Gold for Fischer - Spassky

Fischer memorabilia generally sells well, even more so after the 11th World Champion died in 2008, but only rarely does an item appear in Top eBay Chess Items by Price. The item pictured below, titled 'Iceland 1972 Fischer-Spassky - World Chess - GOLD COIN' was an exception, most likely because of the price of gold rather than for the coin itself. It sold for US $850.00 at 'Best Offer'.

The description said,

For sale is this Icelandic Official 1972 world chess championship gold coin - Made by the Icelandic chess federation - The medal weighs 22 grams of 22 karat gold.

Since 22 karat gold is 91.6% pure and the price of gold is updated constantly ($1413 per ounce as I write this), the intrinsic value of the coin can be calculated exactly. At about the same time this coin was on offer, the seller had another auction.

For sale is this Icelandic Official 1972 world chess championship medal set - Made by the Icelandic chess federation - There are three medals in this set made out of gold, silver and bronz. The gold medal is 22 karat and weighs 20 grams - Silver medal is Sterling silver and weighs 20 grams - Bronz weighs at 20 grams as well.

Each coin in the set had a map of Iceland on one side and a pair of Knights on the other. The set sold for $995.00, also 'Best Offer'. I wonder how much these items sold for at the time of the 1972 match.

Blogs @ Chess.com

The deadline is looming for another blog carnival, once again on the theme of chess instruction, and I have nothing suitable to submit. After noticing that neither of the last two carnivals featured any posts from Chess Blogs - Chess.com, I decided to survey the many blogs to be found there.

Chess.com maintains its own list of top blogs -- Top Bloggers - Last 60 Days -- but I wanted to look at all blogs. Currently third on the list of top blogs is Blunderprone, a mirror for the forthcoming carnival host, including the original announcement for the carnival: Come one! Came All! Chess Blog Carnival III Coming soon.

I've been following all Chess.com blogs for the last year or so. It's not hard to do, since each blog page and each blog aggregate has its own RSS feed. The blogs represent a real mixed bag, both in chess strength and in writing style. The biggest advantage of the site is that it offers chess specific tools for constructing a blog post like standard diagrams, game viewers, and puzzle constructors. The biggest disadvantage is that the posts don't seem to do particularly well in the search engines. If you don't follow them, you probably won't see them.

I looked at all Chess.com posts written since the beginning of the month and, if one seemed promising, looked at other posts on the same blog. The qualities for mention in this current post were: written in English, on topic, at least one post in the last month, more content than a single uncommented game in a viewer, at least five posts total, and (as specified for the carnival) instructional. I didn't pay much attention to each blogger's chess rating. Content and style count for a lot more than chess strength.

From that exercise I worked up a short list that was finally whittled down to the following list.

• gotdatpiff's Blog : Opening surveys
  
• panderson2's Blog : Tactical galleries
  
• LuckyTiger's Blog : Essays & games
  
• Osiris27's Blog : Philosophy & games
  
• mauerblume's Blog : Endgames

Two more blogs get special mention because they don't fit the same mold as the others.

• SirIvanhoe's Blog : External blog support, 'Mostly a game cache for games featured on my blog: The Pied Chessman.'
  
• Spektrowski's Blog : Tal++

The chess blogosphere has always been volatile. Good blogs appear out of nowhere, then disappear overnight. If you think I've overlooked a good *instructional* blog, just mention it in a comment.

***

Later: For some reason, call it intuition, I half expected this carnival submission to be ignored, but it was included in Chess Blog Carnival III: The Renaissance Faire Edition.

Fischer - Stein, Sousse 1967

More than three years after starting this series on 18 Memorable Games, a comparison of annotations by Fischer and by Kasparov, I've finally reached the 18th and last game, no.60 in Fischer's 60 Memorable Games and no.75 in Kasparov's Predecessors IV. Except for two moves of Fischer's moves in the opening -- 14.b4 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!?'} and 17.e5 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!?'} -- the punctuation of the two former World Champions is nearly identical. That means I might not find a variation to investigate further.

