December 15, 2007

Fischer's My 60 Memorable Games

Today, I read Susan’s entry: “The real deal or a hoax?” which inform us about new Fischer’s book “My memorable 61 games” being sold at eBay. They are limited edition and people need to bid for the copy.

This entry reminds me of my original copy of Fischer’s My 60 Memorable Games. I bought it during UIAM Rapid tournament from a local seller (and strong player too! - i bet you will find the name familiar), Rizal Ahmad Kamal (read his blog here). I forgot how much it costed me, but to me it is quite bargain considering the book is now out of print and even if i get the second hand copy from internet, it will cost me more.

            

It is in descriptive notation and i hate reading the descriptive notation! But why i bought it if i despise descriptive notation? I tell you why: it is a masterpiece and since i think such a masterpiece should exist in a decent library of a chess buff, therefore i bought it. Haha!

Anyway, glancing at the pictures at eBay (they put pictures of the cover and pages), i could see that the book is in algebraic format. Long time ago, when i told my friend, Kwan Pin i bought the Fischer’s book and mentioned that it is descriptive notation, Kwan Pin said he has the new copy with algebraic notation (no, not the 61 games, but the new Batsford - edited by John Nunn’s edition). Googling it, i found that Fishcer himself dissaproves the new book and declares the Batsford team as ‘criminals’ and ‘conspirators’ which changed everything in his book - the notation, the format, the pages, the analysis - without paying royalties.

I do not know how bad the algebraic edition is, but reading articles and comments around the World, it looks bad. Kwan Pin on the other hand think the version is quite ok. I guess, algebraic edition is more readable then the descriptive and that is why.

This is one and only alteration made by Nunn in the analysis (at least that was what he claimed!) that triggered Fischer’s fury:

        

            White to move

This position is from variation given by Fischer’s in his annotation for the 35th game in the book: Fischer vs Julio Bolbochan, Stockholm Interzonal 1962. Fishcer stated that after 39. Qh3+ Kg8 40. Qxf1 leads to a win. However, in the algebraic edition, Nunn “improvised” the analysis since he thought Fischer just missed mate in four in his analysis: 40. Qh7+ Kf8 41. Qh8+ Qg8 42. Qh6+ Qg7 43. Qxg7 mate.

Do you see where Nunn went wrong?

Look again at the position above and visualize. It is no problem if you could not find it as long as you try your hardest since a GM made mistake too in this position. ;)

Actually, there is no mate in four since 42. Qh6+ is an illegal move. Why illegal? Because Qg8 is not only covers the King from check, but it gives a check too!

Back to the auction. I am of course inclined to think that it is a hoax. It is not a pure hoax though. The seller might send a copy to the highest bidder, but the copy is not a legitimate one and it has approval neither from Fischer nor from the publisher. It is a mere reprinted copy, with a change here and there - nice setting, more readable, a lot more diagrams etc - and an additional game of course! ;P

Or so i think. The truth remains to be seen!

Related link:
Edward Winter: Fischer’s Fury


No comments:

Post a Comment