13 December 2010

Unzicker - Fischer, 1962 Varna

Continuing with 18 Memorable Games, since the only point of disagreement between Fischer and Kasparov in the game Fischer - Najdorf, 1962 Varna was covered in An Olympiad Bind, I'll move on. The next game -- Unzicker - Fischer, 1962 Varna Olympiad -- is no.42 in Fischer's 60 Memorable Games and no.70 in Kasparov's Predecessors IV. Like the Najdorf game from the same event, Fischer won in lesss than 30 moves. Here's the PGN with punctuation by both Fischer and Kasparov.

[Event "Varna ol."]
[Site "?"]
[Date "1962.??.??"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Unzicker, W."]
[Black "Fischer, R."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B92"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 {KAS: '?!'} 8.O-O Nbd7 9.f4 Qc7 10.f5 Bc4 11.a4 Be7 12.Be3 O-O 13.a5 b5 {KAS: '!'} 14.axb6 Nxb6 15.Bxb6 {FIS: '?'; KAS: '?!'} 15...Qxb6+ 16.Kh1 Bb5 {FIS: '!'} 17.Bxb5 axb5 18.Nd5 Nxd5 19.Qxd5 Ra4 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 20.c3 Qa6 21.h3 {KAS: '?'} 21...Rc8 22.Rfe1 h6 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 23.Kh2 Bg5 24.g3 {FIS: '?'; KAS: '?'} 24...Qa7 {FIS: '!': KAS: '!'} 25.Kg2 Ra2 26.Kf1 {KAS: '?'} 26...Rxc3 {FIS: '!'; KAS: '!'} 0-1

The key point of disagreement is 21.h3 {KAS: '?'}. Could Unzicker have saved the game at that point or not? To play through the complete game, see...

Wolfgang Unzicker vs Robert James Fischer; Varna Olympiad Final 1962
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008416

...on Chessgames.com.

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