“The ‘Game of the Century’ Byrne v Fischer New York 1956.
is a perfect example. How many times have you seen that? “
But please stay with me, I want to clear up a few things regarding this
historic game and the myths, mistakes and legends that surround it
The ‘Game of the Century’ was not Smyslov v Pachman 1956.
Look at the cover again and in particular this bit.
When eager readers turned to page 370 of the Chess Review they saw...
The Byrne - Fischer game actually appears on page 374.
Not the readers would have complained too much or think they had the
‘Game of the Century’. Smyslov -v- Pachman was a cracking game.
Position after 16 moves. The full game is at the bottom of this piece.
Bobby Fischer we know all about and nobody could get him confused with
anyone. However his opponent on that day was Donald Byrne (1930-1976).
Donald was never a G.M. and did not get his I.M. title till 1962. Fischer’s
opponent is sometimes given as Grandmaster R. Byrne (Donald’s brother).
People often slate Donald Byrne in chess forums for either being a sore
loser or a chump for playing on and on and finally getting checkmated.
Quite the reverse. Tim Krabbe reports Donald had this to say:
"First of all, you have to remember that in 1956 no one knew that Bobby Fischer
was going to become Bobby Fischer! He was just a very promising 13-year-old
kid who played a great game against me. When it got to the position where I was lost,
I asked some of the other competitors if it might be a nice thing to let the kid mate me, as
a kind of tribute to the fine game he played. They said, ‘Sure, why not?’ and so I did"
A picture of me in the park (playing with myself!)
Now onto why Hans Kmoch thought that this was ‘The Game of the Century.’
(a game - by the way - Fischer himself left out of his 60 Memorable Games.).
Kmoch is not saying he thought it was the best game of chess played in the
last century. It was the best game played by a child prodigy in the last century.
Time passed (a future pun - keep reading) and the game started appearing
all over the world. Fischer said it was the first time the Russians notice me.
In 1972 Time Magazine (the pun!) had the Fischer - Spassky match on their cover.
But inside Time’s 24th March 1958 issue they mentioned . ‘The Game of the Century.’
The article introducing Bobby Fischer to the America public describes him thus:
“A floppy, abrupt young gangle-shanks, he stumbles through the physical world of school
and subways and summer vacations in a tangle of arms and legs not quite under control.”
I did toy with the idea of not giving the ‘Game of the Century’ but that would be just too silly.
D. Byrne- R. Fischer, Rosenwald Tournament, New York, 1956
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. d4 O-O 5. Bf4 d5 {Offering a hot pawn with 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.Nxd5 Qxd5 8. Bc7 which is probably best refused . Black pieces come flooding out with Na6. Bf5 and Rac8.} 6. Qb3 {Byrne refuses the pawn and puts pressure on the d-pawn practically forcing Black to give up the centre.} 6... dxc4 7. Qxc4 {Now White is hitting the c7 pawn.} 7... c6 8. e4 {White has the perfect centre. Black must act fast whilst the White King is uncastled and the Queen is misplaced.} 8... Nbd7 {See rsand2 - Brian Bartholomew RHP 2006 a game with a similar position I'll give later for a trap here.} 9. Rd1 Nb6 10. Qc5 {Sometimes this moved is called into question but it's OK. The mistake comes later.} 10... Bg4 11. Bg5 {11.Be2 was better. A dogmatic note here would be White has moved a piece twice in the opening, but he has and the fun begins.} 11... Na4 {Very alert. Black offers the Knight for a stonking attack. Note this is the 3rd Knight move in the opening. But . The big difference being Black is developed with a safe King.