Sixty years ago, the great Mikhail Tal won the Candidates tournament by a massive margin to qualify for a world title match against Botvinnik, which Tal also won, equally convincingly. This week, in homage to Tal, one of his four zero wipeout games against Bobby Fischer, with notes based on those of eyewitness Harry Golombek from his book Fourth Candidates Tournament 1959 in the Hardinge Simpole edition edited by David Regis.
Fischer-Tal: Candidates Tournament Bled/Zagreb/Belgrade 1959; Sicilian Defence
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 Bc4 e6 7 Bb3 Be7 8 f4 0-0 9 Qf3 Qc7 10 0-0 b5 11 f5 White should not permit his queen’s knight to be driven away from c3, so 11 a3 was indicated. 11 … b4 (see diagram 1)
12 Na4 Interestingly modern software prefers to give up a piece here with 12 fxe6 bxc3 14 exf7+ Kh8 15 Qxc3 Qxc3 16 bxc3 and assesses the position as about equal.
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