Bobby Fischer's 21-move brilliancy

Hello everyone, I'm Jerry. On December 18, 1963, 20-year-old Bobby Fischer, playing with the Black Pieces, already a very well-established Grandmaster, to say the least, created a 21-

move

brilliance against Robert Byrne. Byrne, at the time of this game, was an International Master. Less than a year after playing this game, Byrne became a Grandmaster. This game was played at the United States Chess Championship, held in New York. This was a third round game. Fischer won his first two rounds and would not stop winning. Fischer would go a perfect 11 for 11 at the 1963-64 United States Chess Championship. In fact, this tournament lasted until the New Year.

Just to put this dominant performance into perspective, as that big ball dropped in New York to celebrate the New Year, Fischer had already won this tournament. They couldn't catch him. His closest competitor was Larry Evans once the final standings were reached. Larry Evans was three and a half points behind Fischer. Seven and a half out of eleven. One last note is that this performance is one of those honored today at the United States Chess Championship. There is something called the Fischer Prize for this great performance. The Fischer Prize is awarded to any player who is brilliant enough to achieve perfection in the United States Championship.

That hasn't happened yet. Nobody has turned out perfect. Or in other words, no one has received that $64,000 prize. Let's dig in and see the brilliance of this third round. Byrne starts with d4 and establishes a strong foothold in the center. Fischer does not allow an ideal pawn center. c4. Both players prepare a fianchetto on the kingside. And Fischer is in no hurry to turn his back completely. Normally, g6 is immediately followed by the bishop g7, but not here. c6 instead. Black is taking time to ensure that he too can establish a foothold in the center of d5.

Black must be timely with this if he wants to establish a pawn in the center. Playing bishop g7 and c6 just one

move

later, well, now Black has to deal with a trio of pawns. So first it's c6, then d5 and there we go. A d4 versus d5 battle. Knight c3, now come some natural moves. Only at this stage, move 6, bishop g7. e3, castling, knight to e2, knight c6, castling, and what should each side do with the bishops? Let's see, b6, b3, we have a bit of imitation. Bishop a6, bishop a3, when will this end? We are 11 moves in and only 10 moves out before this game ends.

This is a very interesting position. It's amazing to me, before reviewing the game, I knew that there are 21 moves, and at this point we are on move 11, and take note of the great symmetry that is present in this position. Take note specifically of file a, file b, file c, file d, file g, and file h. What's going on with all those files? If you're going to draw a horizontal line that cuts between rows 4 and 5, and you fold this board back on itself, those six highlighted rows, the pieces, the pawns, will map to each other. There is symmetry with each of those six highlighted files.

Why am I drawing attention to this? It is because we need to examine this position where there are imbalances. It is very common that in very symmetrical positions, like this one, things go very slowly. It's often a game of maneuvering, not a lot of, say, grand tactics or fireworks. Things, of course, can change, but there's a lot of symmetry here, so to, let's say, establish a plan, you know, what white people should do, what black people should do, we need to focus on where there is where there is differences, where there are imbalances. Where there are imbalances in this position is in the f file and the e file.

So I just want to draw attention to where exactly there are differences. The differences in this position lie with the king knights. Your posts are differences. They do not coincide, let's say, with each other if we had to retreat from this board, nor would the e-pawns. This is where there are some differences, okay? So, paying some attention to these differences, let's look at how a plan might be formulated. Fischer's eleventh move is the rook to e8. Now there are a couple of ideas behind this. One, you're getting out of a jam. You don't want that sniper to take out the rook as soon as the pawn moves, so that the rook is on a better square.

And Fischer is ready to set the e-pawn in motion and say, you know what? Your pawn took a step. I'm going to show you how to move an e-pawn. I'm going to take two steps and attack in the center, create some tension, some heat on that d4 square. So this is what Black has in mind, and a little later we will see that the third place knight will play a very important role against the second place knight. Being just one rank higher on the board will be important. Follow the queen to d2, move 12, e5 on board.

This is a very tense moment right here. After shots, shots, we now have a big imbalance. It doesn't take much for things to change in a big way in a chess position. An exchange of pawns and a major reassessment must be made. Now we have a case where Black has an isolated pawn. This is a potential, you know, there's always this question: Is it a liability? Is it an asset? It is to be determined. Black currently enjoys a little more space. Black with his last move has improved the knight in a row. This knight is still sitting on the c3 square.

Let's see what's next. Rook in f to d1. You know, do you move this tower here or this tower here? It seems to make a lot of sense to move this rook here, and with the idea of ​​playing the other rook here, another reason for making that move is to get out of a pin just like Black did with the rook to e8. Very well, get out of danger, get out of the bishop's line of fire. But there is a problem with this decision. The best move here for White is to get the other rook to d1, and this will soon become evident.

