The Guardian London, Greater London, England Friday, July 23, 1971 - Page 6
Chess - The Living Legend by Leonard Barden
No. 1150. White mates in two moves, against any defense, by A. Dombrovkis.
FEN 8/B3b3/2Kprp2/2prPb2/RN1k1N1R/3P4/3P4/7q w - - 0 1
On November 23 last year, Bobby Fischer drew with grandmaster Polugaevsky in the interzonal tournament. Between that time and the sixth game of his match with Larsen, Fischer has played and beaten nineteen grandmaster opponents -- Geller, Ivkov, Uhlmann, Taimanov, Mecking, Gligoric, and Panno (the last by default) at the interzonal, six games in the match with Taimanov and six against Larsen. When Bobby is called a “living legend” it is more than a journalist's catch phrase, for none of the greatest players of former days like Morphy, Lasker, Capablanca, and Alekhine could boast of such a fantastic series. It is hardly surprising that Larsen's chess in games 2-4 of the match, given below, shows several hints of loss of morale. Not so long ago, in 1967, Larsen himself set a record by winning four strong tournaments in five months.
Bent Larsen vs Robert James Fischer Fischer - Larsen Candidates Semifinal (1971), Denver, CO USA, rd 2, Jul-08 English Opening: Symmetrical Variation. General (A30) 0-1 https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044710
30. h4 (Playing for mate. Larsen weakens his own pawns. 30 R-N3 is better.)
35. g4? (A blunder which overlooks Fischer's thirty-seventh move. 35. P-R4 is necessary.)
38. Rc1 Bxb5!
41. Bd5 Ba6 (Two pawns down in a simple endgame, Larsen could well resign, but plays on practically till mate.)
Robert James Fischer vs Bent Larsen Fischer - Larsen Candidates Semifinal (1971), Denver, CO USA, rd 3, Jul-11 Sicilian Defense: Fischer-Sozin Attack. Leonhardt Variation (B88) 1-0 https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044347
11. f5 Qc8? (Larsen's tenth move is inferior to the routine . . . NxN and . . . B-B3 while his eleventh is almost a losing blunder -- better NxN followed by PxP.)
12. fxe6 Bxe6 (If 12. ... PxP 13. N-B5.)
17. Bf5 Ne5 (17. ... P-N3; 18. B-R3 NxP; 19. RxRch BxR; 20. N-Q7 regains the pawn, but with a bad position for Black.)
31. Kf1 (Active bishop against passive knight is a recurrent theme in Fischer's game, one which he handles with great skill--and here he has an extra pawn to boot.)
41. Re2 1-0 (Black's king is cut off and White's QP marches through helped by the white king.)
Bent Larsen vs Robert James Fischer Fischer - Larsen Candidates Semifinal (1971), Denver, CO USA, rd 4, Jul-13 King's Indian Defense: Orthodox Variation. Modern System (E97) 0-1 https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044711
19. Bc2 (Thematic play to prepare a queen's flank invasion, but 19. N-N5 is safer.
27. Rb1 Nh4! (In this game [probably the best of the match] Fischer has accurately judged that his king's side attack is stronger than White's on the other flank. Here he sets the trap 28.. RxB? RxR; 29. Q-R3 R(1)-B1; 30. QxN R-R3 and wins the queen.)
33. Kxg2 Nd2 0-1 (The latest score in the other world title semifinal match is Korchnoi 4, Petrosian 4.