[Event "Sousse izt"]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1967.??.??"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Fischer, R."]
[Black "Stein, L."]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C92"]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 O-O 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Na5 11.Bc2 Nc4 12.b3 Nb6 13.Nbd2 Nbd7 14.b4 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!?'} 14...exd4 15.cxd4 a5 16.bxa5 c5 17.e5 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!?'} 17...dxe5 {KAS: '!'} 18.dxe5 Nd5 19.Ne4 Nb4 {KAS: '!'} 20.Bb1 Rxa5 21.Qe2 {FIS: '!'} 21...Nb6 {FIS: '?'; KAS: '?'} 22.Nfg5 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 22...Bxe4 {FIS: '!'} 23.Qxe4 g6 24.Qh4 h5 25.Qg3 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 25...Nc4 {FIS: '!'} 26.Nf3 {FIS: '?'; KAS: '?'} 26...Kg7 27.Qf4 Rh8 28.e6 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 28...f5 29.Bxf5 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 29...Qf8 30.Be4 {FIS: '?'; KAS: '?'} 30...Qxf4 31.Bxf4 Re8 {FIS: '?'; KAS: '?'} 32.Rad1 {KAS: '!'} 32...Ra6 33.Rd7 Rxe6 34.Ng5 Rf6 35.Bf3 {FIS: '!'} 35...Rxf4 36.Ne6+ Kf6 37.Nxf4 Ne5 38.Rb7 Bd6 39.Kf1 Nc2 40.Re4 Nd4 41.Rb6 Rd8 42.Nd5+ Kf5 43.Ne3+ Ke6 44.Be2 {FIS: '!'} 44...Kd7 45.Bxb5+ Nxb5 46.Rxb5 Kc6 47.a4 Bc7 48.Ke2 g5 49.g3 Ra8 50.Rb2 Rf8 51.f4 gxf4 52.gxf4 Nf7 53.Re6+ Nd6 54.f5 Ra8 55.Rd2 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 55...Rxa4 56.f6 1-0

To play through the complete game, see...

Robert James Fischer vs Leonid Stein; Sousse izt 1967
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044022

...on Chessgames.com.

Carlsen & Nakamura Playing Blitz

Sometimes you get tired of watching art videos, like What Makes a Perfect Game of Chess?, and just want to watch two of the world's best players go head to head at blitz.

World Blitz Championship (8:11) • Carlsen - Nakamura, Moscow 2010

To play through the moves of the game, see Magnus Carlsen vs Hikaru Nakamura; World Blitz Championship 2010 on Chessgames.com. GM Levon Aronian, another of the world's best players, won the event.

The KGB and the Soviet School

While reading the 'The KGB Plays Chess: The Soviet Secret Police and the Fight for the World Chess Crown' by Boris Gulko, Yuri Felshtinsky, Vladimir Popov, and Viktor Kortschnoi [Korchnoi; Russell Enterprises, 1910], I noted a section of the Foreword by Boris Gulko that well summarized the rest of the book:-

At the heart of this book are the fates of six chess players. Five of them opposed the KGB. All of them attained their goals. [Boris Spassky, Viktor Korchnoi, Garry Kasparov, Boris Gulko, Anya (or Anna) Akhsharumova (Gulko's wife)]. Of course, these victories at times had to paid with years of imprisonment for people who were close to us, with ruined careers and nervous systems, with disappointments in various friends. But victories, as chess players know, must always be paid for.

The sixth major character in this book, Anatoly Karpov, fought on the other side of the barricades. And he, too, was successful. [vs. Korchnoi, vs. Kasparov, vs. the Gulkos] Now, when the leadership of the KGB has partly privatized Russia, Karpov has also received his piece of the pie.

I had to ask myself, 'When did the wonderful promise of the Soviet School of Chess, which achieved such great accomplishments in the royal game, start to sink so low?' In pondering this question, I stumbled on a chronology that is useful for defining its life cycle; the 'Five Stages of Evolution' of the Soviet School:-

• Pre-Soviet School : before 1917
  
• Early Soviet School : 1917 to 1948
  
• Mature Soviet School : 1948 to 1972
  
• Late Soviet School : 1972 to 1991
  
• Post-Soviet School : after 1991

The years should be self-evident to anyone who dabbles in chess history. There is too much in the book that I haven't digested properly, so I'm not ready to comment on it, especially since it possesses obvious faults. In the meantime, here are three reviews by well known chess book reviewers.

• Gulko 1, Secret Police 0, Steven B. Dowd [Chesscafe.com]
  
• Review: The KGB Plays Chess, by Arne Moll [Chessvibes.com]
  
• The KGB Plays Chess: Meeting Raul, by David Surratt [Chessville.com]

Although I don't agree fully with any of these reviews, taken together they offer a comprehensive portrait of the book.

No More Mainz, What About Linares?

The news out of Mainz isn't good: Chess Classic Mainz – Ende einer Ära (Chesstigers.de). If your German is as bad as mine, or nonexistent, there's an English equivalent at Chess Classic Mainz - End of an Era after 17 editions (Chessdom.com).

