Geller: The Tree That Keeps Bearing Fruit! (Part I)
"WE STAND ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS!"- we have all heard this quote at one time or another. Yesterday an article was published by Mr. Peter Doggers, titled "Nepomniachtchi Wins Jerusalem Grand Prix, Qualifies For Candidates".
In the article, the following game, analyzed by GM Dejan Bojkov, was featured:
Note: Special thanks to GM Dejan Bojkov for allowing me to use the Wei-Yi-Nepomniachtchi game with his analysis!
and it triggered a great and pleasant memory from Geller's games! (By the way, I did not know, but this is known as the Geller Variation in the English Symmetrical Anti-Benoni Variation!)
In 1969, Bernard Cafferty translated and published "Grandmaster Geller at the Chessboard", which was later published as "The Application of Chess Theory" in 1983.
The most recent edition looks different:
It is a great book; a collection of 100 games, all commented by Geller! Then first part of the book has games organized by opening; the second part of the book is games against World Champions!
Chess has three outstanding elements: Sport, Art and Technique.
From the sporting standpoint, Geller is a giant!
Here is his score against World Champions:
"Geller had an overall plus score against four world champions: Mikhail Botvinnik +4−1=7, Vasily Smyslov +11−8=37, Tigran Petrosian +5−3=32, Bobby Fischer +5−3=2.[3] In total, Geller has played ten and beaten eight world chess champions, and his overall record in games in classical chess against world champions is positive: +39−36=131 (Max Euwe +1−1, Mikhail Botvinnik +4−1=7, Vassily Smyslov +11−8=37, Mikhail Tal +6−6=23, Tigran Petrosian +5−3=32, Boris Spassky +6−10=22, Bobby Fischer +5−3=2, Anatoly Karpov +1−2=5, Gary Kasparov +0−1=2, Viswanathan Anand +0−1=1). Geller did rather badly against Korchnoi (+6−11=16) and Polugaevsky (+4−11=21). "- Wikipedia
In the creative element, I find two aspects: over-the-board creative achievements, and theoretical contributions. In Geller's case, his understanding of chess was so deep, he was also a great coach, having coached Spassky, Karpov and Petrosian! Sometimes the teacher is good, but the student does not want to heed the advice!
Let us look at an example of this:
In this position of the Queen's Gambit Declined, Tartakower Variation:
Geller writes:
"Earlier White had usually played 14.Be2. But in his game against me in the tournament celebrating the 25th Victory Anniversary (Moscow, 1970), Furman played 14.Bb5 which was a new move at the time. The idea is to induce the advance of the a-pawn, which will weaken not only that pawn but Black's entire queenside."
"Our game continued 14...a6 15.dxc5 bxc5 16. 0-0 Ra7 17. Be2 a5 18.Rc3 Nd7 19.Rfc1, and White gained an advantage. Shortly after that game I discovered the correct plan for Black (14...Qb7), which Spassky and I examined during the period of preparation for the World Championship match in 1972. Yet in his sixth match game with Fischer, Spassky for some reason preferred the old line. He followed Furman-Geller as far as move 17, the played 17...Nd7 18.Nd4 Qf8; but after 19.Nxe6 fxe6 20.e4 he obtained the worse game."
Now, I have a hard time understanding why Spassky did not play 14...Qb7. Maybe only Spassky can answer that question!
Here is the stem game, Furman Geller, Moscow 1970:
Here is Fischer's victory against Spassky in the 6th game of the World Championship match in 1972:
At the AVRO Tournament in Hilversum, 1973, Geller unveiled his novelty and beat GM Jan Timman!
OK, going back to the position from the Wei-Yi- Nepomniachtchi game:
This is the basic position of the Geller Variation. There are three games by Geller in the database.
The stem game he lost, against Taimanov in 1955:
That loss against Taimanov was played on March 4, 1955. Four months later, on July 5th, 1955, Geller would defeat Donald Byrne, who played, like Wei-Yi, 7.Nbd5, but Wei_Yi improved on Byrne's play by playing 9.Qa4! instead of Byrne's 7.Be3.
Now, the following game is the one that Wei-Yi and Nepomniachtchi reminded me of. Like Taimanov, Beliavsky played 7.Nb3, but Geller had a new move (9....0-0) up his sleeve!
At the time the game was played in the Alekhine Memorial Tournament, Moscow, 1975, Beliavksy was 22 years old and Soviet Champion, and Geller was 50 years old!
To summarize: players are still deriving benefit from Geller's numerous contributions to chess theory. Geller, the tree, keeps bearing fruit!
