Hi everyone, this is Jerry.
And this is a game analysis between Donald Byrne and Bobby Fischer.
It was played in New York City on October 17th, 1956.
At the time Fischer was thirteen years old.
And soon after this game it was given the title "Game of the Century".
Rating and commenting are appreciated.
And any questions you have for me feel free to send one my way.
Hope you enjoy the game.
Byrne opens the game with the move knight to f3, development.
Fischer opens up with knight to f6, development.
Pawn to c4, a move directed at controlling a central square, d5.
Pawn to g6, making way to fianchetto the king bishop to g7.
Knight to c3, development.
Bishop to g7, development and making way to castle.
Pawn to d4, establishing a pawn in the center, and making way for the queen bishop to develop.
Castle, a developing move getting the king safe.
Bishop f4, development.
Pawn to d5 signaling the Grunfeld Defense, placing a pawn in the center and also striking
at c4.
Queen to b3, indirectly attacking d5.
Pawn captures pawn, queen captures pawn, and now both the queen and bishop are directed
at c7.
Fischer follows up with pawn to c6.
If we just take a look back, it's worth noting that if Fischer were to play pawn to c6 now,
white could continue pawn to e3, and now if pawn takes pawn, the bishop has the option
of taking on c4 developing a new piece, and then getting ready to castle.
However, by capturing on c4 right now in this position black does not give white the possibility
of taking on c4 with the bishop because the pawn is still on e2.
So as is often the case in chess, move order matters, and this position right here is no
exception.
So after queen captures pawn... how to meet this threat?
You might be thinking, well why not develop a piece and prevent this capture from occurring
on c7?
Well that might run into trouble with a move like pawn to d5.
The knight is shooed away from c6, and then the pawn can be taken on c7.
So that's why we see pawn to c6 here.
Pawn to e4 is the continuation establishing yet another pawn in the center, and making
way for the king bishop's development.
Knight to d7, getting ready to come to b6 where it would be attacking the queen.
It temporarily obstructs the queen bishop's development.
An alternative would be knight to a6, staying out of the bishop's way, and preparing a pawn
to c5 advance where that pawn would strike at d4.
But instead we see the knight coming to d7.
And now rook to d1, placing the rook opposite the queen.
Black has to be a bit careful.
Whenever a rook is opposite your own queen, you have to be careful of tactics.
Knight to b6, attacking the queen and allowing the bishop to come out.
Queen to c5, a bit awkward.
Maybe better is queen to b3.
Although maybe Byrne was turned off to this move as a result of a developing moved to
e6 where the bishop is now attacking the queen.
Fischer is able to take advantage of this queen's placement shortly.
Fischer follows up with bishop to g4, pinning the knight to the rook.
And now Byrne plays bishop to g5, violating one of the well-known principles in chess
which states: "you should not move the same piece more than once in the opening".
And this bishop initially came to f4, and now it's going to g5.
This is not to be recommended especially in this position.
Fischer is now able to execute a series of exceptional moves, and it starts with knight
to a4 deflecting the c3 knight from the defense of the e4 pawn.
The move that was played in the actual game was queen to a3.
However it's worth taking a look at what would occur if knight takes knight.
This is what would happen: knight takes pawn, forking the queen and bishop.
If queen takes pawn, that will result in queen takes queen, bishop takes queen, rook to e8...
after the bishop moves, the knight can come here, discovered check on the king and the
knight is going to be picked off, or maybe even the rook.
An alternative is bishop takes pawn... that will result in knight takes queen, bishop
takes queen, knight takes knight, black is doing better in this position as well getting
ready to take the bishop...pawn.
Another choice after knight takes pawn is queen to c1.
That'll result in queen to a5, checking the king, hitting the knight, hitting the bishop.
If knight blocks, bishop takes knight, pawn takes bishop, knight takes bishop.
The queen can't take the knight because it's protected.
And one other choice is to block with the bishop will result in knight takes bishop,
queen takes knight, queen takes knight.
Black is doing better in this variation as well.
One more choice after knight takes here is queen to b4.
That's going to result in knight takes bishop, knight takes knight, bishop takes rook, king
takes bishop, bishop takes pawn.
And there is a nasty discovered check that's in the air after the bishop moves.
Black is doing better here as well.
So the move that actually did get played was queen to a3.
And now we see knight takes knight.
