Chess 467
PHILIDOR
C. Mansfield (1st Prize, Srhacluna y. 1963). White w play and mate in two moves; solution next week.
Solution to No. 466 (Zucker): 1 Q-KKt2, threat 2 Kt-Inch, K-R7; 3 Q-Q5 mate. A 1 . . . P-B4; 2 Q-0132, B-R7; 3 Q-113011, BxQ, 4 Kt-B2 mate. 8 1 . . . P-Kt5; 2 Kt-B2ch, K-R7; 3 Q-Q5ch, P-K16; 4 Q-R5 mate. Fine main variation; note that I Q-QB2? won't do because of I . . 13-R2—first, P-B4 must be forced.
The prodigy
Any self-annotated collection of a grand- masters games is of great interest because the player understands them better than anyone else can—and he knows how far from perfect even his play is. Bobby Fischer's My Sixty Memorable GOIlleS (Faber 5(ls) is peculiarly fascinating because Fischer retains the single- mindedness and naivete of the schoolboy pro- digy that he was ten years ago. Although Fischer is now in the middle twenties this is the hook of the brilliant, single-minded adoles- cent, not of the adult; it has therefore a fresh- ness and directness (and crudity) that is not overlain or submerged with any self-awareness or culture outside chess.
Fischer Rises an introductory quotation from Emanuel Laskcr: 'On the chessboard lies and hypocrisy do not sun iv e long. The creative combination lays hare 11,6 presumption of a lie; the merciless fact, culminating in a checkmate, contradicts the hypocrite'. 1 can't help feeling that Fischer thinks that someone who, in this sense, is a liar and hypocrite on the chessboard is also one in real life and that this accounts for some of the arrogance he can show—he believes that weakness in chess implies an inferior human being.
Technically, his notes are of course quite first-class; they are also—so far as I can judge —quite honest. On a drawn game with Petro- sian—Fischer gives three losses and several draws in the book. another attractive feature— he says on move 20, 'I already knew I'd been outplayed', on move 24 (criticising Petrosian), 'Really risky! I was amazed he was allowing so much counter-play', on move 40 (when each side had two queens and Fischer seemed to be winning), thought this was it! The two queens are closing in for the kill', on his own move 47, 'A gross oversight, but probably best anyway! White can't win any more', and ai the end, 'I offered a draw, afraid that he wouldn't accept'. So that in this really wonder- ful game (No. 6 in the book) you get the refreshing impression that the emotions of the players and their altitude to their own play is much the same as those of Filoggs and Snooks playing board 11 in the annual Muggleton v Dingley Dell fixture.
Next week, a game from the book. Mean- while, buy it.
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