We will soon see why this is so. So f-rook to d1, half-open file, throwing a few more pieces on that d5-pawn, that isolated pawn. And now Fischer jumps to this nice intersection on d3. And this knight, sometimes known as the octopus knight, actually attacks many squares within White's position. And, well, a couple still at home here, both e5 and c5. He is attacking many different squares and there is one that is extra sensitive. The queen follows c2 and now we have the knight that takes f2. And what we're looking at now is a difference between, you know, at that time, where, you know, which rook should maybe go to d1.

If this tower was still at f1, this capture at f2 would not be enough. It would be bad because the rook can capture the knight. But since this rook is now here on d1, the sacrifice is working. This is a winning shot and the fireworks aren't over yet. The king is now attracted and now accessible to what? That gentleman in third place. That guy on f6 now attacks. Knight g4 check. King g1. The knight takes e3. What do we call that? It's a familiar fork that hits everything. The queen is saved and we obviously take the rook.

Or us? This is one of the last major decision points for Team Black. Do you take the tower or not? You take the rook, you take the bishop. which one would you take? You probably already know where I'm going with this. The rook in your hand is worth 5. The bishop in your hand is worth 3. But given this position, we must look at the pieces in a different way. This bishop is... well, he is fianchetto. He is on the king's side, and that is where the white king also resides. This bishop has more like 4 points, 4.5, maybe even more.

It is invaluable in this specific case. He is an incredibly important defender for the white king. Fischer understood this and captured the bishop. Taking the rook leads to an equal position. Actually, he is saying that white would be a little better. He eliminates the bishop, not the rook, the bishop. The king takes the knight and now there is only one good move for Black to maintain a decisive advantage. If you want, he goes ahead and pauses the video. See what move he would make here with black. Well, the move made by Fischer, move 19, is d4. Now, if you've spent any time in that position, I think there's a good chance that comes to mind, especially if you lean on my advice above about identifying imbalances.

Let's take a step back here. d4 was this last move, but why is d4 played now? Well, where is there a big imbalance here? Let's take a look at the parts. Where is the white piece that will fight against Black's light square bishop? Does not exist. Black took that guy out. White does not have his light square bishop. If Black can activate his light square bishop on the main diagonal, the light square diagonal from corner to corner, good things will probably happen. White is going to be in serious trouble. So you don't play here first because the knight d4, and that's like the soupless move for you.

That pawn isn't going anywhere, okay? First, Black makes sure that this file opens directly toward the white king. The knight takes the pawn, the bishop b7 passes. King is played to f1. In one variation, we are one move away before White actually gives up. In the game you play king in f1. If king g1 is played, the bishop would take the knight, the queen would take the bishop and now we would have a very good deflection tactic. Where is the defender? It's the tower. He is defending the queen. We try to divert the defender, the e1 rook.

Rook takes rook would meet queen takes queen. And on king f2, we take the queen, and then we would take the rook in the corner. Not only does Black have an advantage in the exchange, but he also has a pawn in his pocket. But no king was played to g1. King f1 was played in the game. There aren't too many great options here. That bishop is a murderer who stabs directly at the white camp. Queen to d7, move 21 is the last move. Byrne at this point resigns. He knows what's coming and Fischer knows what's coming too.

There is a beautiful, brilliant sacrifice, or a beautiful combination that is just around the corner in this final position of round 3. Fischer was said to be, quote, bitterly disappointed, end of quote, after his opponent quit . He wanted to, you know, play this position. Why exactly? Well, this is the variation he wanted to happen. The big threat here is that the black queen is ready to attack the white king's position on h3 with a punch. And from that position, the movement of a bishop to h6 is facilitated, which is absolutely deadly. If we take a look, currently the rook is taking away squares from the king, these two.

The bishop is taking it away. The queen, when she places herself on h3, would be removing the square the king is currently on. And there are only two other squares that Black would need to control before giving checkmate: g1 and f2. Who would do that? The bishop, and that's how he would come in, pivoting on e3 and controlling those other two squares. This is the variation that Fischer observed. He wanted to see White continue playing, play the queen to f2, basically move out of the bishop to move h6. The queen h3 would follow, the king g1, and now we would have an absolute star move in this position.

Again, if this really happened, this is a good time to go ahead and pause the video. What would be the winning shot in this position? Go ahead and pause the video if you want. Well, the winning shot from here is from rook to e1. The queen, let us keep in mind, has a great responsibility, that is, defending the checkmate. The rook takes the rook, and now the bishop takes the knight. The queen is nailed to the king. The queen takes the bishop and the queen takes g2. Game over. Although it didn't go that far. In a way I understand, yes, I am bitterly disappointed.

I think it would have been cool to see it actually accomplished, you know, pulling off just a couple more moves, but I thought this game is just fantastic. Eleven comes in, there is a lot of symmetry present. Ten moves later, the game is already over. How quickly things can change. An imbalance present in the position can really change things. It's important to recognize those imbalances and, yes, that can help you ultimately make a plan and come up with a good strategy. Anyway, as always, feel free to leave any comments about this video in the comments section below.

I hope you're having a great day and I'll see you soon. That is all for now. Take care. Bye bye.