Hi there.
In this, actually, we see the so called game of the century.
This is Donald Byrne against Bobby Fischer in 1956.
Third was Maude Trophy, round eight.
So Byrne had won the US Open Championship in 1953 and had achieved the second highest rating in the
US behind Sammy Rose FC, against whom Byrne had a winning record.
So this is a very strong opponent that the young Bobby Fischer is facing.
Nights of free is played.
We have Knights of six from Fischer, C4 g6, C free, Bishop G seven D4 black consoles.
We have Bishop F4 and now D5.
So this is now Grunfeld territory.
The Russian system Queen B3 detailed C4 is played.
C-5 is another option here.
This is interesting.
And we get a game where like, should be fine.
So C5, Yeah, there's lots of possibilities, but let's look at the game.
Now do you take C4?
Queen takes C4 C6.
We have e4 Bd7 Rook D1 so it looks as though White's plan is pretty sensible.
Logical.
Fair is also a move here.
So, for example, the bishop could take away on age to why it should be with a small armchair.
So rugby one though we have might be six Queen C five Bishop G4 and now you have the king still in the
center.
And usually you want development to be optimal.
You don't want to move a piece twice.
In the opening.
Otherwise you are asking for a little bit of trouble and a piece is moved twice.
Bishop G5 is played.
Bishop E2 would have been more solid.
And for example, if Bishop thinks that Frank Bishop takes a free 57, hits the Queen, and if E5 this
should be okay for whites, but hasn't done too much wrong actually.
So this position should lead to a small edge for whites.
So Bishop Ito wants to be preferred.
So what happens after Bishop do you find now, which is so bad?
Is it really that bad?
Well, there's a very, very interesting move played here.
Indeed, a brilliant move.
Absolutely brilliant move is played here.
I wonder if you can spot it for 500 points.
Yeah, it's.
Making use actually in some may of the bishop on G5 actually as a potential liability.
It's like looking at the opponent's position and looking for liabilities balances.
So there's a forcing of a fall.
So hitting the Queen and trying to deflect this knight from E4, which creates a kind of chain reaction,
you know, hitting the queen and the bishop.
And then the bishop takes, the knight takes.
So it's a chain reaction move.
Knight A4 quite a brilliant move indeed.
If h6 if a plain vanilla move has been played, this position is just even.
It gives one.
Maybe what they wanted a bit of weakness provocation, weaknesses on line squares.
So you know, if the bishop goes back here again this is kind of even so.
Yeah.
So 94 is very interesting.
So we have Queen A three.
Believe it or not, if Knight takes a four.
So let's have a look now.
Knight takes it for that weakness for the last move.
If Bishop takes E7, the thing is, this is opening up a file to the king.
In effect, the king still in the center.
So this is a great punishment of the king in the sense of this variation.
Queen C seven is very strong here.
Now there's no time for the bishop to take the role because the nine times queen and queen, a free
rookie ain't.
You can see that, actually.
Hang on.
There's a huge backfire now night G3 shack taking away each one black has a huge advantage.
So, yes, this is very interesting.
So Bishop takes E7 is not good.
Queen takes E7, there's Knight takes G5.
This position only takes the eight.
And here Roc-A-Fella Check Bishop 61.
This is very unpleasant things are falling off.
So yes that justifies that that king of the center is a real liability.
So.
Okay, so perhaps why is Queen a free that's played instead?
It seems now Knight takes Siegfried, so this is a bit counterintuitive.
It seems to be strengthening the white centre, but it's still fragile.
It's fundamentally fragile.
The centre.
If Queen St Siegfried has nine takes E4, and here Bishop takes her three G tanks, Queen A five.
Jack So we're looking at G five.
Bishop D2 1962, Queen St D2 as example, Queen size eight two and Black's doing really well.
This is absolutely a shattered pawn structure.
So B take C three is played and we have no tanks E4 here inviting Bishop tanks E seven If Bishop E2
1965 1965 Bishop takes E2, King takes E2.
There's a strong E5 hitting the knight and here he takes D4.
Black's got a big advantage here.
Oh, well, well, okay, so Bishop takes E seven is played and now.
Yeah, this is an absolutely brilliant point.
Fish is basically factoring in all angles to the king.
Like this angle.
This angle.
And he plays actually Queen B six.
Now Bishop C4 is played here.
If Bishop takes a fight.
The issue is the remarkable bishop takes a fight here because can you see a tactic in this position?
Which is gaining even more material.
For 100 points, what would you play here?
So the king is in the center.
So there are all these like roads that are king diagonals, diagonals of death, roads of death, you
know, straight through roads.
There's nothing to see.
Free to try and get in bishop before.
So here, Queen Saint Siegfried as bishop before pinning the queen to the king.
And if queen thinks that's got more than enough material, this pawn on a two is going to be taken soon.
So taking that with check this position huge advantage for why an African drop D4 is going to drop.
It's just so much and it would have three connected pass pawns you know potentially so.
Bishop C4 is tried not bishop takes her fight not this not entertaining this kind of rebounds on this
diagonal we have now though a brutal move you know Knight take C free and I want choice to keep control
of Bishop C5.
If Queen St C3 then this bishop gets pinned and this is just great for black.
If Bishop takes a fight.
We're back to variations involving this horrible diagonal.
So Queen C one we can actually take on D one.
Here, check.
Take out the bishop.
Okay, so Bishop C five was tried.
