Hello all,
Funny man: I say, I say, I say.
What is the difference between playing the dragon and slaying the dragon?
Straight man: I don't know.
What is the difference between playing the dragon and slaying the dragon?
Funny man: I don't know either, perhaps we should consult someone who does?
The Chessbase RSS feed offers a link with the following content:
"
Slaying the Dragon .
by Oliver Reeh
8/21/2020 - "Sac, sac ... mate!" This famous quote by Bobby Fischer shows
that he knew how to slay the Dragon. The diagram position is from a game by
Fischer, played at the Olympiad in Varna 1962. White's last move was 17.f4!
which threatened 18.Qh3 with a mating attack. Black countered with 17...e5 but
that allowed Fischer to win with five powerful moves. Can you find them?
"
The simple answer here is: "No!".
This is diagram-driven, but without Algebraic Address or FEN format how can we
be expected to do so?
In Eurovision Song Contest mode, Chessbase gets nil points.
The dragon is a mythical creature, almost as mythical as an accessible chess
diagram.
Anyone out there got a clue how to get worldwide sites like this to give us
Algebraic Address or FEN format?
But I'm not going to be beaten so easily, this game must be elsewhere on the
web.
A quick visit to Olympbase yielded a massive PGN for the Varna 1962 Olympiad,
revealing the following game:
Note: While Oliver Reeh highlights white move 18, in actuality it is white move
21 which is real cute.
[Event "15th olm qual. group 2"]
[Site "Varna BUL"]
[Date "1962.09.18"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Fischer, Robert James USA"]
[Black "Purevzhav, S. MGL"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B77"]
[EventDate "1962.09.16"]
[PlyCount "43"]
1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6
5. Nc3 g6
6. Be3 Bg7
7. f3 Nc6
8. Qd2 O-O
9. Bc4 Nd7
10. O-O-O Nb6
11. Bb3 Na5
12. Qd3 Bd7
13. h4 Rc8
14. h5 Nbc4
15. hxg6 hxg6
16. Bh6 e6
17. f4 e5
18. Nf5 Bxf5
| Declining to open the kingside with, 18. ... gxf5, is sensible, some ideas
run:
(A). If, 18. ... gxf5 19. Bxg7 Kxg7 20. Qg3+ Qg5 21. Qxg5+ mate.
(B). Or if, 18. ...gxf5 19. Bxg7 Re8 20. Qg3 exf4 21. Rh8+ mate.
(C). Or if, 18. ... gxf5 19. Bxg7 Nxb3+ 20. axb3 Nb6
21. Qh3 Kxg7 22. Qh6+ Kg8 23. Qh7+ mate.
(D). Or if, 18. ... exf5 19. Bxg7 Nxb3+ 20. axb3 f6, making f7 into a flight
square, but,
21. Bxf8 Qxf8 22. bxc4, and white is a rook up.
||
19. exf5 Nxb2
| Looking for tactricks on the h8 - a1 dark square diagonal, rather optimistic,
but what else is there?
||
20. Kxb2 e4
| With threats to both the white d3 queen and the c3 knight, good reply from
white needed.
Clue: The temptation might be to go and tap Tal on the shoulder and seek
advice.
Unwise, this type of position needs Petrosian at your side.
||
21. Bxg7
| A potential positional queen sacrifice.
An absent fianchetto bishop in front of a castled king is an opportunity just
waiting to be exploited.
||
21. ... Kxg7
| The white d3 queen is toxic.
Why?, because white can claim the a1 - h8 diagonal and the h1 rook already owns
the fully-open h-file, a very powerful cocktail.
So the greedy, 21. ... exd3, is nicely refuted:
(A). If, 21. ... exd3 22. f6 Re8 23. Rh8+ mate.
(B). Or if, 21. ... exd3 22. f6 Qxf6 23. Bxf6 Nc4+
24. Bxc4 Rxc4 25. Rh8+ mate.
||
22. Nxe4
1-0.
Dragons, according to anecdotal evidence, never appear in pairs.
Do not be so sure.
How about re-living a game from My 60 Memorable Games appropriately called:
"Slaying The Dragon"?
And bear in mind you are about to witness a 15 year and 5 month old take on
arguably the strongest player outside the Soviet Union in 1958.
