The game that ended Bobby Fischer's historic 20 wins in a row winning streak

Hi all

Bobby Fischer had a run of seven wins in the Interzonal tournament leading to the candidate matches of 1971. Surely the Candidates matches would be a much harder challenge.

However, Fischer started mowing down opponents on his way to challenge Boris Spassky for the 1972 World chess championship.

He had beaten Taimanov 6-0. Then he had beaten Larsen 6-0!

And then he had to face Tigran Petrosian - a two times World chess champion. Bobby Fischer won game 1 of the match.

So Fischer at this stage had accumulated 7 + 6 + 6 + 1 = 20 straight wins in a row!

As a result of all of these wins, and other great results, when the first official FIDE rating list was published in July 1971, Fischer was listed as the highest-rated player by a wide gap.

But this is what happened in game 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0C7_eXp3kE

(Check out my Tigran Petrosian playlist here: https://kingscrusher.tv/tigranpetrosian )

The opening was a Gruenfeld defence - the same opening Fischer had used when he was 16 years old and played the "Game of the Century"

The odd looking Ne2 as opposed to Nf3 was perhaps "Over-punished" by Fischer, trying to do something very specific in regards to this move:

Ne5 - using that e5 square:

An interesting decision to take out the knight on e5 giving up the dark square bishop:

Black's structure fractured:

A fantastic positional pawn sacrifice, denying black a delayed c5 blockade

Now White's bishop is quite active and liberated, and can take part in King attacks more easily

Exciting tactical moment - has Petrosian fallen victim to a tactical "cheapo" - threats of Qxh2 and e2:

f4! Positionl exchange sacrifice:

Black's king safety and shelter are in ruins:

Key attacking move hitting both b7 and f7:

Brutally undermining the f6 pawn:

Final position

It doesn't matter that black has a check on d1 or a1 - the rook would return for a moment to f1 and then be ready to help checkmate the King after with Rf6 check as the variations show.

Key takeaway points

• Bobby Fischer's 20 game win streak came to an end with this dramatic game - Fischer sometimes seems to want to play "too accurately" to punish opponents - and perhaps underestimates the dynamic sacrifices that could be available to counter-punish the punishment
• Be careful when not blockading a key square immediately. The c5 pawn sac perhaps caught Fischer by surprise
• Even when an exchange down, if there is visible compensation, then sometimes accurate moves like Qb3 can help prove the visual evidence.

Hope you enjoyed this blog :). Any likes and follows are really appreciated. Also, I also have some interesting chess courses at https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscourses to check out.

Cheers, K