Betting on Chess

Do you follow chess at all? I follow the old chess, I follow all the pre-arranged matches, like the last Kramnik – Kasparov match. At the highest level it is all pre-arranged, move by move. You have very interesting, beautiful pre-arranged games being created by very intelligent players, working with computers, working in teams. I have no objections to people creating such games, but they must say these are pre-arranged games, but they must not claim that they are finding the moves over the board. I have learned so much from these pre-arranged matches and all these cooked-up notes, they’re wonderful. But they are fake, they are flawed. Robert James Fischer interviewed by Helgi Helgasson and Sæmundur Pálsson for a Reykjavík radio station on January 27, 2002.

Robert James Fischer in Belgrade, 1970
Photo: Stevan Kragujević

Rear Window

11th World Chess Champion Robert James Fischer
Photo: Archivo MARCA

Varaždin Baroque Solo

July 12, 1970: American Grandmaster Robert James Fischer holds a simultaneous exhibition on 20 boards in Varaždin, Croatia. Photo: Stanko Prešnjak.

• Josip Novak, Varaždinci i legendarni šahist Bobby Fischer prije 45 godina odigrali simultanku, evarazdin.hr, May 17, 2015

Robert James Fischer in Varaždin
Photo: evarazdin.hr

The Secret World

Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS)

Kaja Marie Snare (TV 2 Sport) & Magnus Carlsen
Photo: Linnea Syversen

Black & White

11th World Chess Champion Robert James Fischer playing chess, New York, 1962. Photo: Black and White History.

Scrying

Tarjei J. Svensen (@TarjeiJS)

While Magnus Carlsen was playing with Viswanathan Anand in the Glitnir Blitz Tournament (Reykjavík, March 16, 2006), 11th World Chess Champion Robert James Fischer was sitting about 150 meters away on a park bench, his eyes staring into the cell phone.

Ian Rogers (@GMIanRogers)

Robert James Fischer: His last days in Iceland
Photo © Einar S. Einarsson

Charcoal

Carl Mydans: 11th World Chess Champion Robert James Fischer (on the left), 1962. Photo: onlyoldphotography.

Lectio difficilior potior

11th World Chess Champion Robert James Fischer lecturing to chess players in Ogden (April, 1964). Photo: Deseret News.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

11th World Chess Champion Robert James Fischer at a ballgame. (Photo by Carl Mydans/The LIFE Premium Collection/Getty Images).

Antihero

I don’t believe in hero worship. Robert James Fischer

PlayStation

Magnus Carlsen (@MagnusCarlsen)

La fête de l’insignifiance

Robert James Fischer enjoying ping pong

1970年代

Robert James Fischer, New York City, 1971
Photo: David Attie/RockPaperPhoto

Robert James Fischer, New York City, 1971
Photo: David Attie/RockPaperPhoto

Attie photographed the elusive and eccentric Fischer for America Illustrated, a U.S. government-sponsored magazine that was distributed solely in the Soviet Union, less than a year before he beat Boris Spassky to become the only American ever to win the World Chess Championship. Attie’s fellow Alexey Brodovitch protege Richard Avedon was originally supposed to do this shoot. But Fischer saw Avedon as a “fashion photographer” and rejected the choice at the eleventh hour as demeaning to him. After viewing Attie’s work, Fischer approved the substitution. Oddly, he showed up completely unshaven, and Attie ended up shaving him while Attie’s wife filmed the proceedings with an 8mm camera. [Read more].

1960年代

Robert James Fischer
Photo by Herbert Kronfeld/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Robert James Fischer
Photo by Herbert Kronfeld/ullstein bild via Getty Images

Funfair

Robert James Fischer
Photo: HBO Documentary Films

9月22日

World chess champion Robert James Fischer holds proclamation of “Bobby Fischer Day” presented by New York Mayor John V. Lindsay, right, at New York's City Hall, September 22, 1972. (AP Photo).

回答

Copy of U.S. Treasury Department letter ordering Robert James Fischer not to play his 1992 World Championship match.

On 1 September 1992 in Sveti Stefan, Montenegro, Robert James Fischer gave his first press conference in 20 years. When asked about his reply to the threats by Washington, Fischer took out the letter from the Treasury Department and spat on it.

俄罗斯卢布

Sochi: Vladimir [Vladimirovich] Putin congratulates Magnus Carlsen in person.
Photo: Chess-News.ru

As expected, the closing ceremony of the World Championship match has been attended by President of Russia Vladimir [Vladimirovich] Putin. The action took place at the Pushkin Hall which had been used by Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand for playing. After the chief arbiter of the match Andrzej Filipowicz declared the result of the match, President of Russia went on the stage. [Read more].

