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  The Game of The Century 
  A fresh & new look at a very famous chess game. 

 Click  HERE  to see an explanation of the symbols that I commonly use when I annotate any chess game.  

 Click  HERE  to replay this game.      (Click  HERE  to see a "star-dot-pdf" / Adobe copy of my analysis.)   

 Click  HERE  to see my video channel on the "You-Tube" channel.    (Click HERE to see my YT video on this game.)  

  Donald Byrne - Robert J. Fischer;  
  [D97]  
  The Rosenwald (masters) Tournament  
  New York, NY; (USA) / (Rd. #8) / October 17th, 1956.  

  [A.J.G.]  

(This was ... originally ... ) A BAG-lite game. January 10th, 2014. 

{A new look at this classic and historic chess contest ... which, I believe, won a brilliancy prize. 
 I went back to a totally clean sheet of paper for this version of annotation, and I tried to forget everything I knew about this game.   
 The chess engines were the leader here ... and I tried to always thoroughly follow their lead.}   

Another thing that gave added impetus to this project was that one of my PCC students and I looked at this game on their laptop in the fall of 2013. (I bought a spiral-bound notebook and I recorded just about all of our observations.)   

Nearly 20 years has elapsed, (or - in some cases - even more time than this ...); since the first time that I began to use chess engines to examine this game ... they have become much stronger, (exponentially so); in the last 5-10 years. Due to this advancement in the overall technology, I thought it would be fun to take yet another look at it. (I will stick to the lines of the various chess engines.)   

  ***************************************************************************************************************************************   

Another under-appreciated fact was that, in 1956, Bobby Fischer was a virtual nobody.  
(At that particular point in time.)  

However, his opponent was one of the top players in the USA ... and #65 in the whole world!!!!!    
(See just below.) 

#1.) Samuel Reshevsky (2752)  
#2.) Larry Evans (2640)  
#3.) Arthur Bisguier (2612)  
#4.) Donald Byrne (2589)  

[ Notice that Donald ... in those days ... was even higher rated than his (later) much more famous older brother!!!!!! 
  Of course, in 1974, the elder R. Byrne went all the way to the quarter-finals of the Candidates Matches, losing only to GM Boris Spassky.   
  {Source (for ratings): The CM website.} ] 

I have analyzed the opening before, I don't think that theory has changed that much since I first examined this game. 
(The game begins as a Reti, and then it will transpose to a Grunfeld, Russian System.)   

     1.Nf3 Nf6;  2.c4 g6;  3.Nc3 Bg7;  4.d4 0-0;  5.Bf4 d5;  6.Qb3 dxc4; ('!')   

6...c7-c6; is the choice advocated by the new (CB) "Power-Book."   

   rnbq1rk1/ppp1ppbp/5np1/8/2pP1B2/1QN2N2/PP2PPPP/R3KB1R w KQ - 0 7   

However, Fischer's move is much sharper and leads to a different type of game.   

     7.Qxc4 c6[];  ("Box." No choice.)   

One author actually criticized this move, (at the time that this game was first played); but the engines all agree that it was 100% best and/or forced.   

     8.e4 Nbd7;  (Maybe - '!?')   

This is a solid move ... and I do not believe that there is anything fundamentally wrong with it. 

However, I have to agree with many of the engines that 8...b5; was a slightly more active move for Black.   

   r1bq1rk1/pp1nppbp/2p2np1/8/2QPPB2/2N2N2/PP3PPP/R3KB1R w KQ - 0 9  

One thing that Fischer had in common with Morphy as that if you got caught with your King in the center, they both could whip up a nice attack ...    
almost out of thin air!   

                         [ RR 8...b5; ('!') - Fritz 13. ]   

     9.Rd1,  (Center.)     

Most engines prefer Be2, yet this move (also) places Black under a great deal of pressure here.   

                         [ An interesting line would be:  RR 9.e5!? Nb6!; (hmm)    
                            Seemingly best.   

                                         ( 9...Nd5!?;  10.Nxd5 cxd5;  
                                           Now 11.QxP/d5, ('?') allows Black to play  
                                           the surprising shot of 11...NxP/e5! "=/+"   
                                           11.Qb3[] Qb6!;  12.Qxb6 axb6!;  "<=>" )   

     9...Nb6; ('!')  10.Qc5!, (Yes!)    

1. My EXTENSIVE analysis of this game, (here - on this website); ... but there aren't very many diagrams.   
   (Much of this analysis is close to 20 years old, which is why I did this web page!) 

2. The game, Mikhail Botvinnik - Vassily Smyslov, WCS Match / Moscow, RUS; 1954. 
     (This is an EXTENSIVE and deeply annotated game in the King's Indian Defense.)  

3. My "Game of The Month" website. (Lots of good material here to study!!!)  
   (There are MANY games on this website, quite a few with the King's Indian and the Grunfeld, and all of them are carefully annotated.)  

4. My own school of tactics, many of these games were also in the King's Indian. (Some/many are not finished.) 

5. My games - on another website - in the King's Indian. (The usefulness of this is lessened as there are no comments.)   
   (At one time you could read my comments/kibitzing ... and those of many other people, as well. But DF doesn't like me, so he does 
    everything in his power to make me look bad and/or damage my reputation.)  

6. One of the best King's Indian games ever played ... Bobby Fischer shows us the correct attacking method, a model game! 
   [Another look ... at the same game.]  

7. One of the most impressive K.I.D. games ... of the last 30 years.  
   [GM Vladimir Malakhov (2700) - GM Vadim Zvjaginsev (2654) / 5th Karpov Tournament, 2004.]  

8. A list of redone games ... a few of these might be KID/Grunfeld games.  

9. A game that I played in 2014 - from the Black side of the Grunfeld. (Many links!!!) 

Tuesday; March 25th, 2014:  (See http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008361, for more.) 

Here are some of the commonly repeated misconceptions that I have heard - over the years - about this game.  

#1.) Donald Byrne wasn't that strong of a player. (In fact, he was easily in the top 5 in the USA, and around # 65 in the world!) 

#2.) Fischer's play wasn't good, his opening was rather poor. (Several masters opined this - in various books and magazines, criticizing moves like ...Nbd7. Fischer's play was extremely good, <and also VERY CREATIVE!!!!> as my analysis clearly shows.)  

#3.) The combination wasn't sound. (I don't know where this myth got started, but I have heard masters repeat this at big tournaments like the U.S. Open and the World Open. Again, the computers find NO REFUTATION of Fischer's concept, whatsoever!!!!!)  

#4.) "With better play, Byrne might have defended his position." (Again - I have heard this many times. It's one thing when a lower-rated player says it, but when a Master says it, you want to find out why. Again - I blame the books and media, they unfairly criticized some of Byrne's moves, like Qc5 and Qa3., etc. In actuality, Byrne only made one real mistake, <Bg5> and it certainly seemed plausible, and it was only refuted by a THUNDERCLAP ... followed by several strokes of pure genius.) 

#5.) Other games - by prodigies like Jose Raul Capablanca - were/are better and hold up better under analysis. (I think that my web pages on this game speak for themselves ... and show this game to be ... nothing less than an absolute masterpiece and a work of chess art on the chessboard.)