Phil C
12-26-2006, 12:41 PM
I know there are issues with his life but I want to just concentrate on the time when he was at his peak in chess. Most chess players are the their peak in their late 20s to early 30s not that they don't play great chess the other times in their life though.
Bobby Fishcher was a great chess player especially in the late 60s to early 70s. He is the only US World Champion ever to win the World Championship in a match and when he won the title it created much interest in chess in the US.
At the time when he became a grandmaster he was the youngest person up to that time ever. When he won the World Champion he was the highest rated grandmaster ever and completely dominated chess. Unfortunately it was a short reign.
In 1969 US Grandmaster stepped aside so Fischer could compete in a zonal qualification tournament. The winners of the tournament would compete in round robin elimination matches until a world championship match with the then world champion Boris Spaskey who at the time was considered one of the top five greatest chess players ever.
In his Interzonal match in December 1970 Fishcher won it with a remarkable dominance of 18.5 to 4.5 score with a 3.5 point lead over Bent Larson, Efim Geller and Robert Hubner. Fischer was to dominite chess over these years as no other grandmaster has done so in such a dominate fashion. Even Kasparov who many consider the best chess player ever never had this complete dominance.
In the matches to follow with elimination matches Fischer beat both Mark Taimanov (USSR) and then Bent Lawson (Denmark) both by 6 - 0 scores! It wasn't the wins that were so surprising but the complete dominance. Neither opponent were able to even get a draw agains him.
The final match that would put him against Spasky was against former world champion Tigran Petrosian. Fischer won the first game of the match which brought his consecutive total to 20 straight wins. Petrosian stopped his streak by winning the second game and then there were four straight draws. Then Fischer put on the crushing blow by winning four straight games.
This set up the world championship match with Boris Spasky in Iceland. Fischer carelessly lost the first game and then forfeited the second game when he objected to game conditions. Despite being down 0 - 2 he came back to win the match 12.5 to 8.5 in convincing fashion. This created a sensation in the world as well as the USA because the USSR had dominated the world championship in chess since 1948.
Fischer was set to play Anatoly Karpov in 1975 but the FIDE who was the ruler on chess matches would not meet his demand on how the winner was to be determined. Because it would not meet his demand Fischer withdrew from the tournament so by forfeit Karpov became world champion and ironically when he was to defend his title the FIDE gave in to his demands which were the same as Fischers. Politics unfortunately ruled.
It was a shame too because I don't think that Karpov in 1975 could have defeated Fischer but of course we will never know.
But it can't be denied that Fischer not only ruled chess from 1969 to 1975 he dominated it as no one else had.
It is a shame he didn't continue his great career. I know he had personal issues in his life but as I mentioned this thread is to concentrate on the time when he was the greatest chess player ever up to that time.
Bobby Fishcher was a great chess player especially in the late 60s to early 70s. He is the only US World Champion ever to win the World Championship in a match and when he won the title it created much interest in chess in the US.
At the time when he became a grandmaster he was the youngest person up to that time ever. When he won the World Champion he was the highest rated grandmaster ever and completely dominated chess. Unfortunately it was a short reign.
In 1969 US Grandmaster stepped aside so Fischer could compete in a zonal qualification tournament. The winners of the tournament would compete in round robin elimination matches until a world championship match with the then world champion Boris Spaskey who at the time was considered one of the top five greatest chess players ever.
In his Interzonal match in December 1970 Fishcher won it with a remarkable dominance of 18.5 to 4.5 score with a 3.5 point lead over Bent Larson, Efim Geller and Robert Hubner. Fischer was to dominite chess over these years as no other grandmaster has done so in such a dominate fashion. Even Kasparov who many consider the best chess player ever never had this complete dominance.
In the matches to follow with elimination matches Fischer beat both Mark Taimanov (USSR) and then Bent Lawson (Denmark) both by 6 - 0 scores! It wasn't the wins that were so surprising but the complete dominance. Neither opponent were able to even get a draw agains him.
The final match that would put him against Spasky was against former world champion Tigran Petrosian. Fischer won the first game of the match which brought his consecutive total to 20 straight wins. Petrosian stopped his streak by winning the second game and then there were four straight draws. Then Fischer put on the crushing blow by winning four straight games.
This set up the world championship match with Boris Spasky in Iceland. Fischer carelessly lost the first game and then forfeited the second game when he objected to game conditions. Despite being down 0 - 2 he came back to win the match 12.5 to 8.5 in convincing fashion. This created a sensation in the world as well as the USA because the USSR had dominated the world championship in chess since 1948.
Fischer was set to play Anatoly Karpov in 1975 but the FIDE who was the ruler on chess matches would not meet his demand on how the winner was to be determined. Because it would not meet his demand Fischer withdrew from the tournament so by forfeit Karpov became world champion and ironically when he was to defend his title the FIDE gave in to his demands which were the same as Fischers. Politics unfortunately ruled.
It was a shame too because I don't think that Karpov in 1975 could have defeated Fischer but of course we will never know.
But it can't be denied that Fischer not only ruled chess from 1969 to 1975 he dominated it as no one else had.
It is a shame he didn't continue his great career. I know he had personal issues in his life but as I mentioned this thread is to concentrate on the time when he was the greatest chess player ever up to that time.