• Handshake, Chess-News.ru, November 26, 2014

明日之後

A not-so-sad Anand said in the press conference, “His nerves held up better, he was at the end superior”. A reporter asked the all important question which many Indians were eagerly waiting for to be answered. Reporter: Are you considering leaving chess? Anand: No! This was followed by a huge round of applause from the crowd which had gathered for the press conference. Whether he will play again in the candidates tournament to come back as a challenger next year, only time will tell. But he is not finished yet! Vishy vows a return. [Read more].

• Vignesh Radhakrishnan, World Chess Championship: Carlsen retains title, Anand vows return, Hindustan Times, November 23, 2014

Garry Kimovich Kasparov (@Kasparov63)

Cupio dissolvi

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Just two lines by Miss Lonelyhearts

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Magnus Carlsen – Viswanathan Anand
World Chess Championship; match game 11; Sochi, November 23, 2014
Spanish C67

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. 0-0 Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. dxe5 Nf5 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. h3 Bd7 10. Nc3 h6 11. b3 Kc8 12. Bb2 c5. For 12. ... b6 see Anand – Nakamura, London 2010. 13. Rad1 b6 14. Rfe1. For the immediate 14. Nd5 see Kokarev – Lékó, Loo 2014. 14. ... Be6 15. Nd5 g5 16. c4. A novelty. For 16. Nh2 Kb7 see Zhidkov – Vitoshinskiy, Dubna 2001. 16. ... Kb7 17. Kh2. “I defer to the experts, but I guess White wants g2-g4, Kh2-g3 and h3-h4, followed by rolling his kingside, if poss.”, Nigel Short tweeted. 17. ... a5 18. a4 Ne7 19. g4 Ng6 20. Kg3 Be7 21. Nd2 Rhd8 22. Ne4 Bf8 23. Nef6. “I would take Black more than ever after 23. ... b5”, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave enthusiastically said.

23. ... b5! 隨便。 “Anand played 23. ... b5 right away. It is tactically OK but a bit risky. Safer is 23. ... c6. This is a clear Pawn sac”, Zsuzsa Polgár said. 24. Bc3. Now 24. cxb5 c6! drops the b-Pawn, whereas if 24. axb5 then 24. ... a4! with excellent compensation for the Pawn. 24. ... bxa4 25. bxa4 Kc6. “Very strange decisions by Carlsen from the very start up to allowing the ... b6-b5 break. Now he will need a world of cleverness to save the day”, Vachier-Lagrave said. 26. Kf3 Rdb8. “Anand played 26. ... Rdb8. Not a blunder but not as strong as 26. ... Be7”, Polgár said. 27. Ke4. Now “There is the interesting exchange sac 27. ... Rb3 28. Rb1 Ra3 29. Ra1 Rxc3 30. Nxc3 Bxc4 but I would be surprised to see it happen”, Erwin l’Ami said. Instead... 27. ... Rb4!??? A cryptic Exchange sacrifice – it reminds me Henrique Mecking’s 37. ... Rb4 against 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) in Wijk aan Zee 2009. “... Rb8-b4 seems rather strange. ... Bf8-e7xf6 seemed better as Nepo suggested. Unfortunately, I think Carlsen is going to wrap up the match now”, Hikaru Nakamura said. 28. Bxb4 cxb4? “I am still stunned of Anand’s series of decision to play 26. ... Rdb8, 27. ... Rb4 then 28. ... cxb4 instead of the ... Bf8-e7 idea”, Polgár cried. Nolens volens, the consistent 28. ... axb4(!) 29. Ra1 Bg7 was compulsory. 29. Nh5 Kb7 30. f4 gxf4 31. Nhxf4 Nxf4. After 31. ... c6 32. Nxg6 fxg6 33. Nf4 White stands much better, but the text is even worse. 32. Nxf4 Bxc4 33. Rd7. Game over. 33. ... Ra6 34. Nd5 Rc6 35. Rxf7 Bc5 36. Rxc7+ Rxc7 37. Nxc7 Kc6 38. Nb5 Bxb5 39. axb5+ Kxb5 40. e6 b3 41. Kd3 Be7 42. h4 a4 43. g5 hxg5 44. hxg5 a3 45. Kc3 1 : 0.

Viswanathan Anand
Photo: Chess-News.ru (@Chess_News)