28-02-2013, 09:41 PM
Good try, Geoff, er Keith!
But the Saidy game is surely a bit run of the mill (and the game as a whole was not really well-enough defended by Saidy).
If you want real Fischer all-round and especially endgame wizardry, I'd say go for Game 13 (Spassky-Fischer world championship). Yes, it's also in my book! This even had Botvinnik drooling (and he was one of the hardest guys ever to please) and I quote (from my book) "According to Botvinnik, Fischer's 'paradoxical solution' to his technical problems ... was his highest creative achievement ... Nothing similar had previously occurred in chess. Spassky was astounded and soon lost ... Smyslov found a draw for White, but would he have found it at the board, sitting opposite Fischer?"
Of course, choosing these "best" games is ultimately an impossible task. But since I've written a few recent Everyman books on the play of a number of these world champions, here's a few more thoughts on world champs I've platformed.
Browne-Smyslov, Las Palmas 1982. This is the unbelievable game in which, "as if charmed, Black's king and [light square] bishop float across an open board, on which rooks are in play, reaching two faraway white squares (a2 and b3), from which they wreak instant, game-winning havoc."
Kramnik-Anand, Gm 5, Bonn 2008. One of the two fantastic Meran Slav games in which Anand, powered by some of the most deeply conceived modern computer and large team of seconds opening prep (which didn't alone win either game), de facto settled the issue who was the true world champ in those still not fully unified title years.
Steinitz-Chigorin, Game 6,1892. This extraordinary d3 Spanish is so obviously far, far ahead of its time as to make anyone who has any sensitivity for the development of ideas in chess go completely weak at the knees.
Lasker-Capablanca, St Petersburg 1914. The famous Spanish Exchange with the e4, f4,f5 plan that at the time was not just an inspired choice but completely innovative and revolutionary.
You can take your choice between Botvinnik-Capablanca and Botvinnik-Alekhine, both 1938 AVRO. I'd probably give the Capa game the nod but both games are profoundly conceived and brilliant.
In my forthcoming book on Great Romantics, I include Adolf Anderssen, who was a de facto world champion before there was such a title. His "real" immortal or evergreen game was not those somewhat knockabout (if utterly beautiful) games v Kieseritzky or Dufresne in the early 1850s but his utterly sound, even more brilliant and far, far forward-looking 1862 demolition of Rosanes (White) with a Falkbeer Gambit (not the oft-quoted win against Rosanes's Kieseritzky Gambit in the same series of games they played that year, by the way, although that is also outstanding).
Enough!
But the Saidy game is surely a bit run of the mill (and the game as a whole was not really well-enough defended by Saidy).
If you want real Fischer all-round and especially endgame wizardry, I'd say go for Game 13 (Spassky-Fischer world championship). Yes, it's also in my book! This even had Botvinnik drooling (and he was one of the hardest guys ever to please) and I quote (from my book) "According to Botvinnik, Fischer's 'paradoxical solution' to his technical problems ... was his highest creative achievement ... Nothing similar had previously occurred in chess. Spassky was astounded and soon lost ... Smyslov found a draw for White, but would he have found it at the board, sitting opposite Fischer?"
Of course, choosing these "best" games is ultimately an impossible task. But since I've written a few recent Everyman books on the play of a number of these world champions, here's a few more thoughts on world champs I've platformed.
Browne-Smyslov, Las Palmas 1982. This is the unbelievable game in which, "as if charmed, Black's king and [light square] bishop float across an open board, on which rooks are in play, reaching two faraway white squares (a2 and b3), from which they wreak instant, game-winning havoc."
Kramnik-Anand, Gm 5, Bonn 2008. One of the two fantastic Meran Slav games in which Anand, powered by some of the most deeply conceived modern computer and large team of seconds opening prep (which didn't alone win either game), de facto settled the issue who was the true world champ in those still not fully unified title years.
Steinitz-Chigorin, Game 6,1892. This extraordinary d3 Spanish is so obviously far, far ahead of its time as to make anyone who has any sensitivity for the development of ideas in chess go completely weak at the knees.
Lasker-Capablanca, St Petersburg 1914. The famous Spanish Exchange with the e4, f4,f5 plan that at the time was not just an inspired choice but completely innovative and revolutionary.
You can take your choice between Botvinnik-Capablanca and Botvinnik-Alekhine, both 1938 AVRO. I'd probably give the Capa game the nod but both games are profoundly conceived and brilliant.
In my forthcoming book on Great Romantics, I include Adolf Anderssen, who was a de facto world champion before there was such a title. His "real" immortal or evergreen game was not those somewhat knockabout (if utterly beautiful) games v Kieseritzky or Dufresne in the early 1850s but his utterly sound, even more brilliant and far, far forward-looking 1862 demolition of Rosanes (White) with a Falkbeer Gambit (not the oft-quoted win against Rosanes's Kieseritzky Gambit in the same series of games they played that year, by the way, although that is also outstanding).
Enough!