The Vancouver Sun Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Thursday, May 27, 1971 - Page 41
Fischer Mastery Crushes Taimanov by Bill Rayner
Robert J. Fischer is not like you and I.
And he's not like Mark Taimanov either, as the Soviet grandmaster found out Wednesday in their chess match out at the University of B.C.
The U.S. grandmaster proved once again that he is no ordinary chess player, taking a tranquil adjourned game and turning it into his fourth straight victory over Taimanov.
In a tour de force that was brilliantly consummated in 30 moves and 1½ hours, Fischer once again proved the worth of a bishop over a knight and the power of the passed pawn.
Up to adjournment on the 41st move it had been Taimanov's best game of the match. But some slight inaccuracies Wednesday allowed Fischer to send his bishop on wide-ranging forays and to transfer his king to the queen-side.
Then, on the 62nd move, Fischer sacrificed his bishop. In compensation he received two passed pawns that were convoyed by the king toward the eighth rank.
With his remaining piece, a knight, out of position and his king helpless to halt the advance, Taimanov resigned on the 71st move.
Taimanov now has lost twice each with the black and white pieces. His trusty Sicilian defense as black Tuesday and Wednesday once again failed in the endgame.
He seems mesmerized, as have most other players before him, by Fischer's style. Any little error he makes brings swift punishment by Fischer, leading to the inevitable Fischer win.
All four games to date have been adjourned. Of the two which needed overnight analysis, Fischer alone has out-thought Taimanov and his three Russian advisers.
As one observer put it, one wonders whether the Russian style of chess by committee is valid anymore.
Fifth game of the match was scheduled for 4 p.m. today at the Student Union Building theater. Fischer now needs 1½ points in the remaining six games to advance in the elimination series to pick a challenger for world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.
In other action Wednesday, Bent Larsen of Denmark and Wolfgang Uhlmann of East Germany drew on the 44th move of their seventh game in the Canary Islands. Larsen leads the match, 4½-2½.
In Moscow, Soviet grandmasters Viktor Korchnoi and Yefim Geller adjourned their seventh game on the 41st move. Korchnoi leads, 3½-2½.
