Author: Lawrence S. Tamarkin
Date: 09:52:38 02/16/99
Here again is the famous position in Fischer-Petrosian (7), Buenos Airies, 1971, where Fischer played 22.Nxd7+ Rxd7 23.Rc1, and petrosian replied with 23...Rd6?, allowing 24.Rc7, when Fischer won quickly. Quoting Elie Agur's book, Fischer: His Approach To Chess, p. 110; "And we move to the next game of the match, the 7th that is. This is a happy case where subjectivity and objectivity coincide to create a chess masterpiece. On the 22nd move (Pos. 158) Fischer takes the same decision he took in the 6th game (or - wiewed differently- 60 moves earier" (Guess I'll have to take a close look at this 6th game too!). 22.Nxd7+ "surprising that this exchange of the good Knight for the bad Bishop is so devestating". wrote Rueben Fine. Robert Byrne, who was in Buenos Aires, reported that this exchange "was completely overlooked by the press-room group of grandmaster analysts. Najdorf, who, a few months later, in the tornament book, extolled this decision in one word:"Magistral!"; and Suetin, Petrosians's second in that match, openly confessed that he was considerably surprised during the game "when Fischer, almost without thinking...exchanged the pride of his position, his knight at c5, for the 'bad bishop". So besides the surpising decision the move was made almost instantly! And yet with twelve moves the game was over! End Quote from Agur's book. That's a pretty amazing amount of praise for a move that it appears to me, does not even win by force! Or does it? Here is 2 sample variations I analysed with the help of Fritz5. I implore readers to try this position against your chess programs from both sides. Am I missing something obvious, or has Fritz and I, simply played this position better from both sides. Is Fischer's move really deserving of all this lavish praise (even 28 years later), now that we are scrutinizing these games with the computer's? I'm anxious for other's opinions here. BTW, if nothng else, analysing these classic critical positions with the chess programs should do much for our chess if nothing else! Instead Fritz5 plays either 23...Rb7 or 23...Re8, both lines leading to much counterplay and unclear positions. Two examples... 23...Rb7 24.a3 Rba7 25.a4 h6 26.h4 a5!? 27.b5 Re7 28.Rxe7 Kxe7 29.Rc7+ Nd7 30.Bf5 Rd8 31.Ra7 Kd6 32.Rxa5 Ne5 33.Kf2 g6 34.Bc2 Re8 35.Ra6+ Kc5 36.a4 d4, and the position is still messy. 23...Re8 24.Rxe8 Kxe8 25.Rc6 Rb7 26.a3 a5 27.b5 Nd7 28.f4 Ke7 29.Kf2 Nb8 30.Rc1 Kd6 31.Ke3 Rb6 32.Kd4 Nd7 33.Rc8 a4 34.Rg8 g6 35.Rg7 Nc5 36.Rxf7 Nxd3 37.Kxd3 Rxb5 with a lot of counterplay. Incidently, Genius6 plays Fischer's 22.Nxd7+ instantly, just like Fischer! What do other programs choose?. Fritz5 (on my now modest system (200 MhZ, 32meg edo ram), adopting all hash, takes a minute, and prefers; 22.Rae1, with one continuation being 22...Bb5 23.g4 h6 24.h4 d4 25.a3 Bxd3 26.Nxd3 Rd8 27.Nc5 Nd5, again with much counterplay... r4k2/r2b1ppp/p4n2/2NpR3/1P6/3B1P2/P5PP/R5K1 w - - 0 1 Fischer,R (2760) - Petrosian,T (2640) [B42] Buenos Aires cf Buenos Aires (7), 1971 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Nc6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.0-0 d5 8.c4 Nf6 9.cxd5 cxd5 10.exd5 exd5 11.Nc3 Be7 12.Qa4+ Qd7 13.Re1 Qxa4 14.Nxa4 Be6 15.Be3 0-0 16.Bc5 Rfe8 17.Bxe7 Rxe7 18.b4 Kf8 19.Nc5 Bc8 20.f3 Rea7 21.Re5 Bd7 22.Nxd7+ Rxd7 23.Rc1 Rd6 24.Rc7 Nd7 25.Re2 g6 26.Kf2 h5 27.f4 h4 28.Kf3 f5 29.Ke3 d4+ 30.Kd2 Nb6 31.Ree7 Nd5 32.Rf7+ Ke8 33.Rb7 Nxf4 34.Bc4 1-0 mrslug - the inkompetent chess software addict!
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