If queen takes knight, just knight takes pawn forking the queen and bishop.
So pawn takes knight was played, and now knight still takes on e4, and allows this fork, bishop
captures pawn on e7.
The rook and queen are attacked.
Fischer follows up with queen to b6.
If bishop takes rook, that'll result in bishop take bishop.
The queen is getting hit.
If queen to b3, knight takes c3.
If queen takes knight, the bishop is going to win the queen because there's a pin.
If queen takes queen, pawn takes queen.
The rook is still hit.
The rook and knight are both converging on a2.
And even though the queens are off the board, the white king is still in trouble.
If rook to a1, rook to e8.
King here, knight check.
The f2 pawn will fall, and the white king is going to have a giant headache to deal
with because these bishops are going to give him problems.
So in this position the bishop did not take the rook.
Instead Byrne chose to develop the bishop to c4.
And now we see knight takes c3.
If queen takes knight it's just rook comes here, pins the bishop and the bishop will
eventually be won.
And so the move that was played is bishop to c5 attacking the queen.
Rook on f to e8.
It's important that it's this rook that comes to e8 because there are continuations where
this a8 rook will function well on the a-file, as is the case in the actual game.
King to f1.
And now the move that caught everyones attention, bishop to e6!!
Ignoring the threat on your own queen and instead attacking the bishop.
One continuation from here is to take the knight.
If that did occur, queen captures bishop would be played seeing how there's a pin against
the queen.
If pawn takes queen, bishop takes queen.
From this position, if bishop takes bishop that'll lead to a checkmate in six.
If you'd like to, pause the video and see if you can figure it out.
It's a checkmate in six problem.
Okay, the solution starts out with queen to b5 check.
Bishop blocks, queen captures bishop, king to g1, knight to e2 check, king to f1, knight
to g3 that's double check...in double check the king must always move, king to g1, queen
to f1 check, rook captures queen the only move, and now knight to e2 and that's mate...smothered
mate.
So the only other choice from here is to just take the queen, and that's what Byrne played
in the actual game.
And that ends up putting white in a lot of hot water.
Bishop captures bishop checking the king.
King to g1, knight e2, king f1, knight captures pawn discovered check.
If the rook blocks the check, that'll result in pawn takes bishop.
The only way to now move the queen from the rook's attack is to play to c3, and defend
the rook.
That'll result in knight captures knight, the bishop is hitting the queen.
After queen captures bishop, rook to e1 and that's mate.
So that's why rook here is no good.
So white unfortunately has to go back to g1.
Knight gives another check, another check discovered, and the knight is hitting the
rook.
King back to g1, and now pawn captures bishop, the queen is being attacked by the rook.
Queen to b4 attacking the bishop.
Black first meets that threat with rook to a4, attacking the queen, and defending the
bishop.
And after queen captures pawn, only now does black take the rook.
And now it's just a matter of winning the game from this point on.
Pawn to h2 getting ready to sneak the king out and then get the rook involved, but it's
too little too late.
Rook captures pawn, king to h2, knight captures pawn attacking the rook.
Rook to e1, rook captures rook, and white throws a check in first so that the bishop
has to work himself into a pin, bishop f8.
And knight captures rook, and now we see bishop to d5.
From this point on, black just organizes all of his pieces and gets it to a point where
they are coordinated.
And as a result the white queen will not be able to attack anything of black's.
So knight to f3, knight to e4, queen to b8 attacking b7, pawn to b5.
Pawn to h4 getting ready to come to h5 and maybe smash up the kingside structure.
But Fischer just stops that right away, pawn to h5.
Knight to e5 getting ready to come to d7 where it would be attacking the pinned piece.
So Fischer just gets out of the pin, king to g7.
And if you just take into account this position right here, everything is protected of black's.
The king guards the pawn, the bishop, these pawns are protected, these pawns are protected,
and this bishop here guards both the f7 pawn, the c6 pawn, the knight, and the rook.
Everything is strung together and as a result the white queen can do nothing.
King to g1, and now it's just a matter of mating the white king.
And it turns out in the following way: bishop to c5 check, king to f1, knight g3 check,
king to e1...these are all only moves, bishop check, king to d1, bishop check, king to c1...the
king is getting walked all the way along the first rank, knight check, king to b1, knight
c3 check, king to c1, rook to c2 and that's mate.
So that's all for this video.
Hope you got something out of it.
Take care, bye.