Rook f eight.
Check King F one.
Now, here, the king's on F one.
Right?
And it's good, actually.
And I think this is a mistake I've been making, thinking there's only just one diagonal of death,
though.
Look out for the diagonals, plural of death where the king is.
So where is the opponent's king?
It's on F1.
The theoretical diagonals of death, which we'd relish are these two.
Now we have to look where the opponent's king is and look at the diagonals, plural of death.
And you might have a clue then, for this next move based on this principle of diagonals, plural of
death.
So I arrived around the default diagonal.
When you're white and you have the default thing or black.
Yeah, I've won so many games.
But also, yeah, it depends where the king is and when you know when the king is on the queen side,
it's not just, you know, this diagonal.
If the king is on this diagonal, but we have a king on F one.
So we got to think in a theoretical sense because there's a there's a close relationship between theoretical
downsides and technical variations.
There's often a close relationship, especially in features games.
So the King's on F1 is prone to a diagonal attack in theory.
But how would we do that in practice here?
It's a beautiful move indeed, based on, you know, diagonals of death is the ingredient, basically.
So what would you play here for 200 points?
So bear that in mind where the opponent's king is.
Look at the diagonals.
Okay.
Instead of moving the queen.
Absolutely brilliant move entertained bishop he sex ed Fisher just moved the Queen Queen St S.C. free
and how does black actually attack white hair?
If Be6 Bishop a3 c5 h3.
Bishop Thanks d for this position.
Bishop Thanks.
D One Knight goes back.
And you know why it has to bishops here for this friends might as well.
So that would actually win material.
You know, Queenie, y ends up being a bishop potentially.
Ouch.
So Queen C seven.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, most normal players have that natural reaction to move their queen.
But this is absolutely brilliant based on diagonals of death.
I know this one is closed up, but you can imagine, you know, sometimes there might be ten six on
this diagonal.
So Bishop e six was played offering, you know, a queen sacrifice.
And the thing is, so Bishop takes be six was played.
If Bishop takes E6, we still get onto this diagonal.
There's a weakness of the last move.
We pounce with the key square B five.
Not a six of course, but B five gets onto that diagonal and would create a lovely mating pattern.
So here, double check.
And I hope you can see what Black would play here for ten points.
Yeah, Queen F1, Shaq and that would be made there.
And also, if we look at this, a sort of bishop takes these things.
If you look at Bishop, be free.
We still get onto the diagonal Queen B five, Jack.
Yeah, it doesn't make any difference at all.
We still the key thing is to get onto that diagonal.
So.
So the queen sacrifice is actually taken and Bishop takes C4 check now and we have a windmill kind of
set of checks winning material.
So check, winning D fall check.
Check.
And now it takes be six, delaying the check for a moment to win until to hit the queen.
Queen before.
And now another powerful forcing move here.
These forcing moves are very, very useful for the attacking player whilst the king and the said just
asleep.
So the forcing moves are really good to keep the options limited.
So offering a performance was only part of the double pawns anyway, but now winning this role.
So a lot of material has been gains for the Queen sacrifice and each free rook takes a two.
And now looking at F2 that's taken so lots of pawns, three pawns up loads of material for the Queen
Rook and two bishops.
Basically, if we refactor out rook and night for rook and knight, we're left with rook and two bishops
against the Queen.
But we've also got an extra three pawns.
We have rookie one pair of rooks come off Queen the shank.
Well insert in that first Bishop D5.
So common targets like G2 now like 394.
So if the king moves, there's Bishop D6 check.
We have Queen B five.
So all the pawns of the offended flank we have now h5.
It's a huge possession, 95 and now underpinning tactic to liberate the bishop.
Frightening bishop these CINCs.
King G one But now Bishop C five Jack King have won.
And now this beautiful walk over to the other side of the board, driven by the pieces by force or forcing
moves 90 to check 90 C Free check.
Very good sport.
Donald Byrne allowing to be checkmated and it was Queen's game of the century.
So the 13 year old future world chess champion Bobby Fischer against Donald Byrne.
Yep.
By Hans Mock in basically in 1956 Chess Review.
Hans Mock dubbed it Game of the Century, a masterpiece of combination play performed by Boy at 13 against
a formidable opponent, maybe the finest on record in the history of chess prodigies.
It is beautiful, and it amply demonstrates that if the king is left in the center with the opponent
being suboptimal in development, there are amazing resources on the chessboard.
But yeah, what an amazing set of resources demonstrated by the young Fischer starting off with the
amazing night A Fall.
It's just incredible, really.
And then strength in the sense only to think about obliterating it from all angles for that access path
in mind in some of the variations already.
So here, the idea of offering an exchange sacrifice to obliterate this diagonal and then the diagonals
are still carefully watched by Fisher.
The king has got two new diagonals because it's just moved.
So there's stunning Queen sack trying to get onto this diagonal to get that check, which leads to a
windmill to take winning a ton of material here.
So taking out the centre, taking out the bishop, taking out the rook, and then just mass piece coordination
resulting absolutely beautiful masterpiece, a treasure in chess history.
I'm pinning for Bishop d6.
So and then the king just taken from one end of the board to the other by force basically masterpiece.
I hope you enjoyed this one and got some instructive lessons and why.
You know, it's important sometimes not to move a piece twice in the opening of the Kingston in the
sense there could be drastic punishments available.
Okay.
And so much.