The Father Of Chess
in the whole age “Bobby Fischer”
The chess tournament was over and the chess
players were all going to the feast. The old grey-bearded chess chess player Bobby Fischer sat on his
personal chair outside the Five Star Hotel and watched the chess players walking past him. He had a colorful chess in
his eyes, and suddenly he stopped one of the chess players.
“ There was a self-maker chess
player…………………..” the Father of chess in the whole age began, and he spoke so strangely
that the chess player ‘ FIDE Master Mohammad
Fahad Rahman’ stood still and listened to him. The feast began; the chess
player could hear the music and the laughter, but for some chess reason he
could not move to join the others. He had to stay and listen to the father of
chess Bobby Fischer
Story.
The most controversial and quite possible the
greatest player of all time, Robert J. (‘Bobby’) Fischer dominated
his contemporaries and established himself as a living legend before abandoning
tournament and match play after winning
the world title from Spassky. Before that he established the highest
ever FIDE-Elo Rating of 2780 based on overall result;
he won successive candidates matches against Taimanov and Lersen, both world
class grandmasters, by 6-0 and 6-0, and, by a crude blunder and a default, he
effectively gave Spassky two games start in the world championship before
defeating him with some ease.
Fischer learnt the moves at six, but his
biggest break as a young chess player came when his mother decided to settle in
Brooklyn. Chess life in New York, with the thriving Manhattan and Marshall
clubs and many chess cafes, has proved a stimulating environment for a number
of potential US grandmasters and Fischer honed his game with incessant blitz
games combined with a study of Soviet literature. The result of his hothouse
training, coupled with total neglect of school work in favour of chess, was a
unique tournament result: Fischer was men’s champion of the United States at
14.
Probably at the time Fischer did not realize how
steep were the remaining steeps to the championship, at that time held by the
ageing Botvinnik, when he qualified for the title candidates tournament at the
first attempt and became the youngest ever Grand Master at 15. The solid
phalanx of Soviets easily outpaced their less inexperienced rival in 1959 and
1962, and Fischer then successfully demanded that the system be changed from a
tournament to a series of eliminating knock-out matches between the final eight
challengers. It was under this system that he routed his rivals in 1971 and
defeated Spassky the following year.
The general public will remember Bobby even more for his
eccentricities and disputes than for his great play. His match with Reshevsky
in 1961 ended in a scandal and a lawsuit, and he quite the 1967 interzonal when
in the lead after a dispute about the playing schedule. He was only persuaded
to fly to Iceland to meat Spassky when the British financier Jim Slater doubled
the £50,000 purse; he was only persuaded not to walk out of the Spassky match
by the personal intervention of US Foreign Secretary Henry Kissinger. And
finally Fischer gave up his world championship without a fight when FIDE turned down his stipulation
that his match with Karpov should be for the first to win ten games, champion
retaining his title at 9-9.
Fischer’s financial demands were
incredible. Both the projected match with Karpov and a comeback match with
Gligoric in 1979, which also came to nothing, were for a million dollars or
more. Despite claims that Fischer’s figures benefited ordinary chess masters, there was an
enormous contrast between these sums and those at stake in normal international
tournaments.Then there were his increasingly finicky demands relating to light,
spectator noise, and associated playing details. It is evident that Fischer
finally reached a state where fear of defeat and fear of playing in public
dominated his thinking. Indeed, it is difficult to see how anything other than a
victorious match with Karpov could enhance his legendary reputation. Perhaps straitened
financial circumstances will one day force Fischer to play again, but
more likely he will remain along with Morphy nas the only other great master to
have given up chess completely at the height of his fame.
What can the ordinary Player learn from Bobby Fischer?
First, will to win. Fischer’s killer instinct
meant that he continued to look for wining opportunities in positions which
most masters would long ago have given up as drawn. His reply to a quick draw
offer was ‘Of course not’. It was physically difficult to play against him; his
deep-set and hypnotic eyes and hawk-like face stared passionately at the board
from which he rarely rose to look at other games. Fischer has long arms and
fingers which he used to clutch opposing pieces when capturing, in the manner
of bird of prey. The will to win enabled him to finish ahead of opponents by
record margins and a 100 per cent score was always on the cards. Only Alekhine
had a similar fanaticism, but unlike Alekhine Fischer kept his health in good
shape as long as he was active player.
Technically,
Fischer had a deep knowledge of the sharp opening lines which he analyzed in
depth before his tournaments; in simple positions his strategy was as pure and
clear in reaching the objective as was Capablanca’s. He used his opening
knowledge especially well with the white pieces where he would typically gain
the initiative and space control then use it energetically to drive his
opponent into ever deeper defence until resistance cracked. Between 1968 and
1970 he was in virtual retirement but when he emerged at the ‘Match of the century’,
where the USSR narrowly defeated a rest of the World team, he at once played a
game characteristic of his style at its best.
Before his death his forehead was white
as a lily and his eyes were more lustrous than a gazelle’s. His brows were
crescent moons, his cheeks anemones, and his mouth like the crimson ruby on King
Solomon’s ring. His teeth were brighter than a string of pearls. We Salute Him.
Never End
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