Bobby Fischer's 21-move brilliancy

you hi everyone is cherry 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 brilliancy against Robert Byrne burn at the time of this game was an international master less than one year after this game was played Byrne became a grandmaster this game was played at the United States Chess Championship held in New York this was a round three game Fischer won his first two rounds and would not stop winning Fischer would go on to a perfect 11 for 11 at the 1963 / 64 United States Chess Championship this tournament actually spilled over into the New Year just to put this dominant performance into perspective while that great big ball was falling in New York to ring in the New Year Fischer already had this tournament won he could not be caught his nearest competitor was Larry Evans once the final standings were in Larry Evans was three and a half points behind Fisher seven and a half out of 11 one last note is that this performance is one that is honored today at u.s. chess championships there's a thing called the Fischer prize because of this great performance the Fischer prize is awarded to any player who is brilliant enough to go perfect at the US Championship that has yet to happen no one has gone perfect or in other words no one has been awarded that $64,000 prize let's dive in and see this round three brilliancy burn kicks off with d4 strong foothold in the center Fisher does not allow an ideal pond center see for both players prepare a kingside Fein keto and Fischer is not too quick to simply swing the bat completely around typically g6 is immediately followed up with Bishop g7 but not here c6 instead black is taking some time out to ensure that he too can establish a foothold in the center on d5 black must be timely with this if he wants to establish a pawn in the center playing Bishop g7 and c6 only one move later well now black has to contend with a pawn trio so first it's c6 d v next and there we go a d4 versus d5 battle Knight c3 some natural moves coming in now only at this stage move six Bishop g7 III castles Knight to e2 knight c6 castles and what should each side do with the bishops let's see b6 b3 will have a little bit of copycat going on Bishop a6 Bishop a3 when is this going to end we're 11 moves in and just 10 moves out before this game being over this is a very interesting position it's surprising to me you know before I reviewed the game III knew it's 21 moves and at this point here we're at move 11 and take note of the great symmetry that is present in this position take note specifically to the a file the file C file D file G file and H file what's going on with all of those files if you are to draw a horizontal line that cuts between ranks four and five and were to fold this board onto itself those six highlighted files the pieces the pawns would be mapped on to one another there is symmetry with each of those six highlighted files why am i drawing attention to this it's because we need to look at this position where there are imbalances it's quite often the case that in very symmetrical positions such as this one things go about very slowly it's often in a bit of a maneuvering game not a lot of let's say great tactics or fireworks things of course can change but there is a great amount of symmetry here so in order to let's say establish a plan you know what should white do what should black - we need to focus on where there are differences where there are imbalances and where there are imbalances in this position is the F file and the e file so I just want to draw some attention to where exactly there are differences the difference is in this position lie with the King Knights their posts our differences they don't map up let's say with one another if we were to fold this board nor would the e pawns this is where there are some differences okay so with some attention to these differences let's see how maybe one could go about formulating a plan fisher's xi move is rook to e8 now there are a couple ideas behind this one you're getting out of a pin you know want that sniper taking out the rook as soon as the pawn moves so the rooks on a better square and Fischer is ready to set into motion the e pawn and say you know what you're epon took one step I'm going to show you how to move an e pawn I'm gonna go two steps and engage in the center create some tension some heat on that d4 square so this is what black has in mind and a little bit later we'll see that the third-ranked Knight will play a very significant role versus this second ranked Knight being just one rank further up the board will matter Queen to d2 follows move 12 E 5 on board this is a very tense moment right here after takes takes we now have a great imbalance doesn't take much for things to change in a great way in a chess position 1 pawn exchange and there's a great reassessment that needs to be done we have a case now where black has an isolated pawn this is a potential you know there's always this question is that a liability is it an asset it's to be determined black at the moment enjoys a little bit more space black with his last move has improved the knight by one rank this Knight is still sitting on the c3 square let's see what follows rook on F to d1 you know do you move this rook here or this rook 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 as black did with rook to e8 getting out of harm's way getting out of the Bishop's line of fire but there is an issue with this decision the better move here for white is to actually bring the other rook over to d1 and this will soon be apparent we'll soon see why this is the case so rook F to d1 half-opened file throwing some more pieces on that d5 pawn that isolated pawn and now Fischer hops into this nice intersection square on d3 and this night sometimes noted as the octopus night this is really striking at a lot of squares within the white position and well a couple ones still back on the home ground here both he five and c5 he's striking out a lot of different squares and there is one that is extra sensitive Queen c2 follows and now we have Knight takes f2 and what we're observing now is a difference between you know at that moment where you know which rook should maybe go to D one if this rook was still on f1 this capture on f2 would not be good enough would be bad because the rook can take the knight but because this rook is now over here on d1 the sacrifice is working this is a winning shot and the fireworks are not yet over the king is now lured out and now accessible to what that third ranked Knight that guy on f6 now pounces Knight g4 check King g1 Knight takes c3 what do we call that that's a family fork hitting everything the Queen is saved and we obviously take the rook or do we this is one of the last main decision points for team black do you take the rook or not take the rook you take the bishop which one would you take you probably know where I'm going with this by now the rook held in your hand is worth five the bishop held in your hand is worth three but given this position we need to view the pieces in a different way this bishop is well he's Fein kettled he's on the kingside and that is where the white king resides as well this bishop is more like four points four and a half maybe even more he's invaluable in this specific case he is an incredibly important defender to the white king fisher understood this and captures the bishop taking the rook leads to an even position it's actually saying that white would be a little bit better he takes out the bishop not the rook the bishop King takes Knight and now there is only one good move for black that maintains a decisive advantage if you'd like to go ahead pause the video see what move you would play here as black okay the move played by Fisher move 19 is d for now if you spent some time on that position I think there's a good chance you would come up with that especially if you kind of leaned on my earlier advice about identifying imbalances let's just take one step back back right here D for was this last move but why is D for played right now well where is there a great imbalance here let's have a look at the pieces where is the white piece that will combat blacks light square bishop it doesn't exist black took that guy out white is without their light square bishop if black can activate their light square bishop on the main diagonal the corner to corner light square diagonal good things are probably going to happen white is going to be in some serious hot water so you don't play here first because 94 and that's like the no soup for you move that pawns going nowhere okay first black make sure this file will be opened right towards that white King Knight takes pawn bishop b7 check King to f1 is played variation where one move out before white actually resigns in the game King to f1 is played if King Ji Won is played we would have Bishop takes Knight Queen takes bishop and now a very nice deflection tactic where's the defender it's the rook it's defending the Queen we try to deflect the defender rook e1 rook takes rook would be met with Queen takes Queen and on King f2 we take the Queen and then we would take the rook in the corner black is not only up the exchange but also has a pawn in his pocket but King to g1 was not played in the game King f1 was played not too many great choices here that bishop is a killer knifing right into the white camp Queen to d7 move 21 is the last move at this point resigns he knows what's coming and Fisher knows what's coming - there's a beautiful brilliant sacrifice or a beautiful combination that is just right around the corner in this final position from round three Fisher was said to be quote bitterly disappointed end quote after his opponent resigned he wanted to you know play this position now why exactly well this is the variation he wanted to see happen the big threat here is that the black queen is ready to knife in to the white king position on h3 with the punch and from that post it's facilitating a Bishop to h6 move which is an absolute killer if we just have a look currently the rook is taking away what squares from the king these two the bishop is taking away this one the Queen when placed on h3 would be taking away the square the King is currently on and there are only two other squares that black would need to control before it's checkmate G 1 and F 2 who would do that the bishop and that's how he would snake in pivoting on e3 in controlling those other two squares this is the variation Fisher noted he wanted to see white play on play Queen 2 f2 basically getting out of that Bishop to h6 move queen h3 would follow king g1 in now we would have an absolute star move in this position once more if this actually did play out this is a good moment to go ahead pause the video what would be the winning shot in this position go ahead pause the video if you would like okay the winning shot from here is rook to e1 the Queen keep in mind has a big responsibility namely to defend checkmate rook takes rook and now Bishop takes Knight would follow the Queen is pinned to the king queen takes bishop Queen ji - game over it didn't get that far though I kind of understand yeah bitterly disappointed I think it would have been pretty cool to see that actually pulled off you know played out just a couple more moves but I thought that this one was a this game is just fantastic 11 moves in a lot of symmetry present 10 moves later the games already over how quickly things can change one imbalance present in the position can really change things up important to recognize those imbalances and yeah that can help you to ultimately produce a plan time will put some good strategy so anyhow as usual feel free to leave any feedback to this video in the comment section below hope you're having a great day and I will catch you soon that's all for now take care bye you

