Russians versus Fischer

by Dmitri Plisetsky and Sergey Voronkov

Hardcover, 462 pages

Everyman Chess.2005

http://www.everymanchess.com/

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There was no love lost between Bobby Fischer and Efim Geller.The burly Odessa grandmaster exuded confidence, nay, arrogance when he played with Bobby. Over the years Geller had won three games in a row against the proud American. So Bobby had a score or two settle with him.At Palma de Mallorca Interzonal, 1970 both led the tournament until they met in the 12th round.When Fischer chose a quiet line with Black, Geller thought a half point would suit the American.So on the 7th move (!) he offered a draw. Fischer’s first reaction was to laugh.Geller too began to laugh-the American had lost three games to him before.Surely, he was doing him a favour.Suddenly Fischer stopped laughing,bent down and said, “Too early.” Geller went red and soon blundered a pawn.Although the game lasted 72 moves, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Geller played like a beaten man.Bobby won the Interzonal with 18½ points out of 23, 3½ points ahead of stalwarts like Larsen,Geller and Taimanov.His only loss was to Larsen who came second.

In Candidates' 1971 he was first paired with Taimanov.In spite of  massive propaganda against Fischer neither the public nor most grandmasters in the Soviet Union believed Taimanov had any chance.Neertheless, he made conscientious  preparation. Before the team left, the Captain, Kotov, Taimanov and his seconds, Balashov and Vasyukov had an official briefing by the Sports Committee.The words on parting were to allay fears of punishment:

 "You don't necessarily have to win, but we do expect a fight and a decent score"

Finally, they reached Vancouver,Canada, the venue of the Match.When Taimanov met Bobby he treated the younger opponent with decency and courtesy.Bobby reciprocated in kind. This was a match without acrimony.

 

Taimanov had prepared very aggressive lines against Bobby's King's Indian.But in the first game  he lost his way in complications.

 

 A terrific battle!

In the second game he played Sicilian, and was outplayed by Bobby.The third game was the turning point.Taimanov started a dangerous attack against Bobby's King's Indian. However, the American was ready for him and won with a counter attack.After the Match Bobby thought  that White should have won on the 20th move.Taimanov also thought likewise and followed it up with extensive analysis. Unfortunately, he was proved wrong by Kasparov. In his work on Fischer in My Great Predecessors (Part IV) Garry examined this game in great depth.Tragically, there was no win for White.In the end even the solace that he was winning  against Fischer at least once was denied to Taimanov.After this game he fell ill and was admitted to hospital on account of high blood pressure.The match was suspended for 3 days.The  resumption brought no relief.He was once again outplayed in Sicilan in the fourth game.It was the fifth game that roused the ire of his bosses.He blundered a rook in the adjournment session.It was all over in the last game (a Sicilian again).Bobby won 6-0.

Fischer:“The 6-0 result does not do justice to my opponent.The struggle was far more intense than the score alone shows. It’s easier to be a gentleman after winning than losing, and therefore I want to congratulate my opponent.”

At the closing ceremony Bobby said, it was a difficult match for him and the normal score would have been 3½-2½½.But that did not save Taimanov. How could a Soviet grandmaster lose so miserably to an American, and that too, to someone who had waged a war against them for years? It was just not permissible.But this real grouse could not be mentioned. So an excuse was found.When Taimanov returned to Moscow his luggage was thoroughly searched by customs officials  at the airpot and a copy of the dissident  writer Solzhenitsyn 's First Circle was found.At that time Solzhenitsyn  was still living in Moscow and there was no specific ban on reading his books.Yet Taimanov was charged  with carrying banned literature.An elderly customs official who knew Taimanov said sympathetically,"How could you be so careless, Mark Evgenevich? If your score against Fischer had been better, I would have been prepared to carry the complete works of Solzhenitsyn for you." Meanwhile he was found guilty of another "crime". Dr.Euwe, the FIDE President had asked him to deliver a letter and a fee of 1,100 Guilders to Salo Flohr.The payment was for the publication of Flohr's articles in a Dutch magazine and the  covering letter made it clear that Taimanov personally  had nothing to do with the transaction.Yet he was summoned to a meeting of the Sports Committee.They had copies of Euwe's letter before them.

Taimanov: "By the expression on their faces I might have robbed the Bank of Canada and smuggled millions of roubles into the country.Pavlov, the Sports Minister charged me with carrying the contraband and the reading of books that he would be disgusted even to touch."

Pavlov even declared that Taimanov should be stripped of his grandmaster title and then suddenly remembered,"We cannot do that, the title was not awarded by us."Composer, Rostropovich, a friend of Taimanov, joked in private, "Have you heard, Solzhenitsyn is in trouble?They have found Taimanov's book, The Nimzovitsch Defence in his belongings!"He was now both an enemy of the state and a pariah without any means of livelihood.Taimanov and his entire team were called for an interrogation in a meeting of chess officials and players. The players included veterans like Keres and Boleslavsky and also world champions, Spassky and Petrosian among them.When Taimanov was harshly criticsed by Baturinsky, the boss, Kotov, the Captain of the Team defended him as best as he could.Older players like Alatortsev were sympathetic.The real insights came from Paul Keres and Yuri Averbakh.

Keres:"Taimanov was let down by our public and his own friends, who misinformed him.They belittled Fischer's strength and painted a rosy picture.This was the psychological error in preparation. Fischer is not only a strong player,but also very hard to oppose as a personality-because he fights to the last and never gives up....We should on no account underestimate Fischer."

Averbakh:"We overestimated Fischer's imagined and real weaknesses, but we forgot about our own.We should control preparation more closely."

In the end what saved Taimanov from his persecutors was the disastrous loss of Larsen in the hands of Fischer with the same score, 6-0. "Even they could not have suspected the Danish grandmaster of being in collusion with the American imperialists!"-Taimanov

To be continued

The next part of the review may be found here:

http://www.chess.com/article/view/russsians-versus-fischerpart-vi

Notes:

1)Both Taimanov's testimony and the documents of top secret meetings form

    a valuable part of the book.

He has described his experiences in a Russian work,Ya byl zhertvoy Fishera

(I was Fischer's victim).It has not been translated into English.

2)All the games of  the Taimanov Match are annotated in detail by Kasparov in Part IV of My Great Predecessors series.

3)Only Botvinnik said, Fischer’s victory could not be taken for granted.Tal thought Taimanov had a chance if he played for tactical complications.The Soviets had this pet theory that Bobby was uncomfortable in irrational positions and he should be embroiled in them.Both Geller and Spassky had been successful with this policy in the past. Botvinnik did not agree.Nevertheless, he helped.He had prepared a dossier of games on Bobby and advised Taimanov to study it carefully.He also asked him to have young Balashov, an expert on Fischer’s games in his team.

Probably Keres was referring to "friends" like Botvinnik who were disparaging in their assessment of Fischer.Averbakh was also concerned about the lack of objectivity in their valuation of Fischer's play.

4)In all fairness to Baturinsky,after all the harsh questions, he did say,"...this is not a trial.We are here to reveal the causes and draw lesons for the future."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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