Best Chess Game Of The 20th Century

welcome ladies and gentlemen to this video on an  amazing historical game played by the chess legend   bobby fischer the year is 1956 the setting is the  martial chess club in new york city i've played   many tournaments there over the course of my life  bobby fisher is 13 years old and his opponent is   donald byrne the brother of robert byrne both  of them fantastic american talents donald played   many olympiads for the national chess team of the  united states but in this game dubbed the game of   the century now i'm just going to say that this is  probably the american game of the century because   in the 20th century there was a lot of games  also in the soviet union which were amazing but   this is the american game of the century and in  this game we get to see an early glimpse of the   genius of bobby fischer and what he would go on  to become nothing else to say let's go knight f3   played by donald uh and we're looking at it from  bobby's perspective knight f6 c4 so this is the   ready opening both knights coming out now we have  something known as a transposition so white could   have started with this pawn push but plays it on  the second move now it's an english opening black   plays g6 bobby was a big fan of putting his bishop  out this way and then ultimately fighting for the   center a little bit later and we get knight to  c3 by whites uh and here bobby plays bishop g7 d4   and castles so he finishes his full developing  setup before choosing what to do with his center   pawn so far we have no real understanding of  where his other center pawns are going to go   he's playing a very flexible setup he would  say well why would black just give up all   this center control well as chess progressed in  the kind of later 20th century and now it's 2021   when i'm recording this video i'm not sure when  you're watching in the future but um there was   an understanding that you didn't need to put pawns  into the center to fight for the center you could   actually control the center like this this is  known as the king's indian defense and you would   be able to kind of target the enemy pieces which  defended that center and slowly chip away at it   in this game after bishop f4 bobby actually plays  the move d5 so d5 is a transposition i said that   word earlier not to a king's indian defense but  something known as the grunfeld now the grunfeld   spell gru with the with the two dots uh n-f-e-l-d  is one of the most complex if not the most complic   complex openings in all of chess if you're a  beginner intermediate even an advanced player   i would say stay away from it uh enjoy chess while  you can there are so many densities i don't even   know if that's a word there's so much depth of  variations in the grunfeld defense and here donald   byrne plays the russian system now i don't know  if that was called the russian system back in the   day but this looks kind of weird because it's like  why would you bring your queen out now i take take   i mean as as beginners we're taught not to do this  we're not supposed to bring the queen out and also   make multiple moves with the queen getting closer  to our opponent's territory but this is just   one of many options white actually has a million  different options doesn't even need to go queen b3   but does that here bobby play c6 he pushes the  pawn rather than developing the knight or the   bishop because actually a move ago the queen and  the bishop both stared at that pawn c6 now white   plays e4 taking the center with two pawns defended  by this knight obviously can't be a bad move bobby   plays knight d7 again that looks strange to  the uninitiated why would he block his bishop   he's got a plan i mean we're talking about  one of the greatest players of all time right   so knight d7 maybe he wants to go to b6 later  modern day chess theory goes b5 so it's kind of   agreed upon that b5 is the best move in this  position for black to just immediately fight   back against that queen but we have knight d7  and in this position donald plays rook to d1 he   brings his rook to the middle if this pawn ever  clears out that rook will have an open line stair   like staring down at this queen but again the  modern day move is bishop to e2 and just trying   to prepare short castle so over time people worked  out the fact that bishop 2e2 is a better move or   rook d1 now so far you say well i don't understand  how is this genius i've spent almost four minutes   on this video i mean this doesn't look genius  at all i'm gonna click out don't click out   i will reward you for sticking around knight to  b6 attacks the queen and officially after queen   to c5 in the year 1956 we got a position that  had never been reached before in recorded games   maybe two drunk guys at the local bar played this  position but this position had never been seen   before up until this point the only thing that  happened was queen b3 bishop e6 and something   like queen c2 and you would say well why would you  go here here here and then just go back i know it   doesn't look like it makes any sense but the best  players somehow make it work so we get queen to c5   just lurking around the territory bobby's on his  own and he develops this bishop out to g4 now here   a rather strange move gets played bishop to g5 the  way i can summarize this move um and why it's not   great is like white hasn't finished developing his  pieces so he should do that like he should play   bishop 2e2 and just get prepared to castle but he  plays this move he's trying to get confrontational   against the guy who's already set all of bombi's  pieces are out the knights of the bishops and   the king is castle they're ready to safety so  here it's time for black to start taking action   and he takes action in a way that well frankly  is just dazzling it doesn't just finish his   development or bring a rook or