} 12. Qa3 {White declines the Knight offer. There are many variations all favouring Black. I'll give one variation in the next game.} 12... Nxc3 13. bxc3 Nxe4 14. Bxe7 {Apparently winning the exchange.} 14... Qb6 {Now 15.Bxf8 Bxf8 16.Qc1 Nxc3 if 17.Qxc3 Bb4.} 15. Bc4 {White declines the exchange and tries to catch up with his development.} 15... Nxc3 {White has uncorked a genie and cannot get it back into the bottle. 16. Qxc3 Re8 will win back the piece and Black has the far superior position.} 16. Bc5 Rfe8+ 17. Kf1 Be6 {The move which gives this game the WOW! factor. One variation is 18. Qxc3 Qxc5 and again Black is much better.} 18. Bxb6 {White takes the Queen. 18.Bxe6 allows a Philidor Mate. I'll show it later.} 18... Bxc4+ 19. Kg1 Ne2+ 20. Kf1 Nxd4+ 21. Kg1 Ne2+ 22. Kf1 Nc3+ 23. Kg1 axb6 {Every Black piece is now in the game.} 24. Qb4 {24.Qc1 to hold the d1 Rook meets 24...Ne2+} 24... Ra4 25. Qxb6 Nxd1 {Black has a Rook and two Bishops for the Queen. That is enough compensation in this position.} 26. h3 {White seeks King safety and brings his h1 Rook into the game.} 26... Rxa2 27. Kh2 Nxf2 28. Re1 Rxe1 29. Qd8+ Bf8 30. Nxe1 Bd5 {Black's game is starting to play itself} 31. Nf3 Ne4 32. Qb8 b5 {Fischer is not giving White anything.} 33. h4 h5 {No counterplay at all for White.} 34. Ne5 Kg7 {The f8 Bishop is unpinned and now the threat is Bd6 The Black pieces co-operate wonderfully.} 35. Kg1 {To avoid Bd6} 35... Bc5+ {Round about here Byrne would have resigned but as we saw earlier he played on to give the kid some credit for a well played game.} 36. Kf1 Ng3+ {All the Black pieces take part in the forced checkmate.} 37. Ke1 Bb4+ 38. Kd1 Bb3+ 39. Kc1 Ne2+ 40. Kb1 Nc3+ 41. Kc1 Rc2 {Checkmate and the legend was born.}
Now we look at what could have happened if White took the Knight.
FEN
r2q1rk1/pp2ppbp/1np2np1/2Q5/3PPBb1/2N2N2/PP3PPP/3RKB1R w K - 0 11
[FEN "r2q1rk1/pp2ppbp/1np2np1/2Q5/3PPBb1/2N2N2/PP3PPP/3RKB1R w K - 0 11"]
11. Bg5 Na4 12. Nxa4 {In the actual game Byrne played 12.. Qa3} 12... Nxe4 13. Qb4 Nxg5 14. Nxg5 Bxd1 15. Kxd1 Bxd4 {The material situation is a Rook and two pawns for two Knights. But the White King position is critical.} 16. Kc2 b5 {Black kicks the White pieces about with pawns to create more threats v the White King.} 17. Nc3 a5 18. Qb3 a4 19. Qa3 Qb6 20. Nce4 h6 {Pausing to take the sting out of a Qh3 by White.} 21. Nf3 b4 22. Qd3 Bxf2 {Another pawn in the bag.} 23. Nxf2 Qxf2+ 24. Kb1 b3 25. a3 {If not this then Black will pay a3 and the open files will hammer White.} 25... Rfd8 26. Qe2 Rd6 {My own Queen sac. (this is the variation of the century) . White cannot play Qxf2 else Rd1 mates. White cannot stop the Rooks doubling on the d-file.}
The Phildor type mate I mention. I wanted to introduce this as an excuse to
show you a wee trick to play on your club clever-clogs. (every club has one.)
FEN
r3r1k1/pp3pbp/1qp3p1/2B5/2BP2b1/Q1n2N2/P4PPP/3RK2R w K - 0 17
[FEN "r3r1k1/pp3pbp/1qp3p1/2B5/2BP2b1/Q1n2N2/P4PPP/3RK2R w K - 0 17"] 17. Kf1 Be6 {Instead of taking the Queen White tries to calm things down with...} 18. Bxe6 Qb5+ {Playing Bc4 and/or Rd3 makes no difference.} 19. Kg1 Ne2+ 20. Kf1 Ng3+ 21. Kg1 Qf1+ 22. Rxf1 Ne2
The Trick. Set this up and ask someone to play the mate.
FEN
r5k1/6pp/8/4N3/6Q1/8/8/6K1 w - - 0 1
[FEN "r5k1/6pp/8/4N3/6Q1/8/8/6K1 w - - 0 1"] 1. Qe6+ Kh8 2. Nf7+ Kg8 {Now they will play 3.Nh6+ Kh8 4.Qg8+ etc. But....} 3. Nd8+ {This is a quicker mate.} 3... Kh8 4. Qe8 {Let me know how many you catch with this.}
A Red Hot Pawn game with the mate that could have appeared in the Fischer game.
Varg - LittleBear RHP.2003
FEN
r3k3/pp5p/2nQ2n1/2Ppp3/8/P1q5/3NbPPP/3RK2R w - - 0 22