A decade full of dedication and passion for international rapid chess has come to an end in Mainz. A splendid decade from 2001 to 2010 with ground-breaking innovations in tournament organization for world class players and amateurs alike and the "Mainz System" Chess960, based on the ideas of the American World Champion Robert James "Bobby" Fischer, made the distinction between the Chess Classic and other classical tournaments.

And what about the Linares supertournament, a Grand Slam event normally held in February? A Q&A near the end of 2011 Tata Steel Chess Tournament: final press conference (Youtube.com, @11:55), informs,

Q: Can you tell me about other tournaments in the Grand Slam? • A: [Wijk aan Zee TD Jeroen van den Berg:] Yesterday we had a meeting and so far I have understood that the chances for Sofia [Mtel] are almost zero at the moment. It will not be held, so Bazna will be part of the Grand Slam tour this year, like last year. The situation with Linares is unclear due to the elections in May. I don't have inside information, but it's not yet clear when and where it's going to be held, in Linares or in another part, so you should find other sources. Nanjing is guaranteed, but we already had that tournament in the Grand Slam cycle, won by Carlsen. Now [Nakamura] will get the invitation. Bilbao is also on in September.

There is no further info on the official site for Bilbao Final Masters 2011, but maybe they'll get around to it one of these days.

Watch Out for 'Etc.'

For the first time in this series on 18 Memorable Games, the game Portisch - Fischer, Santa Monica 1966 presents almost no significant differences of opinion between Fischer and Kasparov. The diagrammed position is the start of the critical sequence. Fischer played 11...Qd7, which received a total of four '!'s from the three commentators. Here's what they had to say.

Portisch: 'A very unpleasant surprise. I considered only 11...Nd7 which is inferior because of 12.Bd3 Nf6 13.Qh4 with initiative. After the text I realized that I had gotten into a prepared variation and that Black has a splendid position.'

Fischer: 'The finest move in the game, far superior to the "natural" 11...Nd7 12.Bd3 Nf6 13.Qh4 with two Bishops and a beautiful development despite the doubled Pawns. Black can well afford to give up two Rooks for a Queen, as will soon become apparent. The text prepares ...Nb8-c6-a5, hitting the "weakling", as Alekhine used to call that kind of a target.'

Kasparov gave a few moves more in the same variation and paraphrased a portion of Fischer's verbal analysis.

The move 11...Qd7 set up the critical position, where Portisch had to find the antidote to a prepared variation. This is a difficult task while the clock is ticking in a real game.

Santa Monica 1966
Fischer, Robert

Portisch, Lajos
After 11.Qf3-e4(xN)

White played 12.Ba3, leading to the following comments.

Portisch: 'A difficult choice. After 12.Bd3 f5 13.Qe2 Nc6 14.O-O Rfe8! 15.f4 (or 15.Bf4) 15...Na5. White has no compensation for the doubled Pawn and he is condemned to passive defense. Therefore I decided to give up my Queen for the Rooks in a hope to save the game, which nearly succeeded.'

Fischer: 'White gets the worst of it after 12.Bd3 f5 13.Qe2 Nc6 etc. Still, this was a prudent choice.'

Kasparov: Repeats Fischer's comment ands adds, 'However, this evaluation is contested by 14.Bf4!, for example: 14...Rfe8 15.O-O Na5 16.Be5 Qc6 17.c5 Bxd3 18.Qxd3 bxc5 19.Rab1 and "Black's extra Pawn is not important" (Huebner), or 14...Ne7 15.O-O Ng6 16.Be5 c5 17.a4 Rfd8 18.a5 with equality.'

It's not immediately clear, but the evaluation 'contested' by 14.Bf4 is Fischer's comment that 'White gets the worst of it' after 12.Bd3 'etc'. Kasparov, in his variation 12.Bd3 f5 13.Qe2 Nc6 14.Bf4, omits the thematic continuation 14...Na5 (rather than 14...Ne7, which takes the Knight away from White's weak Queenside Pawns), because 15.O-O Rfe8 just transposes into his line after 14...Rfe8. This also happens to be the same line given by Portisch if we take the note 15.Bf4 and continue 15...Na5.

So who's right: Portisch ('[White] is condemned to passive defense') and Fischer ('White gets the worst of it') -or- Huebner and Kasparov? After analyzing the position for some time, I have to agree with Huebner and Kasparov. Their 16.Be5 is adequate, but 16.Rab1 looks even better. White has active play and is as much in the game as Black is. When Fischer wrote 'etc.', did he realize how much life was left in the position?