something he plays  knight to a4 the first punch wait what can't that   just be taken well it can't actually in the game  we got queen a3 knight a4 attacks these two pieces   so if you take the knight literally for free and  this is the way i want you to think about chess   that knight used to guard something it guards  the pawn in the center bobby's idea was to take   hitting the bishop that just moved there punishing  his opponent and the queen and when you take the   bishop this knight has to take it and this bishop  doing something called pitting the knight to the   rook would take the rook so for example something  like queen before we would get takes takes takes   takes and even though material is equal if you  count everything it's all equal white's got two   knights and black has a rook and one extra pawn  black is crushing here because you're just going   to kick out this knight you will take on d4 and  you are just gonna open this up i mean this is not   gonna end well because white's king is stuck in  the center of the board so donald didn't want that   to happen so he went back with the queen and bobby  traded knights and you would say why did he do   that i mean he just helped white restructure the  center he traded off one of his attacking pieces   well what was his plan to take this pawn but  that opens up the bishop to see this now we got   bishop takes e7 so donald is hanging in there  in fact he's creating threats queen and rook   i don't understand so is bobby just gonna lose  material maybe that's part of the plan he plays   queen b6 and donald again doesn't bite he plays  bishop c4 wait why would he not just take the rook   well here's the idea the idea is that now i take  back with my bishop not with my rook which hasn't   moved yet i attack your queen board is a big place  so you got to move your queen so if you go back   just to try to guard this pawn first of all that  doesn't even guard the pawn i can just take it   you can't take because you're queen and king  which you negated or neglected i should say   you neglected to get it out of the center gets  punished and my bishops are laser beams i mean   crisscross applesauce down to your king the other  bishop pins to your rook you're gonna lose your   queen here so you can't do that you can't go into  this position you just cannot do it donald says   all right i gotta play bishop c4 it's the only way  i'm gonna get my king to safety i need to castle   now here if bobby had played the move just  rookie eight getting his rook out of the   way of the threat well then white would have  castled and he would have been safe and you   know black still has a little bit of momentum  but no advantage so bobby needs a forcing move   what's a forcing move in chess a check  which is an attack on the king a capture   if you capture something in the position you'll  force your opponent to respond otherwise you're   just gonna get free stuff and so bobby  plays this brilliant move knight takes c3   what what is he and for the third time in  the game donald can't take he can't take   the knight he cannot take it why why can't he  take because he'll lose a guard of his bishop   now i will play this move and if you just  lazily go back trying to guard you're paralyzed   so i can just win your rook first of all i'm going  to take this knight and you can't even take like   this because you're still guarding that so now  i've also damaged your pawn structure and then i'm   just gonna go here and pick this up and what might  happen is we'll get a position where black is only   one pawn up if you count it's only six five but  has a dominant position because white's structure   is shattered those are called pawn islands they  are big structural weaknesses you'll see that   black has these three pawns right that looks  very nice and healthy so for the third time this   game the guy cannot take the piece that bobby's  offering and instead he plays bishop back to c5   attacking the queen now bobby for the fourth time  play something brilliant what's worth more than a   queen in chess sometimes in chess you don't need  to address a threat if you can create an equal or   a higher level threat so he plays rookie eight the  king which is the most forcing move in chess right   this check is worth more than the queen so he  finds a moment to activate his rook with a check   white plays king f1 getting the king out of the  way bobby can't take the rook because his queen   is hanging but what's worth as much as a queen  you say a queen or a king right those two so   in this position bobby could theoretically  play knight back to b5 and attack the queen   because they're worth the same and if bishop  takes he would get his queen out of danger   but he finds a way here to attack white's king  indirectly what what are you talking about   the only way to attack white's king here is  to go rookie one that's certainly not the move   i said indirectly try to pause here and find  the move and i'm gonna tell you right now it's   not moving the queen i'm gonna take a sip  of water and then i'll tell you the answer in this position bobby fischer played bishop to e6 now if this is the game of the century in  american terms this is the move of this century   what what a move so for the fourth or fifth time  or whatever donald byrne cannot take the offering   he can't do it he took the queen but he can't take  this why not because i'm gonna take back because   you've cleared out this diagonal to the king  the game will end with check you can't go here   because my queen comes in and it's mate guarded  by my knight so this and now we would get one   of the most beautiful tactical sequences in all  of chess the smothered mate when you get knight   jumping into e2 the king moves and the absolutely  beautiful double check the knight avoids being   captured because the queen also attacks the king  again if the king goes