Sunday, April 17, 2011

Chess Bobby Fischer

Chess Bobby Fischer

1 comment:

  1. Sketch of Young Bobby Fischer by Anthea Carson
    A New Way Of Thinking

    Young Bobby Fischer was playing chess in a revolutionary way, he wasn't just "really good." Nowdays his innovative way of seeing is taken for granted, so it may not seem so new to us, especially if we look at lots of grandmaster games. Additionally, computers have broken the conventions that Fischer had begun to chip away at, which makes sense of course, since computers are not ruled by conventional wisdom but only by pure logic and truth. Take a look at the following position. Assess it the best you can, decide the plan you would follow, and then we will look at what Fischer played, and what he was thinking.
    Fischer vs Shocron, 1959
    White to Move
    White to Move
    Analysis of the Position

    This position comes out of the Ruy Lopez, a very old and solid opening in which White controls the center and Black hangs on for dear life. Black's last move was 19.Qc6. It seems we are in the middle of a plan that perhaps involves a rook on h1 to control the h-file. Black has tried to prevent the White's knight from coming to f5 by playing g6. Anytime you move a pawn to stop a knight from coming near you create a weakness. Look at the dark squared weaknesses on f6 and h6. White's pieces want to flow in there and dominate the black king. Look for ways to follow through, trying also to understand the plan that caused there to be a pawn on g4 in the first place.
    White plays ...g5
    White plays ...g5
    Sacrificing the Pawn

    So why is he giving up the pawn? The pawn was just getting in the way, White will get plenty of material back later, once he gets his pieces to the right squares. Experts see pieces, masters see squares, is an old saying in chess. And so here in this postion, Fischer is revolutionary in his thinking because he is looking at long term domination of the weakened dark squares, and the pawn was clogging up the paths for his pieces. He opened up the h-file for his rook to come in, and will be playing g3, and Kg2 to allow for it. He has all kinds of pieces flowing into those weak squares, and all Black has is his pitiful little bishop on e7 to defend against it, and look, he's about to trade even that off.

    This game was played in 1959. Further analysis of this game shows g5 was not best. Computer lines get very messy here, but is thinking along the same lines to accomplish the goal Fischer was aiming at: to dominate the dark squares and flow in pieces, sacrificing material to do it, knowing well the material will be regained once the pieces are on the right squares. Much like Bobby Fischer, computers dominate the chess world today and chess players study them, and are beginning to think like them. Computers don't have fear, they don't have "conventional wisdom" and they don't worry about sacrificing pawns to flow pieces into squares. They have no emotional attachment to pieces. Because of computers, human players are increasingly comfortable in uncomfortable positions. To see more on this instructive game watch the video below.

    ReplyDelete