Supreme Domination in the Elite Encounters
A chess game played perfectly is a draw.
And there are no doubts about the above quote. We are a witness of top chess engines battling it out to a draw in their colossal struggles. Not only engines but even the highest quality of players find it strenuous to force a result in classical time controls. Every game in the 2018 World Chess Championship between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana concluded in a draw and tiebreakers had to be called upon to decide the world champion. GM Anish Giri drew all of his 14 games at the 2016 Candidates tournament. The most simple explanation for this: chess played perfectly is a draw.
But not in this blog. Today I will be presenting before you 5 encounters when chess played at the highest level did not result in a draw, or even a close encounter, instead one of those players swept away his opponent in some fashion to win the match by a whitewash. Here are some of the perfect scores achieved in chess matches in the history of the game.
Howard Staunton vs Daniel Harrwitz (1846)
It was the sunny month of August out there in London in the year 1846, and things were going to heat up even more when a cool and composed English chess master Howard Staunton was all set to play a match against the German master Daniel Harrwitz. Staunton was regarded as the strongest players of the 1843-51 timeline and Harrwitz was definitely the underdog here.
But the match was set up in a very unusual way. Three matches were played in total with 7 games each, in the first match Staunton gave Harrwitz odds of a pawn and two moves (which he won by 4-3), in the second match Staunton gave his opponent the odds of a pawn and a move (which he lost by 1-6), and the third match was played with no odds at all.
Staunton decimated his opponent in the third and final match of them all, declaring a 7-0 whitewash against the strong German master and announcing his dominance in the era.
The game of chess is the most intellectual and fascinating pastime which the wisdom of antiquity has bequeathed to us.
- Howard Staunton
Wilhelm Steinitz vs Joseph Henry Blackburne (1876)
The game of chess was past the Anderssen era, past the Morphy era. It was the second half of the 1870s. The official World Chess Championship still had 10 years to come. But the champion had already arrived, Wilhelm Steinitz won his last 16 games at the Vienna 1873 and tied with Joseph Blackburne for first place. 3 years later, after not playing a lot of serious chess and tournaments for a couple of years, Steinitz took on Blackburne (who was one of the world's strongest players at the time) in a match in 1876, sweeping him by a score of 7-0.
Wilhelm played no major tournaments between 1873 and 1882 (except for this match). 4 years later, he won the first World Chess Championship to become the first official world champion. He is regarded as the "Father of Positional Chess" due to his contributions to chess theory.
Chess is difficult, it demands work, serious reflection and zealous research.
- Wilhelm Steinitz
Jose Raul Capablanca vs Boris Kostic (1919)
Two years before putting an end to Lasker's 27-year reign as a world champion, Jose Raul Capablanca, one of the greatest players of all time, played a match against Boris Kostic, a Yugoslav grandmaster, in his home city of Havana, Cuba. Intended to be one of eight games up, draws not counting, the match came to an untimely end after only five games as the Cuban genius outclassed his opponent in some fashion, winning the match by the score of 5-0. The match began on 25 March 1919 and saw its end on April 5.
After having to taste defeat in the first four games, Kostic did not even try in the 5th game and resigned after a total of just 15 moves. This is the fear Capablanca brought to the board.
After dethroning Lasker in the 1921 World Chess Championship, Capablanca remained the world champ until 1927, when he was defeated by the first Soviet chess champion, Alekhine.
I see only one move ahead, but it is always the correct one.
- Jose Raul Capablanca
Bobby Fischer vs Mark Taimanov (1971)
1970-72 was when the chess world saw the most dominating run by any player in chess history, by none other than the great Robert James Fischer. His record of longest professional winning streak of 20 games in a row stands to this day, and there's less than one in a million chance that it will ever be broken in this era of chess engines and computers. He demonstrated a level of dominance over the world's strongest players that had never been seen before and hasn't been seen since.
The dominating era that began with 7 wins in a row in the Palma De Mallorca, continued in the 1971 Candidates tournament, and Fischer's first prey was none other than the influential player Mark Taimanov. Fischer blew away Taimanov in the quarter-finals comprehensively by a score of 6-0, thus ending the need for a 10-game match to decide the semi-finalist.
Another trademark KID by Fischer. It was equal most of the time, but a major slip in the endgame from Taimanov was enough for the eval bar to rise in Fischer's favor.
Guess what, this is not the first time and the last time you are gonna see Fischer in this blog.
Bobby Fischer vs Bent Larsen (1971)
Fischer's 6-0 triumph over Taimanov was a statement that he was in it to win it. But he was not done yet. Next up, he was facing the Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen. Unfortunately for Larsen, he was up against the prime Bobby Fischer, and the feat of the quarter-finals was repeated, as Fischer thumped Larsen just like Taimanov by the score of 6-0.
Larsen completely lost his plot towards the end. 27.Rb1 marked the beginning of the problems for him, and he crumbled under the pressure.
Bobby Fischer only stopped after winning the "Match of the Century" against Boris Spassky, a.k.a the 1972 World Chess Championship. Even though he has a relatively short chess career than players like Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen, his dominating run has made him a part of the GOAT debate.
Chess demands total concentration.
- Bobby Fischer
Conclusion
This will be the end of this blog, congratulations on making it here, and thanks for reading. These were some of the most dominating triumphs of a player over the other in chess history, and it was my pleasure presenting them before you. I am open to all types of feedback, whether positive or negative, so do share them if you have some. If you want updates regarding my blogs or simply like my content, consider joining my club. If you want to read a blog on a specific topic, do share it in the comments, I will consider writing a blog on it in the future. Once again, thanks for reading, and until next time, I am outta here.