here we have the same mate   even though the knight would guard from the other  side king goes here and now the beautiful queen f1   rook takes and checkmate the king smothered  by his own allies now you say that didn't   that didn't happen though right it i i would have  loved if that happened that's not what happened   but again i'm showing you that's how chess works  we have variations we have what did happen and   here's what could have happened but  that is why you can't take that bishop   because bishop takes would have led to this  unbelievable thing so donald said well damn let   me just take this queen and see what happens so  now bobby takes the bishop with the check and here   he engages in something known as a windmill which  is when you check and anywhere you move the knight   it's going to be checked by the bishop so first  he takes the free pawn then he goes back then   he checks this way and then he takes the bishop  first to create a threat on the rook and the queen   and then once the queen moves he plays rook  a4 he still doesn't take because he wants to   guard everything and finally finally finally he  takes this rook and we get h3 so the count of   material here is that black is up three points  uh the actual balance of material black has an   extra pawn two bishops and a rook that's five  plus three plus three plus one which is twelve   and they have a queen um five plus three  plus three plus one is twelve right   correct geez i thought i was doing  all my math wrong there for a second   so here we have a situation where one guy's got a  queen and the other guy's got a bunch of you know   uh soldiers trying to fight that queen let's see  how he converts rook takes pawn king moves to h2   knight takes pawn he's picking up pawns like  it's you know candy that is falling out of a   pinata now we get a simplification the rooks get  traded this is a big benefit for for bobby because   by by just trading off one of white's only three  remaining pieces that can fight in this game it's   gonna be to his benefit he puts the bishop on  d5 this is a glorious bishop standing on what's   known as an outpost square knight to f3 and here  he could continue simplifying uh but he moves   the knight back because he thinks his bishop is  stronger advances the pawn so as to avoid capture   white tries to create a little bit of flank pawn  counter play bobby shuts that down moves the king   out of the way of what was a pin not letting him  move activates his dark squared bishop the last   piece uh which has not been in the game for uh  for forever actually did that bishop ever move   this bishop after i took the bishop like 35  moves with the bishop got involved and now in   this position we have what's known as a mating net  which uh to some of us might sound nice but the   donald byrne definitely does not rook is cutting  off the king the bishops are flying around and   the night is close and now we get check king moves  over check king moves over check with the knight   king moves over knight check and now here there  are two checkmates bishop a3 and rook c2 and bobby   fischer chose rook c2 kind of in the face of the  king and the game ends with made now you can argue   that donald byron could have resigned earlier  um in fact i think most modern day grand masters   would have resigned around here because there's  really no hope but credit to him for actually   not resigning and allowing the game to be fully  played out just allowing bobby a chance to convert   or who knows i wasn't around in 1956 maybe he was  just mad maybe it was like damn i can't believe   i lost to this young whippersnapper or whatever  they said in you know in the mid 20th century but   with this game it's actually funny because  bobby didn't have a good tournament at the   marshall chess club but this was a sign of things  to come and further down the line bobby went on   to win the u.s championship and this kind of game  served as a big confidence booster uh to the young   player which really is how growing in chess works  you need that big breakthrough game i remember   my first win over a 2200 rated player a master  uh actually that game was in a brand new opening   that i had learned just months prior so that was  a huge boost of confidence and led to a streak of   good results for me um so it's all about that  first win uh against a very strong player and   esteemed opponent and this was a super impressive  victory i mean remember the year 1956 donald byrne   went on to play in the olympiad for the united  states representing them on an international level   so this guy this guy was no joke but bobby made  it look like this game wasn't even close and as   i've been saying it's a sign of things to come in  in his career so i hope you enjoyed uh if you've   made it this far in the video you are amazing and  if there's other historical games you'd like me to   cover that are not yet on my channel do let me  know in the comments below if you're new to the   channel welcome if you're returning to the channel  welcome back i've got courses that i sell on my   website in the description you can feel free to  check those out and if there's anything else that   you'd like you know that comment section is open  i look forward to seeing you in the next video

Channel: GothamChess

Views: 891,960

Keywords: gothamchess, gothamchess london, gothamchess caro kann, gothamchess openings, gothamchess vienna, bobby fischer, bobby fischer interview, bobby fischer agadmator, bobby fischer dick cavett, bobby fischer boris spassky, chess game of the century, game of the century, best chess games, historical chess games, famous chess games, bobby fischer game of the century, bobby fischer documentary, agadmator bobby fischer, bobby fischer best games, bobby fischer best game

Id: MRoTJntvv_8

Length: 16min 29sec (989 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 23 2021