Bobby vs Spassky game 1

[Geoff Chandler]

I suspect the noise from the tv cameras was also bothering him.

Actual footage of game one, you can see the famous Bobby gait as he approaches the board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8MlGHJKAuM

About 1 minute and 10 seconds in you see Bobby has heard and then spotted the camera and is up complaining about it.

chessgames.com has 48 pages on this game with 47 of them talking about Bxh2.

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044722

Some famous names and bods with home computers have all had a go at it.

[AlanLlewellyn]

on paper it seems a draw if black can swap off the e pawn and get his king back to defend against the wrong coloured bishop but that seems impossible with best play but jack rudd showed a line which i dont see how its not a draw.

[Nick Ivell]

Even so, Bobby achieved a drawn position without effort. Makes me think that the distraction cannot have been that great.

Which makes me think that his blunder was not a blunder in the traditional sense. That he really did want to inject some interest in what had been a sterile first game.


I cannot imagine he felt that BxP was a winning attempt.

[AlanLlewellyn]

is bobby still alive is the question-he may have faked his death to avoid the kgb

[AlanLlewellyn]

i suspect highly the russians made him an enemy of the people, people that are made such dont have much of a future

[Matt Mackenzie]

is bobby still alive is the question-he may have faked his death to avoid the kgb

No he's not, and no he didn't. Not least because the KGB hasn't existed for 30 years now

[AlanLlewellyn]

I think the usa's treatment of fischer by its government has been a disgrace, someone should have seen to it he got mental help and felt secure from any threats real or imaginary.

[AlanLlewellyn]

i think similarly rushdie has suffered from our lax government a security cordon, safe house and mental help should by funded by our government

[AlanLlewellyn]

matt i will make a thread in the not chess section rather than continue here

[John Hodgson]

Has this ending been solved?

I don't have Speelman's original analysis.

A draw is claimed on my (very old) version of MegaBase after 37...a6 but in the line given after 38 b6 Kc6;39 Bf8 Stockfish 14 gives White winning after 46 Bb2 and not 46 e4?= as given by 'Chessbase' (whoever he or she is). Of course I may not have let Stockfish run for long enough.

There is, however, 38...Ke4 which looks more work to analyse than 38...Kc6, even with an engine. I hesitate to write anything more because I think thousands of others must have gone down this road before. Does anyone know if this has been analysed to a conclusion?

[Nick Ivell]

I don't think engines are quite strong enough to 'solve' this ending.

I believe Speelman's original conclusion to be essentially true: that Bxh2 was a bad move, but not losing. The mistakes came later.

However, only White had winning chances, so why take the risk in the first place?

[Nick Ivell]

And thank you, Geoff, for giving a link to all those comments, which I hadn't read before.

One has to separate the wheat from the chaff. A lot of waffle from patzers; but also some brilliant stuff about what engines can and cannot do.

Speelman's analysis from 1981, albeit imperfect, is still the best we have.

All of which shows that chess isn't likely to be exhausted any time soon.

[AlanLlewellyn]

[Event "British Championships Major-Open"] [Site "Riviera Center, Torquay"] [Date "2013.08.10"] [Round "11"] [White "Llewellyn, Alan Mansel"] [Black "Mahoney, Nicholas"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "A21"] [WhiteElo "1738"] [BlackElo "1801"] [Annotator "Llewellyn,Alan"] [PlyCount "125"] [EventCountry "ENG"] 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Bb4 3. e4 $5 Bxc3 4. bxc3 d6 5. d4 exd4 6. cxd4 Nc6 7. Bb2 Nf6 8. Bd3 O-O 9. Ne2 Re8 10. f3 Nh5 11. O-O Qg5 12. Bc1 Qe7 13. Bb1 f5 14. Nf4 $6 (14. Be3 $14) 14... Nxf4 15. Bxf4 Qf6 $1 16. Be3 Bd7 17. d5 $5 Ne5 (17... Qxa1 $4 18. dxc6 Bxc6 19. Bd4 $18) 18. Bd4 f4 $3 19. Bc2 Qg5 20. Bxe5 Rxe5 21. Qd2 b6 22. a4 Rf8 23. Kh1 a5 24. g4 $2 (24. Qf2 $2 Qh6 25. Qg1 Rh5 26. Rad1 Re8 27. c5 bxc5 28. Rb1 Rh4 29. Rf2 Re5 30. g4 fxg3 31. Qxg3 Rg5 {and the Queen has no squares} 32. Qxg5 $18) (24. Rae1 $1 Qh4 25. Qf2 Qh6 26. Re2 Rf6 27. g4 fxg3 28. Qxg3 Rg5 29. Qe1 Bh3 30. Rff2 $17) 24... h5 $2 (24... fxg3 25. Qxg5 Rxg5 26. hxg3 Rxg3 $19) 25. h3 Rf6 26. Rf2 Rh6 27. Rh2 hxg4 28. hxg4 Rxh2+ 29. Qxh2 Qh6 $4 (29... Bxg4 $3 30. fxg4 Qxg4 31. Qg2 Qh5+ 32. Qh2 Qf3+ 33. Qg2 Rh5+ 34. Kg1 Qe3+ 35. Qf2 Rh1+ 36. Kxh1 Qxf2 $19) 30. Qxh6 gxh6 31. Kg2 h5 $1 {the move i missed!} 32. gxh5 Rg5+ 33. Kf2 Rxh5 34. Rg1+ Kf7 35. e5 Rh2+ 36. Rg2 Rxg2+ 37. Kxg2 dxe5 38. Kf2 Kf6 39. Ke2 c6 $2 (39... Bf5 40. Bxf5 Kxf5 41. Kd3 e4+ 42. fxe4+ Ke5 43. Kd2 $19 {this is just won for Black}) 40. Kd2 Ke7 41. Kc3 cxd5 (41... Kd6 42. Bb3) 42. cxd5 Kd6 43. Kc4 Be8 44. Bb3 e4 $4 (44... Bh5 45. Kb5 Bxf3 46. Bc4 Bd1 47. Kxb6 f3 48. Kxa5 Be2 $19) 45. fxe4 Ke5 46. Bc2 f3 47. Bd3 Bxa4 48. Kc3 Be8 49. Kd2 Kd4 50. d6 Bc6 51. Ba6 Bd7 52. e5 Kxe5 53. Ke3 f2 $6 (53... b5 $6 54. Bxb5 $3 Bxb5 55. Kxf3 Kxd6 $11) (53... a4 54. Kxf3 (54. Bd3 b5 $19) 54... b5 55. Bb7 a3 $19) 54. Kxf2 Kxd6 55. Ke3 Kc5 56. Kd2 Bb5 57. Bc8 Kb4 58. Kc2 Ka3 59. Kb1 Bd3+ 60. Ka1 b5 61. Ba6 Bc4 62. Bxb5 Bxb5 63. Kb1 {in this completely drawn endgame which I had seen the posibility of playing back on the 48th move we agreed a draw.} 1/2-1/2 this is an example of how an opposite coloured seemingly lost endgame can be recovered as a draw

