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 years, Kasparov tied twice for first place in the USSR Chess Championship. He won a superclass-level international tournament in 1982. He moved on to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. At nineteen Kasparov was the youngest Candidate since 1958, when Bobby Fischer qualified at 15. At this age, Kasparov was also the #2-rated player in the world beneath World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov.

In 1985, Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion, holding the FIDE world title until the creation of the Professional Chess Association, an organization created to rival FIDE. Kasparov held his “Classical” world Chess Champonship until 2000, when Vladimir Kramnik defeated him.

Another claim to fame for Kasparov is his past of playing chess matches with computers designed to calculate thousands of moves at once. He lost in 1997 to the computer Deep Blue, making him the first world chess champion to lose a match to a computer. In 1998, Kasparov has been considered the creator of Advanced Chess, the games in which a human plays with a computer.

Kasparov has left a lasting mark in chess history. In January 1990, Kasparov broke Bobby Fischer’s FIDE rating (2795) with his own (2800). Kasparov’s high FIDE rating increased in later years.  He held his record until 2008. Chessmetrics considers Kasparov to be most highly rated player in the world from February 1985 to October 2004.  He still holds his record for spending the longest time as the #1 rated chess player in the world, which he held until his retirement from chess. He also holds the record for consecutive tournamnt victories.

Kasparov retired from chess n 2005, deciding to become more politically active. Kasparov formed the United Civil Front movement, and became a member of The Other Russia, which is a coalition formed to oppose Vladimir Putin and his administration. In 2008 Kasparov ran as a presidential candidate for Russia, but withdrew, unable to gather 500 supporters in a single meeting hall. Kasparov is considered very unpopular as a political activist.

Kasparov currently his retirement coaching the world’s number-one ranked player, Magnus Carlsen.

In his teenage years, Kasparov tied twice for first place in the USSR Chess Championship. He won a superclass-level international tournament in 1982. He moved on to qualify for the Candidates Tournament. At nineteen Kasparov was the youngest Candidate since 1958, when Bobby Fischer qualified at 15. At this age, Kasparov was also the #2-rated player in the world beneath World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov.

In 1985, Kasparov became the youngest ever undisputed World Chess Champion, holding the FIDE world title until the creation of the Professional Chess Association, an organization created to rival FIDE. Kasparov held his “Classical” world Chess Champonship until 2000, when Vladimir Kramnik defeated him.

Another claim to fame for Kasparov is his past of playing chess matches with computers designed to calculate thousands of moves at once. He lost in 1997 to the computer Deep Blue, making him the first world chess champion to lose a match to a computer. In 1998, Kasparov has been considered the creator of Advanced Chess, the games in which a human plays with a computer.

Kasparov has left a lasting mark in chess history. In January 1990, Kasparov broke Bobby Fischer’s FIDE rating (2795) with his own (2800). Kasparov’s high FIDE rating increased in later years.  He held his record until 2008. Chessmetrics considers Kasparov to be most highly rated player in the world from February 1985 to October 2004.  He still holds his record for spending the longest time as the #1 rated chess player in the world, which he held until his retirement from chess. He also holds the record for consecutive tournamnt victories.

Kasparov retired from chess n 2005, deciding to become more politically active. Kasparov formed the United Civil Front movement, and became a member of The Other Russia, which is a coalition formed to oppose Vladimir Putin and his administration. In 2008 Kasparov ran as a presidential candidate for Russia, but withdrew, unable to gather 500 supporters in a single meeting hall. Kasparov is considered very unpopular as a political activist.

Kasparov currently his retirement coaching the world’s number-one ranked player, Magnus Carlsen.

This game is known as “Kasparov’s Immortal” take a few moments to play over this game you’ll understand why.

Reuben Fine was one of the greatest chess players in the world from mid 1930 to the 1940s. He was an expert in both psychology and chess. At age eight, young Fine learned to play and began playing at the famous Marshall Chess Club in NYC. After much practice, Fine became a blitz chess expert, becoming one of the best in the world as a young adult. He was able to hold his own in blitz chess against Alekhine, the then world chess champion. Even before Fine reached adulthood, he won a U.S. Open Chess Championship at Minneapolis in 1932, scoring half a point ahead of Samuel Reshevsky. Fine went on to win six more U.S. Open Chess Championships.

After winning the U.S. Team Selection tournament in New York, Fine was able to represent the US in chess Olympiads, winning five medals (including 3 gold medals in team competitions).

During WWII, world championship matches were withheld, leaving Fine to pursue different goals. He played a few serious American events and won, but found that money spent on chess wins were difficult to find. Fine instead pursued writing as a way of earning his living, writing Basic Chess Endings, a book that has been considered one of the best works on endgame analysis more than 60 years after its publication. He also produced The Ideas Behind the Chess Openings, which is a useful book for understanding chess openings, though it is badly dated.

After the war, Fine completed his doctorate in psychology and returned to competitive chess. After numerous successes, FIDE named him an International Grandmaster. After Alex Alekhine’s death in 1946, the World Chess Organization also invited him to participate in the upcoming championship to determine the new champion. Fine claimed that he could not interrupt his further studies in psychology, though it has also been speculated that he was suspicious that the three Soviet Union participants in the championship would ensure victory for one of their own. Fine told Larry Evans, a GM in Chess Life, “I don’t want to waste three months of my life watching Russians throw games to each other..”

Despite the fact that, in Fine’s time, the World Chess Organization did not formally record chess ratings, we can retrospectively view his work and determine his score. Chessmetrics.com ranks Fine in the world’s top ten players from March 1936 to October 1942, then again from January 1949 to December 1950. The periods of absence from the top ten players did not mark Fine’s failings, but rather his disappearance from an active chess life in October 1942, and his reappearance in January 1949. Fine ranked as #1 from October 1940 to March 1941, and was placed in the top three from December 1938 to June 1942.

 
Notes by Fine