The Province Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Friday, June 04, 1971 - Page 44
Chess Title on Line in '72 by Paul Raugust
U.S. grandmaster Bobby Fischer recorded the most one-sided victory in a grandmaster competition in recent memory, defeating the Soviet Union's Mark Taimanov in six games straight in play at the University of B.C.
Fischer thus became one of four men left in the running with a chance at the world chess title. He now meets Denmark's Bent Larsen in the semi-finals, scheduled to begin July 4 at an as-yet-undecided site.
Winner of that match will advance against the winner of the other semi-final match, between Soviet grandmasters Viktor Korchnoi and Tigran Petrosian. The over-all winner then has the right to challenge world title holder Boris Spassky of Moscow in a match to be held sometime in 1972.
Aside from the obvious difference in talent, the University of B.C. match between Mark Taimanov of the U.S.S.R. and Bobby Fischer of the United States also showed the importance of being prepared for your opponent.
Taimanov apparently didn't give Fischer's game the same prior in-depth analysis as conversely the American had.
The Soviet grandmaster repeatedly committed serious errors that showed he had underestimated Fischer's capabilities.
Prior to the start of the match, Fischer had been criticized for a lack of a good varieties of openings. But, whenever Fischer had the opening advantage of white in Vancouver, he had Taimanov in trouble right from the early stages of the games. His end-game talents, for which he is so widely recognized were a factor in two games.
Taimanov got himself into trouble in the first game when he played a risky N-KN5 that no only cost him a pawn. But tempo of the game and probably the entire match.
Both players missed counter-play opportunities the second game, which lasted 9½ hours and was played over three days.
In the third game, with Taimanov again playing white, the Soviet player had perhaps his best game of the match going, but an unorthodox rook move on the 19th move eventually forced him into a defensive position. He repeated the same rook tactic with the same measure of success in the sixth game.
The fourth game was all Fischer's and, with the American playing white, he displayed a rare genius when he masterminded a bishop gambit that netted him three pawns and forced Taimanov's resignation.
Taimanov again committed a serious error in the fifth game, a round in which he should have had at least a draw. Instead of guarding his king in the late stages of the game, he chose to attack a relatively insignificant pawn with his rook, leaving his king vulnerable and indefensible.
The sixth game featured an unconventional defense by Taimanov, but Fischer again proved the superior player, slashing Taimanov's defense with bishop forays that left the center of black's board vulnerable.
