The Chess Mind

The tournament in Buenos Aires ended this past week, and was won by IM Valerga and Flores Rios with 5.5/9 scores. GM Oscar Panno, the only player in the event from the Fischer era (and who in fact played Fischer), was part of a tie for third, half a point back. Kudos to the organizers for recognizing Fischer (as a chessplayer); hopefully the USCF will follow suit in the not too distant future.

HT: Chess Today

It's time for another installment of our popular new feature, "Quotation Time". Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to identify the writer and discuss the quote:

I took with me several hundred of Fischer's games and set off to the Black Sea for two weeks to prepare for the match. Fischer's games did not provide any surprises with their strategic ideas. These were known to any experienced player from old games (even before Fischer). But the American grandmaster's tactical resourcefulness, his energy in carrying out his plans, and his striving for activity at the very first opportunity were staggering.

To commemorate what would have been Bobby Fischer's 65th birthday, his adopted country of Iceland dedicated the Reykjavik Chess Festival to his memory and arranged a side event starring four of his contemporaries (Pal Benko, Vlastimil Hort, Lajos Portisch and Fridrik Olafsson, with Boris Spassky as the referee and William Lombardy as commentator) to boot. (Portisch and Hort shared first with 4/6, according to Chess Today.) Kudos to Iceland!

Not to be outdone, the United States Chess Federation dedicates 11 pages in the current issue of Chess Life to Fischer. Is that unbelievably awesome or what? Meanwhile, Europe Echecs, a French-language chess magazine, has dedicated all of their current issue to Fischer. This is understandable, given that he never lived nor won any events in France.

Maybe the USCF thinks it's being patriotic or making a stand against Fischer's anti-Judaism; I don't know. I myself am completely repulsed by Fischer's anti-American and anti-Jewish remarks, and I'm not inclined, as many are, to blame this on some sort of mental illness. All the same, to practically disregard one of the greatest players of all time, clearly the greatest American player of all time, and possibly the main reason why the USCF has any financial assets whatsoever, does not speak well on its behalf. Spend a few pages excoriating his vile comments and noting his character flaws and eccentricities - that's appropriate. But give his legacy the attention it deserves, not just a short article by Larry Evans and a few pages of quotations presented in a space-wasting format. Present a special, perhaps extra issue of the magazine dedicated to him. Rename an event for him. Have an invitational event for American players he competed with, like Evans, Pal Benko, Robert Byrne, Arthur Bisguier, et al. In short, pretend Fischer (really) mattered, both to the chess world at large and to the United States in particular...because he did.

...would have been today.

With several tips of the hat to Chess Today, here are some more articles on Fischer you might want to check out:

GM Jonathan Speelman (Guardian)
GM Matanovic for the Chess Informant

Also, there's a Fischer Memorial. Needless to say, it's not in the United States. Lest you think this has to do with (understandable) scruples about Fischer's vile anti-American and anti-Jewish rants, let me remind you that we haven't had any memorial events for Morphy or Fine, either, on the national level. (There have been a couple of fairly big events commemorating Reshevsky, though I don't know the degree to which the USCF was involved.) No, the event will take place in Villa Martelli, Argentina from March 11-19. I suspect that most of the players in the tournament were born after Fischer won the world championship in 1972, but there is one participant who not only lived in Fischer's era, he played in it, too. In fact, he played Fischer himself three times.

That player is GM Oscar Panno, who was for a time in the 1950s (and during a nice run in 1978) one of the best players in the world. Born in 1935, he won the World Junior championship in 1953, became a GM in 1955 and a Candidate a year later. He played three games, as noted above, with Fischer, and each is noteworthy in its own way.

The first, a draw in the 1958 Portoroz Interzonal, is noteworthy in part because of the event, and in part because he drew!

The second game, from Buenos Aires 1970, is noteworthy - and famous - because of Fischer's beautiful concluding combination in a King's Indian Attack.

Finally, the third game is noteworthy for its startling brevity. Played in the last round of the 1970 Interzonal in Palma de Mallorca, Panno became Fischer's 7th consecutive victim (Fischer went on to win thirteen more games in a row!) in a game that went 1.c4 Resigns. Black did not forfeit; he resigned. (Panno refused to play in protest for Fischer's various reschedulings, but rather than let his flag fall he actually resigned the game 52 minutes in.)

You can replay all three games here.