This Week's ChessBase Show: Lombardy-Fischer, US Championship 1960
Tomorrow, Magnus Carlsen makes his debut as a 2800 in the Tal Memorial, and it's not much of an exaggeration to say he has taken the chess world by storm. Although he is just 18 (19 later this month), he has been a prominent, elite player for some time now. While it has been some time since anyone else has been a leading player at such a tender age, there are precedents. Carlsen's most notable predecessor in this regard is, of course, the late Bobby Fischer.
By age 15, Fischer had already qualified for the Candidates (the final elimination tournament to see who would play for the world championship), and at 19 he had done it twice, won an Interzonal and no less than five U.S. Championships. And as fantastic a player and talent as Carlsen is, the gap between him and his contemporaries is significant but not (yet?) huge; with Fischer, however, only the young Spassky was even in the same galaxy, and it took him three years longer to become a grandmaster than it did for Fischer.
The point of the comparison is not to denigrate Carlsen, who may be on his way to becoming the greatest player of all time, but to remind the reader of Fischer's early achievements, before he demolished the chess world in his run from 1970-1972. Speaking of those early achievements, we'll look at one this week: his victory over William Lombardy from the 1960 U.S. Championship. It was played in round 2, but may have decided first place, as Fischer won the event two points ahead of Lombardy.
It's a very interesting game (and possibly well-known to you, if you have a copy of Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games), with interesting moments in the opening (5.f3 vs. the 2...d6 Sicilian), middlegame (a dynamic ...d5 pawn break/sacrifice, and a long combination with a sneaky punchline), and endgame (no foreshadowing for this one). It's a very nice game to watch, and you can do so tomorrow night. Here's how:
Log on to the Playchess server at 9 p.m. ET (Wednesday night; that's 3 a.m. Thursday morning, CET), go to the Broadcast room, and select Lombardy-Fischer under the Games tab. The show is free for Premium Members (in most cases, this will be individuals who have a registered copy of Fritz 12); it's 50 ducats for everyone else.
Hope to see you there!
By age 15, Fischer had already qualified for the Candidates (the final elimination tournament to see who would play for the world championship), and at 19 he had done it twice, won an Interzonal and no less than five U.S. Championships. And as fantastic a player and talent as Carlsen is, the gap between him and his contemporaries is significant but not (yet?) huge; with Fischer, however, only the young Spassky was even in the same galaxy, and it took him three years longer to become a grandmaster than it did for Fischer.
The point of the comparison is not to denigrate Carlsen, who may be on his way to becoming the greatest player of all time, but to remind the reader of Fischer's early achievements, before he demolished the chess world in his run from 1970-1972. Speaking of those early achievements, we'll look at one this week: his victory over William Lombardy from the 1960 U.S. Championship. It was played in round 2, but may have decided first place, as Fischer won the event two points ahead of Lombardy.
It's a very interesting game (and possibly well-known to you, if you have a copy of Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games), with interesting moments in the opening (5.f3 vs. the 2...d6 Sicilian), middlegame (a dynamic ...d5 pawn break/sacrifice, and a long combination with a sneaky punchline), and endgame (no foreshadowing for this one). It's a very nice game to watch, and you can do so tomorrow night. Here's how:
Log on to the Playchess server at 9 p.m. ET (Wednesday night; that's 3 a.m. Thursday morning, CET), go to the Broadcast room, and select Lombardy-Fischer under the Games tab. The show is free for Premium Members (in most cases, this will be individuals who have a registered copy of Fritz 12); it's 50 ducats for everyone else.
Hope to see you there!