New York Times, New York, New York, Monday, July 19, 1971 - Page 22
Chess: Psychological Factor a Spur In Fischer's Winning Streak By Al Horowitz
“There have been times in my life,” José Capablanca, a former world chess champion wrote in the preface to one of his books, “when I came very near thinking that I could not lose even a single game. Then I would be beaten, and the lost game would bring me back from dreamland to earth.”
Capablanca, at the height of his powers, was indeed well-nigh unbeatable: from 1914 to 1924 he lost only a single game.
But merely to be unbeaten over a long period of time is one thing; to win every game is quite another. It has not really been that long since Bobby Fischer started on his incredible string of victories, but as reports of fresh triumphs come in, it sometimes seems as if he has been winning for as long as one can remember.
Began in Majorca -- Last December, Fischer won his last seven games in the Interzonal Tournament in Palma, Majorca. And in the play to decide a challenger for the world championship, held by Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, Fischer trounced Mark Taimanov 6 to 0 in the quarter-final and has own the first five games against Bent Larsen, the Danish grandmaster, in the semifinal.
After losing the first game of his match against Fischer, Larsen build up a winning position in the second, only to lose on a time-pressure blunder. If he had gone on to win the second game, the match would have undoubtedly turned into a fierce battle. As it was, however, Larsen, with the specter of Taimanov in front of him, collapsed. When the Dane played the amazing move 11. ... Q-B1 in the third game, it seemed a sure sign that the fight was over. The idea of 11. ... Q-B1 is to protect the king-pawn, the principal target of White's attack in this variation, but in conjunction with the weak squares on the queen-side resulting from 10. ... P-QR3, it is simply not playable. When Fischer later replied 14. N-R4, and two moves later won the king-pawn, he was not only reaping the fruits of Larsen's bad plan in this game but also enjoying a kind of bonus from the second game as well.
In the fourth game, Larsen, whose desperation was, of course, perfectly comprehensible, went all out for a queen-side attack, ignoring the safety of his king. When Fischer built up a counter-attack on the kingside, there was little his opponent could do about it.
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