[Event "Portoroz Interzonal"]
[Site "Portoroz SLO"]
[Date "1958.08.16"]
[EventDate "1958.08.05"]
[Round "8"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Robert James Fischer"]
[Black "Bent Larsen"]
[ECO "B77"]
[PlyCount "61"]
1. e4 c5
2. Nf3 d6
3. d4 cxd4
4. Nxd4 Nf6
5. Nc3 g6
6. Be3 Bg7
7. f3 O-O
8. Qd2 Nc6
9. Bc4 Nxd4
10. Bxd4 Be6
11. Bb3 Qa5
12. O-O-O b5
13. Kb1 b4
14. Nd5 Bxd5
| Judging when to trade a bishop for a knight is not easy.
Black now lacks a light square bishop, this points to the white kingside
strategy, light square activity is quickly required.
||
15. Bxd5 Rac8
16. Bb3 Rc7
17. h4 Qb5
18. h5 Rfc8
| Looks menacing but providing the white b3 light square bishop can stand firm
there will be no entry points.
||
19. hxg6 hxg6
20. g4 a5
| With the black threat of, pawn a4, and after white, Bd5, there comes, pawn
e6, trapping the bishop mid-board.
||
21. g5 Nh5
| Warning: Do not try this next white move in your own games.
Why?
Perhaps because it is a blunder and you will pay heavily?
No, Bobby Fischer played the idea so many times he probably has a copyright on
it.
Actually, you are recommended to play this type of move, well providing your
positional judgement says there is sufficient compensation in the activity
gained.
Though strangely the unit which becomes the bread-winner for white requires an
important personality change.
||
22. Rxh5
| Surely a rook is worth more than a knight?
Yes, but an insecure black kingside resulting from the broken pawn formation is
more than enough compensation.
It is now black who has the unpleasant task of calculating all the joyful white
attacking options around his lonely king.
||
22. ... gxh5
23. g6 e5
24. gxf7+
| And just how is black to wipe out this 7th rank, "Mini-Monster"?
||
24. ... Kf8
25. Be3 d5
| Aha, closing the diagonal to f7, perhaps the, "Mini-Monster", is not going to
be our bread-winner after all?
Though hang on, surely white can snatch the black d5 pawn with impunity?
||
26. exd5
| The capture must be with the pawn as, 26. Bxd5 Rxc2+, gives black the chance
to exchange off poorly-contributing rooks for a white queen just itching to get
into to the black kingside.
But surely the a2 - g8 diagonal has closed leaving the f7 pawn en prise?
Yes, but it is the personality change of the e-pawn becoming a powerful passed
d-file pawn which is going to rule the centre.
||
26. ... Rxf7
27. d6 Rf6
28. Bg5
| Appropriate mis-quoted Kasparovism: "Every white piece is better than every
black piece."
White now has control of the d8 square, if black shuffles, Rg6, then the white
d6 pawn just marches to promotion, costing black a rook.
||
28. ... Qb7
29. Bxf6 Bxf6
| Aha, now there are opposite bishops in the position, so any endgame must be
drawn, right?
Probably so, but we are still in the middlegame and white has a monstrously
strong passed d6 pawn...
||
30. d7 Rd8
| Hey, black cannot win the white 7th rank, "Mini-Monster", but white seems
unable to promote it.
Surely now the effect of the opposite bishops will lead to a quick conclusion?
||
31. Qd6+
1-0.
| Yes, it is all about the opposite bishops, the black f6 bishop cannot
neutralise the white b3 light square bishop.
When in an opposite bishop late middlegame whoever is attacking is essentially
a piece up.
A couple of finishes:
(A). If, 31. ... Be7 32. Qe6, with threat of mate on either f7 or g8, so, 32.
... Kg7, but then, 33. Rg1+, with a variety of mates to follow, though, 33.
Qxe7+, picking off the black d8 rook also wins.
(B). Or if, 31. ... Kg7 32. Rg1+, and the black king loses protective power on
the f6 bishop, black is losing a piece.
||
Dragons appropriately slain, we now all await the, "Battle Of The Heroes" -
Bobby Fischer vs St. George.
Paul Benson.
