on the importance of the win for tournament places, the importance of the tournament and the fame of both participiants of this game, it maybe, makes this win THE MOST IMPORTANT JEROME-ISH WIN IN HISTORY."
It is quite possible that if either player were alive today, one or the other might punch me in the nose for publishing this encounter on this blog - but, hey, Jerome Gambit players are imaginative and brave, right?
Robert James Fischer - Samuel Reshevsky
US Championship 1958/59 New York USA (6), 12.1958
1.e4 c5
Okay, okay, it's a Sicilian Defense. Work with me.
2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Be3 Nf6 6.Nc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 0-0
Yes, it's an Accelerated Dragon. Time for a little imagination.
8.Bb3
Earlier in the year, at Portoroz, Fischer had continued against Oscar Panno 8.f3 Qb6 9.Bb3 Nxe4 10.Nd5 Qa5+ 11.c3 Nc5 12.Nxc6 dxc6 13.Nxe7+ Kh8 14.Nxc8 Raxc8 15.O-O Rcd8 16.Qc2 Qb5 17.Rfd1 Kg8 18.Rxd8 Rxd8 19.Rd1 Re8 20.Bf2 a5 21.Bxc5 with a draw.
8...Na5
Frank Brady's Profile of a Prodigy states
'When Reshevsky played 8...Na5 the whispers in the tournament room at the Marshall Chess Club grew to a barely suppressed uproar. The move [from Bastrikov,Georgy - Shamkovich, Leonid, Sochi, 1958] had been analyzed just a few weeks earlier in Shakmatny Byulletin and many of the stronger players in the club were thoroughly familiar with it.'
9.e5 Ne8 10.Bxf7+
You have to love that Bishop sac!
10...Kxf7 11.Ne6
What is Black to do? If he captures the Knight with his King, he will get checkmated, starting with 12.Qd5+. If he resigns, he will be humiliated - Fischer was a young teenager at the time, Reshevsky was United States champion several times over.
Instead, the former child prodigy dragged his feet for another 30 moves before resigning.
11...dxe6 12.Qxd8 Nc6 13.Qd2 Bxe5 14.0-0 Nd6 15.Bf4 Nc4 16.Qe2 Bxf4 17.Qxc4 Kg7 18.Ne4 Bc7 19.Nc5 Rf6 20.c3 e5 21.Rad1 Nd8 22.Nd7 Rc6 23.Qh4 Re6 24.Nc5 Rf6 25.Ne4 Rf4 26.Qxe7+ Rf7 27.Qa3 Nc6 28.Nd6 Bxd6 29.Rxd6 Bf5 30.b4 Rff8 31.b5 Nd8 32.Rd5 Nf7 33.Rc5 a6 34.b6 Be4 35.Re1 Bc6 36.Rxc6 bxc6 37.b7 Rab8 38.Qxa6 Nd8 39.Rb1 Rf7 40.h3 Rfxb7 41.Rxb7+ Rxb7 42.Qa8 1-0
Endgame
Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall – from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness
Frank Brady
Crown Publishers (2011)
Frank Brady (who authored an earlier biography of Fischer, Profile of a Prodigy) knew Bobby Fischer. For Endgame he interviewed many people who knew the Champion – on his way up, from a young boy who suddenly "got good" at chess, aiming to be the top player in the world; through his titanic battles to become primus inter pares (and a whole lot more); to his sad and lonely last days as a pariah of the chess world, a man without a country, a caricature of his former self.
Brady's extensive research (including KGB and FBI files, and even an autobiographical essay that Fischer wrote as a teenager) allows him to paint a very human picture of his subject, one that is accessible to any reader, not just those infected with the chess bug. This is one of Endgame's strengths: Robert J. Fischer's caissiac wizardry may have unnerved his opponents, and tales of his domination on the 64 squares may have frightened non-players ("I can't even tell the horsie from the castle") away from learning about the American gladiator – but, no more.
With his efforts, the author sweeps away a number of outrageous notions that have held sway in the public's mind.
Was Bobby and idiot savant ? Hardly. Although he was intensely involved in chess, his interests also included religion and history (among other things) and he read widely, especially as an adult. He could hold his end of a conversation quite well. (If you need a fancy description, try auto didact. A high school dropout, Fischer, nonetheless, never stopped learning.)
Was Bobby autistic ? Clearly, he could be a bit unpolished in his social and communication skills, but once you side-step the jokes about chess-playing itself as "restricted and repetitive behavior" (one of the diagnostic criteria of autism) it is difficult to look at all of the relationships that he had (with Boris Spassky, as one high profile example) which included plenty of interpersonal warmth (often, heat) and reciprocity, and come up with that label.
Was Bobby schizophrenic ? That is a word much easier tossed around by lay people than applied by a professional after an evaluation. Brady quotes at least one clinician who knew Bobby who did not think so. There are several untrained acquaintances who assuredly say he was. (Certainly his life included a brand of social and occupational dysfunction, but the matter of a disintegration of thought processes is still quite dicey.)
Was Bobby paranoid ? Aha: here is where the old saying "you're not paranoid if they are out to get you" gets an extra workout. As he moved into international chess play as a teenager, Fischer was not initially as successful as he had expected and predicted. His explanation? The "Russians" were conspiring against him. Taken by many at the time as an attitude of "sour grapes", these claims were subsequently assessed by fair-minded observers – to be true.
Yet, sadly, we see in Endgame, as Bobby moved through his teens and twenties and thirties, his feelings of persecution and his world view of so many people out to get him steadfastly out-paced anything that was actually happening in the world around him. Like a summer storm that starts with intermittent rain drops, follows with an increasingly persistent shower, and finishes with a drenching downpour, Bobby's paranoia eventually drowned him.
It is easy to see Fischer through the lens of a mythical hero, a demi-god steadfastly conquering adversity and eventually attaining his life-long goal of becoming World Champion. What happens next can be filed under " once you reach the pinnacle, it's a long, long way down from the top of Mount Olympus".
What Brady does in Endgame is different, however. He humanizes Bobby, making him pretty much the boy next door. Readers, like the neighbors, can get excited as they watch the kid pile on success after success. Go, Bobby!
And, tragically, like the neighbors who always seem to be interviewed by the press after someone they know has done something horrible, we all look at Fischer's declining years and say, we don't understand, sure he was a bit quirky, but he was always kind of a nice kid, we never would have expected this...
Frank Brady's Endgame: fine reading for anyone.