[AlanLlewellyn]

[Event "Scarborough Congress(intermediate)"] [Site "Scarborough"] [Date "2021.10.30"] [Round "2"] [White "Llewellyn, Alan Mansel"] [Black "Weis, Benedict"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "A10"] [WhiteElo "1662"] [BlackElo "1510"] [Annotator "Llewellyn,Alan"] [PlyCount "127"] [EventDate "2021.10.??"] 1. c4 g6 2. Nc3 Bg7 3. e4 e5 4. d3 Nc6 5. f4 exf4 6. Bxf4 d6 7. Nf3 Nge7 8. Be2 Nd4 9. O-O O-O 10. Nxd4 Bxd4+ 11. Kh1 f5 $6 $14 12. Bh6 Bg7 13. Qd2 Be6 14. Rae1 Qd7 15. Bf3 c6 16. Qg5 fxe4 17. Bxe4 Nf5 18. Bxg7 Nxg7 19. h3 Rae8 20. Kh2 Qc7 21. Bf3 $2 $17 (21. Kh1 $11) 21... d5+ 22. Qg3 Qxg3+ 23. Kxg3 dxc4 24. dxc4 Bxc4 25. Rxe8 Rxe8 26. Rd1 Nf5+ 27. Kf2 Re7 28. Rd8+ Kg7 29. b3 Bf7 30. g4 Ne3 $2 $11 31. Be4 Nd5 32. Nxd5 $2 $17 Rxe4 33. Ne3 Re7 34. g5 h6 35. gxh6+ Kxh6 36. h4 $1 Be6 (36... Kh5 37. Rh8#) 37. Rd4 Rd7 38. Rxd7 $6 $17 Bxd7 39. Nc4 c5 40. Kg3 Be6 41. Ne5 b5 42. Kf4 c4 $6 $16 43. b4 $2 $19 c3 44. a3 Bf5 45. Ke3 c2 46. Kd2 Kh5 47. Nc6 a6 48. Nb8 Bc8 $2 $19 49. Kxc2 Kxh4 50. Nc6 g5 51. Kd2 Kg3 52. Ke3 g4 53. Ne7 Be6 54. Nc6 Kh2 55. Nd4 Bc8 (55... g3 56. Nf3+ Kh1 57. Ne1 Bd5 58. Kd4 Bc4 59. a4 Kg1 60. axb5 axb5 61. Kc3 Kf2 62. Kd2 Be2 $19) 56. Ne2 g3 57. Nxg3 Kxg3 58. a4 bxa4 59. Kd4 Bd7 60. Kc3 Kf4 61. Kb2 Ke4 62. Ka1 Kd4 63. Kb2 Kc4 64. Ka1 1/2-1/2 another example of the wrong coloured bishop draw

[Roger de Coverly]

another example of the wrong coloured bishop draw

[SetUp "1"] [FEN "2b5/8/p7/1p6/PP6/4K1k1/8/8 b - - 0 58"]


Isn't .. Bd7 a win, or at least a winning try? The main idea is to meet axb5 with axb5.