Bobby Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster recognized as one the greatest chess players of all time by many chess players of today. Fischer was a child prodigy who dedicated himself to chess and became a legend with his skills.
Fischer, only a six-year-old boy at the time, learned how to play chess with his sister using the instructions from a chess set bought at a local candy store. On vacation, young Bobby found a book on old chess games and studied fervently. On November 14, 1950, Bobby’s mother realized his immense potential and sent a postcard to the Brooklyn Eagle to find children for Bobby to play with. The postcard was forwarded to Hermann Helms, who helped set him on his path to success. Carmine Nigro, president of the Brooklyn Chess Club, became his mentor, and Fischer joined the strongest chess club in America, the Manhattan Chess Club.
Fischer joined the Hawthorne Chess Club, led by John W. Collins, in 1956. The successful player coached many of the country’s leading players in his time. Fischer dedicated much of his time to attending the chess club and being mentored beneath Arnold Denker, future chess grandmaster.
At only 13 years old Fischer won a game that became known as the Game of the Century. Fischer won a brilliancy prize for the game, and Hans Kmoch was quoted to call the match “a stunning masterpiece of combination play performed by a boy of 13 against a formidable opponent, [that] matches the finest on record in the history of chess prodigies.” One year later he participated in eight US Championships and won every single one. At 15 years old, Fischer was the youngest Grandmaster and the youngest Candidate for the World Championship. He achieved the only perfect score in the history of the US championship with 11-0.
1957 proved an eventful year for young Fischer. United States Chess Federation published the eleventh national rating list, stating that Fischer was rated at 2231. This qualified him as a master, and the country’s youngest ever chess master. July saw Fischer successfully defend his title as US Junior. In August Fischer participated in the U.S. Open Chess Championship, defeating the opposition and becoming the youngest U.S. Open Champion ever.
The USCF invited Fischer into the 1957-58 U.S. Championship. At fourteen, Fischer became the youngest US champion in history to win the tournament. The record still stands to this day. Fischer also earned the International Master title, as the championship was also the US Zonal Championship.
The young prodigy moved on to become the youngest ever Candidate, also earning himself a rank as the youngest Grandmaster in history (up until 1991).
This game Fischer versus Ruben Shocron is from “My 60 Memorable Games” where Bobby wins by a shocking move and a pure over sight by Shocron. I played Shocron at the World Open in the late 80’s and won in a similar fashion at least similar in the sense that he did not see it coming. If you don’t have a copy of Bobby’s “My 60 Memorable Games” I highly recommend you order one from the link above before it goes out of print again!
Boris Spassky was the tenth World Chess Champion from 1969-1967. He is a successful Soviet-French grandmaster known for his flexible playing style. On seven separate occasions Spassky was a World Chess Championship candidate.
At ten years-old Spassky defeated Soviet champion Mikhail Botvinnik. Vladimir Zak, a master and trainer of chess, became young Spassky’s mentor. He became the youngest ever Soviet player to achieve first category rank, candidate master rank, and Soviet master rank (ten, eleven, and fifteen respectively).
At sixteen Spassky was awarded the title of International Master by FIDE, showing his skill at a tournament in Bucharest, Romania. Spassky shared 7th-9th place at the 1955 Goteborg Interzonal, allowing him to play in the 1956 Candidates Tournament. The match also earned him his grandmaster title, making him the youngest-ever chess grandmaster.
The events that would have qualified him for a world championship did not prove successful for Spassky. The following two Interzonals left Spassky defeated, losing him that necessary foothold to earn his way into the World Chess Championship. His following games became increasingly tumultuous. In the 1957 Soviet final, Spassky tied in 4th-5th under Mikhail Tal. With Tal, Spassky held the advantage through most of the game, but still failed and declined a draw. Spassky nearly won at the next Soviet final, but finished only half a point behind Tigran Petrosian. Spassky suffered losses and frequently found himself placing in the middle of many tournaments.
It was then that Spassky turned down his current trainer, Tolush to train beneath Igor Bondarevsky. Spassky preferred Bondarevsky’s calm strategy to Tolush’s aggressive methods. This proved a good choice for Spassky’s success. He won one USSR Championship in 1961 and shared 2nd-3rd at Havana one year later. Spassky moved on to win in 1964 at Belgrade, placing him ahead of Korchnoi and Borislav Ivkov.
Bondarevsky refined Spassky’s style and swept away his flaws. Spassky broadened his style with these teachings, and emerged a better player because of it. Spassky won the Soviet Zonal in 1964, moving him on to the Amsterdam Interzonal. Here, he tied for 1st-4th, allowing him to continue on to the Candidates’ matches.
The chess world considered Spassky to be a very flexible player, adapting to any play style with his “universal style” and caused him to hold a clear advantage over many top grandmasters. With his refined strategy he won by 7-4 in the Candidates’ Final match, defeating his previous adversary Mikhail Tal.
Spassky moved on to defeat Petrosian and held the World Champion title for three years. While Spassky later decided to play chess only on occasion, leaving his perseverance of ranks behind, he will always be known as an amazingly versatile chess player.
Very short game, however 14…Rh1 us a very hard move to find. Enjoy!
Garry Kasparov is a famous chess grandmaster who has been considered by many chess enthusiasts to be the greatest chess player of all time. He held the World Chess Champion title, became a grandmaster in Soviet and Russian chess tournaments, all while keeping his reputation as a writer and political activist up.
In his teenage [...]
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