PhiI C
04-25-2005, 10:36 PM
This thread is long and may not be interesting to some but I have made it obvious what the thread is about so read no farther if you are not interested. The main years I will be referring to are 1970-72.
I know there has been lots of unfavorable publicity on Bobby Fischer and I don't want to take sides here or get into a discussion on religion, politics, hatred, etc. I want to stick with the chess playing part of it. Bobby Fischer was considered the World's Greatest Chess Player ever at one time and I think since then there is only one other man that may be considered near, at or perhaps above this level and of course that is Garry Kasparov. But if these two could have met when both were in their prime years it would have been a great close chess match too close for me to call. Of course it can never happen.
But in 1970 -72 Bobby Fischer reached his prime and was the best so far and he played the best. Boris Spasky of the USSR was the world champion and many Russians considered him the best even better than Fischer. Fischer decided to play for the world championship. Remember when it was played the Russians had just unfairly in my opinion won a controversial basketball game against the USA for the USA's first loss in olympic basketball ever and to beat the Russians' in Chess was what the USA needed. Remember Chess in Russia was sort of what American Football was to us. The Russians had held the Word Championship with several winners since 1948 and this was a Cold War Victory for them.
In 1971 Fischer played in the 5 minute world championship tournament in Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia and won with 17 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss. He was way ahead of the rest of the competition.
In 1970 he participated in the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal for the right to advance to play Bobby Fischer for the World Championship in Chess. He won that tournament in November and won it with 15 wins 7 draws and 1 loss. There were 8 such tournaments and the winners would fight to play to be the challenger for the world chess championship. This involved the greatest players that the world had at that time.
In June 1971 he defeated Mark Taimanov of the USSR with 6 wins. 0 losses and 0 draws which was an incredible score against a world challenger.
He repeated this feat against the great chess player from Denmark, Bent Larson.
Now the final fight for the world championship was played in Buenos Aires against the great Tigran Petrosian of the USSR who was a former world champion. Petrosian was the type of player that played safe and it was difficult to defeat but Fischer beat him with 5 wins 3 draws and 1 loss.
With the USSR he not only played the player but was known to play the entire Soviet machiner who would take advantage of breaks to analyze positions and try to give their player winning variations. Fischer preferred to play the lone hand and did not have help. He wanted to win on his own. Which he did in grand style.
He won the World Championship Match in September 1972 by defeated Spasky of the USSR by the score of 7 wins, 3 losses, and 11 draws. One of the losses was by a forfeit. This did much for chess in the USA.
He disagreed with the match rules in 1975 and forfeited the world championship to Karpov who later lost to Kasparov and had several close matches with Kasparov which he never won even though he once had a draw.
Fischer later played Spasky again in the 90s when he was in his 50s and won handily showing he still had most of his great skills even Spasky had slipped a little.
A remarkable player who could memorize his games even some played years before plus he could play up to 32 moves ahead.
I know he has received some bad publicity and maybe it is deserved but the purpose of this thread is to let everyone know what he did for a brief period in 1970-72 when he proved that up to that time and maybe for all time that he was the world's greatest chess player.
I know there has been lots of unfavorable publicity on Bobby Fischer and I don't want to take sides here or get into a discussion on religion, politics, hatred, etc. I want to stick with the chess playing part of it. Bobby Fischer was considered the World's Greatest Chess Player ever at one time and I think since then there is only one other man that may be considered near, at or perhaps above this level and of course that is Garry Kasparov. But if these two could have met when both were in their prime years it would have been a great close chess match too close for me to call. Of course it can never happen.
But in 1970 -72 Bobby Fischer reached his prime and was the best so far and he played the best. Boris Spasky of the USSR was the world champion and many Russians considered him the best even better than Fischer. Fischer decided to play for the world championship. Remember when it was played the Russians had just unfairly in my opinion won a controversial basketball game against the USA for the USA's first loss in olympic basketball ever and to beat the Russians' in Chess was what the USA needed. Remember Chess in Russia was sort of what American Football was to us. The Russians had held the Word Championship with several winners since 1948 and this was a Cold War Victory for them.
In 1971 Fischer played in the 5 minute world championship tournament in Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia and won with 17 wins, 4 draws and 1 loss. He was way ahead of the rest of the competition.
In 1970 he participated in the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal for the right to advance to play Bobby Fischer for the World Championship in Chess. He won that tournament in November and won it with 15 wins 7 draws and 1 loss. There were 8 such tournaments and the winners would fight to play to be the challenger for the world chess championship. This involved the greatest players that the world had at that time.
In June 1971 he defeated Mark Taimanov of the USSR with 6 wins. 0 losses and 0 draws which was an incredible score against a world challenger.
He repeated this feat against the great chess player from Denmark, Bent Larson.
Now the final fight for the world championship was played in Buenos Aires against the great Tigran Petrosian of the USSR who was a former world champion. Petrosian was the type of player that played safe and it was difficult to defeat but Fischer beat him with 5 wins 3 draws and 1 loss.
With the USSR he not only played the player but was known to play the entire Soviet machiner who would take advantage of breaks to analyze positions and try to give their player winning variations. Fischer preferred to play the lone hand and did not have help. He wanted to win on his own. Which he did in grand style.
He won the World Championship Match in September 1972 by defeated Spasky of the USSR by the score of 7 wins, 3 losses, and 11 draws. One of the losses was by a forfeit. This did much for chess in the USA.
He disagreed with the match rules in 1975 and forfeited the world championship to Karpov who later lost to Kasparov and had several close matches with Kasparov which he never won even though he once had a draw.
Fischer later played Spasky again in the 90s when he was in his 50s and won handily showing he still had most of his great skills even Spasky had slipped a little.
A remarkable player who could memorize his games even some played years before plus he could play up to 32 moves ahead.
I know he has received some bad publicity and maybe it is deserved but the purpose of this thread is to let everyone know what he did for a brief period in 1970-72 when he proved that up to that time and maybe for all time that he was the world's greatest chess player.