Channel: ChessNetwork

Views: 7,650,022

Rating: 4.6668653 out of 5

Keywords: bobby fischer, robert james fischer, robert fischer, bobby fischer vs robert byrne, fischer vs byrne, byrne vs fischer 1963, 1963 us chess championship, 1964 us chess championship, chess, chessnetwork, chess network

Id: QHydkEARVKE

Length: 19min 42sec (1182 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 02 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Szechwan]

This dudes cadence is exactly what I would expect from someone that makes hardcore chess videos for YouTube.

Cool video though, could have been 5 min shorter if he just talked normally.

[u/huggybear0406]

Speed it up to 1.25 to be much more watchable. EDIT: really 1.5 is best

[u/TheLargeMan]

Loved it . Thanks for posting

[u/D_N_W]

It is nice to see one of Jerry's videos here. I was binge watching his channel yesterday and watched this video then. I think he also has a video of bobby's game with donald burn, which is a really nice game to watch.

[u/crackerjam]

If only.....the narrator.....didn't leave......such long pauses......between statements......this video......would be..........more interesting.

[u/pattyfritters]

The guy took like 2 minutes explaining what symmetry is...

[u/lanismycousin]

Interesting video

[u/shimaken]

Played this at 1.5x and it was fine...ish

[u/ElliotNess]

Personally I really enjoyed the narrator's presentation and found it easier to follow than I would expect, having not played chess since I was a child.