Gligoric - Fischer, Bled 1961

In the game I discussed previously -- Improving on Fischer, Geller, and Kasparov? -- Fischer overlooked the best continuation and the outcome was clear. Chess GMs play so well that games between them often turn on a single move. That might also be the case in the next game. No.30 in Fischer's 60 Memorable Games and no.64 in Kasparov's Predecessors IV, here is the PGN with Fischer's and Kasparov's punctuation.

[Event "Bled"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1961.??.??"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Gligoric, S."]
[Black "Fischer, R."]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E98"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 O-O 6.Be2 e5 7.O-O Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Nd3 f5 11.exf5 Nxf5 12.f3 Nf6 13.Nf2 Nd4 14.Nfe4 Nh5 {KAS: '?!'} 15.Bg5 Qd7 16.g3 {KAS: '!'} 16...h6 17.Be3 c5 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '?!'} 18.Bxd4 {KAS: '!'} 18...exd4 19.Nb5 a6 {KAS: '!'} 20.Nbxd6 d3 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 21.Qxd3 {KAS: '?!'} 21...Bd4+ 22.Kg2 {KAS: '?'} 22...Nxg3 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 23.Nxc8 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!?'} 23...Nxf1 24.Nb6 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 24...Qc7 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 25.Rxf1 Qxb6 26.b4 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 26...Qxb4 27.Rb1 Qa5 28.Nxc5 {KAS: '!'} 28...Qxc5 29.Qxg6+ Bg7 30.Rxb7 Qd4 31.Bd3 Rf4 32.Qe6+ Kh8 33.Qg6 1/2-1/2

The key sequence in the game appears to be the moves starting 17...c5, where the 11th and 13th World Champions differ on the evaluation {FIS: '!'; KAS: '?!'}, due to missed opportunities on White's 21st & 22nd moves.

After Fischer - Gligoric, CT 1959, this is their second game in my series titled 18 Memorable Games. Gligoric was one of three players in 60 Memorable Games to be featured in four games. The other two were Keres and Reshevsky, while Petrosian and Tal were both featured in three games.

Chessgames.com notes that Robert James Fischer beat Svetozar Gligoric 7 to 4, with 8 draws (+7-4=8). If we exclude three 'training' games played in 1992, the score was (+6-4=6), and we see why GM Gligoric was considered one of the best players in the world in the 1960s. To play through the current game, see...

Svetozar Gligoric vs Robert James Fischer, Bled 1961
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044007

...on Chessgames.com. I don't recall ever seeing the training games, so I'll look at those in a separate post.