Tal's victory Part 4, by James O'Fee

Continued from Part 3:

Of course the Candidates Tournament of 1959 included the world's best players. Among them was American Bobby Fischer who had qualified for the Candidates while still a teenager - an unheard of feat. In his autobiographical My 60 Memorable Games (Faber & Faber, 1969) Fischer includes 7 games from the Candidates, 4 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss -

(Game 11) Fischer-Benko, Sicilian Defense, 1-0, 27 moves "Unheard melodies"
(Game 12) Gligorich-Fischer, Sicilian Defense, 1/2, 57 moves "Castling into it"
(Game 13) Fischer-Gligorich, Sicilian Defense, 1-0, 32 moves "Something new"
(Game 14) Keres-Fischer, Sicilian Defense, 0-1, 53 moves "Too many cooks"
(Game 15) Smyslov-Fischer, Sicilian Defense, 0-1, 54 moves "A whopper"
(Game 16) Fischer-Petrosian, Caro-Kann Defense, 1/2, 48 moves "Four Queens"
(Game 17) Fischer-Tal, Sicilian Defense, 0-1, 51 moves "A very near miss"

In a more recent book of Fischer's career, [Bobby Fischer rediscovered, Batsford, 2003) Andrew Soltis includes 4 games from the 1959 Candidates -

(Game 10) Keres-Fischer, Sicilian Defense, Najdorf Variation (B99), 0-1, 53 moves
[see 60MG 14 "Too many cooks" ]
(Game 11) Fischer-Gligorić, Sicilian Defense, Sozin Variation (B57), 1-0, 32 moves
[see 60MG 13 "Something new" ]
(Game 12) Fischer-Benko, Sicilian Defense, Sozin Variation (B57), 1-0, 27 moves
[see 60MG 11 "Unheard melodies" ]
(Game 13) Fischer-Petrosian, Caro-Kann Defense, Two Knights Variation (B11), 1/2, 48 moves
[ see 60MG 16 "Four Queens"]

In his How Fischer Plays Chess ( Fontana/Collins, 1975) David N.L. Levy has 4 games from the 1959 Candidates -

(Game 19) Belgrade. Fischer-Tal, Sicilian Defence, 0-1, 51 moves
[60MG "A very near miss"]

(Game 20) Bled. Fischer-Petrosian, Caro-Kann Defence, 0-1, 68 moves
(Game 21) Zagreb. Fischer-Keres, Caro-Kann Defence, 0-1, 30 moves

20 & 21 are given as two examples of losses by Fischer to Soviet players who defended with the Caro Kann.

(Game 22) Bled. Olafsson-Fischer, Sicilian Defence, 1-0, 45 moves

A loss by Fischer to a non-Soviet player.

(Game 23) Bled. Fischer-Benko, Sicilian Defence, 1-0, 27 moves

A fine win by Fischer. "Unheard melodies" in 60MG and included by Soltis as well

Levy writes of Fischer at the 1959 Candidates -

I doubt that Fischer honestly believed that he could win the Candidates' Tournament at his first attempt, even though Tal later ridiculed Fischer for being so optimistic. 'Fischer, at the outset, dreamed of becoming champion of the world. But he would have had better chances in playing, first, for the Junior Championship.' ...

The tournament was different from anything that Bobby had played in before. Instead of there being a number of comparative rabbits in the field there were eight strong Grandmasters and no other players. Each of the eight met each other four times, twice with each colour. The winner of this twenty-eight round marathon would earn the right to challenge Botvinnik. In 1956 and 1959 no one objected to this system of qualification, but three years later it was a different story (see page 75).

Fischer's performance in Yugoslavia can hardly be called bad by most standards, but it was certainly much worse than he expected. there were three main reasons for his 'failure'. His disastrous score against the Soviet players in general (five out of sixteen), and against Tal in particular(four losses); his inability to score heavily against the non-Soviets; and his rigid opening repertoire, in particular his inflexible attitude to the Caro-Kann Defence. In short, he was neither strong enough nor sufficuently well prepared (in an all-round sense), to be able to shine among the world's very strongest players.

The best illustration of the extent to which he was outclassed is the quartet of games which he lost to Tal. After the tournament Fischer complained to Gligoric that he had reached a winning position in every one of these games, a false claim if ever there was one. In fact Fischer did not hold the advantage at any stage in their first three encounters. In the fourth game he came very close to victory but even then it passed him by, and he overplayed his hand.

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To be continued