With pawns on both sides of the board, bishops are better than knights. So they say, anyway. But
Informant 11/221 is this win by Bobby Fischer over Wolfgang Unzicker. The game was selected as the best of
Informant 11, and can be found in
The Best of the Best 1000 (2008), 56. This game was the third of Fischer's "Golden Games," having previously won that distinction with his win over Bent Larsen at Monte Carlo, 1967 (
Informant 3), and over Leonid Stein--the game I featured in
La crème de la crème.
White to move
Fischer played
33.Qe7, forcing the trade of queens and a knight versus bishop endgame. The rest was a matter of technique.
After
33...Qxe7 34.Nxe7 g5 35.hxg5 hxg5, Fischer has a double attack against the c7 pawn and the f6 square.
White to move
Of course Fischer played
36.Nd5. After
36...Bc6 37.Nxc7 Bf3, Fischer defends the pawn with another fork threat.
White to move
38.Ne8 Kh6 39.Nf6 Kg7White to move
How did Fischer continue?
I actually found 40. Kf2, but after 40.... Bd1 didn't see how I can continue. Then I thought 40. Nd7, but didn't like it. The solution was to put it together - 40. Kf2, then 41. Nd7 as I found at chessgames.com. Great play by knight!
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting.
ReplyDeleteI find it funny that I've put so much about Fischer on this blog. His bizarre political views and some of his dogmatic statements about chess strategy left me with such antipathy towards the man, that for several years I found it difficult to play 1.e4. Clearly, I've gotten beyond that dysfunctional attitude, and I'm starting once again to appreciate the man's genius at the chess board.
40. Kf2 is a mistake i believe since after 40. Kf2 Bc6 41. Nh5+ Kf8 i think that whites advantage is crumbling.
ReplyDeleteHowever i like 40. Nd7 since
40. Nd7 Bxg4 41. f6+ Kf7 Ne5+ winning the bishop a nice variation. And if 41. f6+ Kg8 follows 42. f7+ and black has to capture the pawn otherwise it will promote to queen on the next move.
Darn, typo in the first line, make that 41. ... Kf7 instead of Kf8
ReplyDelete