Tal's victory Part 5, by James O'Fee

Continued from Part 4:

Of course Mikhail Tal, the eventual victor, was not the only player in the 1959 Candidates Tournament. Other players produced magnificent chess. For other players the tournament was a pinnacle of their playing career.

For Bobby Fischer, for example, the tournament was a significant milestone. Fischer qualified for the Candidates by taking 6th equal place in the Interzonal Tournament of 1958 at Portoroz, Yugoslavia (won by Tal). At Portoroz, Fischer was only 15 years old. At the Candidates (which moved between Bled, Zagreb and Belgrade), Fischer was still only 16.

Garry Kasparov devotes an entire volume - Volume 4 - of My Great Predecessors (Gloucester Publications, London, 2004), to Bobby Fischer's career. Kasparov writes of the 1959 Candidates tournament at considerable length. Kaparov begins on p 237 with -

The Candidates tournament (September-October 1959) took place in three Yugoslav towns - Bled, Zagreb and Belgrade. It was a marathon distance: each of the eight competitors had to play 28 games! The favourites were considered to be the Soviet grandmasters - Tal, Keres, Smyslov and Petrosian. In Tal's opinion, Gligoric might also shine. But he did not rate Fischer's chances very highly: 'It seems to me that he is not yet mature enough for such a difficult tournament.'

And indeed, Fischer was not ready for a meeting with the elite of world chess. For success in such a tournament it was not enough to be able to make draws with grandmasters - it was necessary to beat them. And Bobby was not yet able to do this - at least. not regularly. But he began with a sensational win over Keres - a second successive one, if you remember Zürich.

(Game 55) P.Keres-R. Fischer, 1st round, Sicilian Defence B99, 0-1, 53 moves
'It is curious that both of the tournament winners, Tal and Keres, began the event with a loss.'(Ragozin)

But from the 2nd round Fischer's 'Caro-Kann tragedy' began. The first to probe his weak point - the 1 e4 c6 2 Nc3 d5 2 Nf3 variation - was Petrosian, and then both Smyslov and Keres, who gained two wins over Bobby. Gligoric: 'The Soviet grandmasters had apparently agreed that this was the American's Achilles' heel.' His score against them in the Caro-Kann was dismal: 1-4, and this with the white pieces! True, when towards the finish the 'infallible prescription' was used by Benko and Olaffson, disaster awaited them. as will be evident, it was not only a matter of the competent choice of opening ...

Even so, the start went well for Fischer. in the 4th round he crushed Gligoric in spectacular fashion. gained revenge for Zürich. In the introduction to this game Evans writes: 'During the mid-fifties, Gligoric, Reshevsky, and Najdorf were considered the strongest non-Soviet Grandmasters. Within a few years Fischer managed to surpass them. However, in doing so, he succeeded in beating Gligoric only once - up to 1966.'

R. Fischer - S. Gligoric, 4th round, Sicilian Defence B57, 1-0, 32 moves
[60MG 13 "Something new", and Soltis Game 11 ]

It is hard to believe what happened next: after losing to Olaffson and Tal, Fischer held his ground with difficulty against Smyslov and then again suffered two knock-outs - against Keres and Petrosian. Even in his worst nightmares he could not have foreseen that he would have just 3 points out of 9! When he resigned to Tal and Petrosian, Bobby was unable to restrain his tears ...

There were difficult days for him.
Koblencs [Koblencs was Tal's long-term trainer:Ed]: 'Fischer's second was Bent Larsen. his fee for the work was 1000 dollars, but the Dane had to earn his bread. sometimes Bobby would sleep all day, and then at night he would drag the dead-tired Dane out of his bed and force him to analyse opening variations until morning.

The days were quieter for Larsen when Bobby suffered a defeat. Then the youth would shut himself in his room, not wishing to know anything that was happening outside of these four walls. His only relaxation during the tournament was reading Tarzan and listening to pop music on the radio ...'

Despite everything, Bobby continued to fight. The following fine win, like the game with Gligoric, was included in his book My 60 Memorable Games.

(Game 57) R. Fischer - P. Benko, 10th round, Sicilian Defence B57, 1-0, 27 moves
[60MG 11 "Unheard melodies", and Soltis Game 12]

However, Bobby was quite unable to stop the 'pendulum': a loss to Gligoric, a win against Olafsson, and again a loss to Tal, moreover, with white in a Sicilian. True, he conducted the game with Smyslov in good style - a fighting draw. At the halfway point of the tournament he he was firmly in sixth place: Keres - 10 out of 14, Tal - 9 1/2, Petrosian - 8 1/2, Gligoric - 8, Smyslov - 6, Fischer - 5 1/2.

Koblencs: 'The tournament moved on to Zabreb. There the third stage of the marathon was due to begin. But it appeared that Fischer had forgotten about his sufferings and was in an excellent mood. In reply to a question by Tal, whether he had ever been to the opera, in a treble voice the American began singing the march of the counter-bandits from Carmen.

And Caissa rewarded him for his staunchness of spirit: right at the start of the third cycle, in an equal position Keres left a bishop en prise against him. in the words of an eyewitness, Bobby even bet that in Zagreb he would score 6 out of 7! 'The bet was a good one, it didn't cost Bobby much - only 20 dollars.'

After a famous 'four queens' game with Petrosian he made three more draws - with Benko, Gligoric and Olafsson. but another defeat against Tal provoked a chain reaction in the form of losses to Smyslov and Keres ...

And again Fischer found in himself the strength to fight! After drawing with Petrosian, he then picked up 2 1/2 out of 3. in the penultimate round Bobby was close to at least once 'revenging himself' on Tal, but ... he again lost (Volume 2, Game No. 126). I think that at this moment he must have experienced the same Taimanov and Larsen were to experience 12 years later, when they were whitwashed by him: 'What is it about this Tal, is he bewitched?'

In his place another player would have been broken, but not Fischer. by conducting his game with Smyslov with impeccable technique, he succeeded in catching Gligoric: 1. Tal - 20 out of 28, 2. Keres - 18 1/2; 3. Petrosian - 15 1/2; 4. Smyslov - 15; 5-6. Fischer and Gligoric - 12 1/2; 7. Olafsson - 10; 8. Benko - 8. It will be seen that Bobby acted as a kind of regulator in the race between Tal and Keres: he lost 0-4 to the former, but drew 2-2 with the latter.

It would appear that the young debutant could have been content: only Tal, Keres, Petrosian and Smyslov had finished ahead of him. But already Fischer considered himself worthy of more. He received a high appraisal from a man who was usually sparing in his praise. here are some lines from the tournament book: 'World champion Botvinnik analysed many of Fischer's games and came to the conclusion that this youth does indeed possess a brilliant talent, but that some people underestimate him. In his style and understanding of the game fischer is close to the Soviet Chess School, the founder of which was Chigorin. Botvinnik is sure that the American grandmaster has a great future.'

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To be continued