Monday, August 31, 2009

Finally finished the book

I finally finished off the reading of that book, "How to Beat Bobby Fischer" just a day or two ago. It took me nearly three months to finish reading that book without skipping any of the analysis! Little bit more on the book soon to follow.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

How To Beat Bobby Fischer


I am slowly working my way through the Edmar Mednis book called How To Beat Bobby Fischer. I estimate that I started on this book approximately 2 1/2 months ago. Trying to really absorb the games and the analysis given, hence the slow progress. I am currently on game 37 on page 152. Fischer vs. Petrosian,May 23, 1962 round 13. Move 6 for black says 6...BxB. Unless I have gotten those moves wrong somehow, I see no BxB possible on the chessboard. I think that is the first serious typo in the book and have already passed the middle point of the book. And if I continue by assuming that black exchanges the bishop for the knight on c3, I think everything will coincide correctly. Not a huge error in the book. And so far the games have been very entertaining. I will post more, including a picture of the front cover later on as I go through more of the book. Here is the FEN for this position: rnbqk2r/ppp2pp1/4pn1p/3pP3/1b1P4/2N5/PPPB1PPP/R2QKBNR b KQkq - 0 6

Ok. Later on in the same game I found this position with black to move.




And Mednis has given 8.Qg4 instead of Fischers 8.Qa5? . Next, Mednis suggests that black must play 8...Kf8 here. What would be wrong about just plain ole 8... 0-0? I don't understand that annotation. Anyone have any ideas? Did I miss something? Once again, here is the FEN for that board setup: rnbqk2r/ppp2pp1/4p2p/3pP3/3Pn1Q1/2B5/PPP2PPP/R3KBNR b KQkq - 0 8