Hi all,

(Please note that my comments after move 17 aren't showing, because I have somehow messed up the pgn. I'm still working on it).

When I was a new player, I played through the Spassky-Fischer match with an unannotated score, and the 5th game of the match was amazing for me.

As I played through, I thought Fischer was making horrible mistakes, and then was stunned when I got to the end!

I had to play through the whole thing again, and then I went on a mission to find out all I could about the game to learn how and why it happened.

I learned a host of valuable lessons from the game, and I think playing through it can help anyone who has not seen it.

My notes are entirely tongue-in-cheek; I have tried for a little Greenpawn34-esque humor, but no warranty if offered or implied!

If the games spawns questions for those who are mystified by certain aspects (as I was back then), I hope the back-and-forth exchange of ideas will enlighten us all.

I think the locked pawns really favor the N here, especially compared to wBd3, which is miserable. The locking of pawns a4/a5 only incarcerated it further.

I liked how Fischer took some risks (like allowing the passed Pd5) in order to win this game.

I read CHO'D Alexander's book on this match, and he pointed out that white gets in trouble because he is playing with three pawn weaknesses (a4, c4, e4) vs. two (e5, b6).

None of your comments after the first one showed up in the viewer. Here's my attempt at fixing it.

Originally posted by SwissGambit
None of your comments after the first one showed up in the viewer. Here's my attempt at fixing it.

[pgn]
[Event "World Championship 28th"]
[Site "Reykjavik"]
[Date "1972.07.20"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Spassky, Boris V"]
[Black "Fischer, Robert James"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E41"]
[WhiteElo "2660"]
[BlackElo "2785"]
[PlyCount "54"]
[EventDate "1 ...[text shortened]... ? The answer is obvious- it's a Communist plot.} 0-1
[/pgn]

I don't get why the game was resigned. Even if the E pawn goes, is mate really unavoidable? Plus, white's D pawn doesn't seem able to be stopped from advancing to the back rank, especially ifwhite takes the black bishop.

So...could someone explain why, to this complete moron named vivify?

Originally posted by vivify
I don't get why the game was resigned. Even if the E pawn goes, is mate really unavoidable? Plus, white's D pawn doesn't seem able to be stopped from advancing to the back rank, especially ifwhite takes the black bishop.

So...could someone explain why, to this complete moron named vivify?

Originally posted by Paul Leggett
A good question. There are two mate threats- one is ...Qxe1 mate, and the other is Qxg2 mate if black is allowed to capture the white e-pawn.

Effectively, black gets the a-pawn for free, and when white moves the queen, black will capture the bishop on d1, and when white recaptures with the queen, his e-pawn will fall. White will be two pawns down and facing the mate threat on g2 and an attack on the c4 pawn at that point, so he is busted.

Originally posted by vivify
But what if white pins the knight with his queen?


[pgn][Date "????.??.??"]
[Result "*"]
[FEN "5k2/3p2p1/1p4qp/p1pPp1p1/b1P1Pn2/2P5/2Q3PP/3BB1K1 w - - 0 1"]

1.Qf2 { If black takes the white bishop, then black's knight is lost on after g3. If black unpins the knight and moves his king, then white takes the black bishop. If Qxe4, then white has the ...[text shortened]... king either the bishop or the knight. Is there still something I'm missing? }
*[/pgn]