1963 US Chess Championship: Bobby Fischer vs Pal Benko

[duumitri]

it took me a while to see why the rook sacrifice offer was necessary... but then i saw that it blocks blacks last possibility to release pressure by playing f5, and now the bishop would just stand in the way... might be one small detail that should be mentioned for noobs like me ;) but i love all your videos, learning so much, thanks!

[burt591]

@duumitri yes and also f5 is trying to exchange queens

[concept015]

Ne2 most elegant move ive seen

[nebeals17]

Love the videos. You are by far the most instructive player/commentator on YouTube, keep it up! Also, watching these Fischer games where he crushes strong GMs in 21 moves are amazing. It's really cool to watch someone with an understanding of the game as deep as Fischer's punishing opponents for their inaccuracies so forcefully.

[trysometruth]

Wow, you are really good at chess game commentary. That was one of the easiest to follow and enjoyable commentaries on a chess game I've seen. You clearly know what you're doing.

[ex0duzz]

I love how you commented on the early opening, especially on the Bc4 variation(he played Bd3 instead in this game) since IIRC, Fischer loves to play Bc4 in other lines(i forgot the name, but i think it's a Sicilian line). You are one of the best chess commentators on YT. I hope you keep up the hard work dude, which i assume you are doing for free atm. I hope you get more subscribers and the love of chess increases too at the same time. =]

[ChessNetwork]

@ex0duzz Thanks for the compliments/words of encouragement ex0duzz :)

[DMK000]

Didn't think Benko would go down that easily. Wow, Fischer is something else...

[foojote]

more fischer & tal mikhail matches would be very awesome!

[pipower]

Great video. It's worth pointing out why Rf6 was necessary instead of an immediate e5: because Black could counter an immediate e5 with f5. White's playing Rf6 immobilizes Black's f pawn in preparation for e5.

[lazimofo90]

Jerry your voice doesnt sound anywhere near as smooth as it does usually man

[dancemaster999]

at 1:46, is the situation really bad for white? what if Lxf7?

[MCbroomer]

I would prefer to not know who won...even though it was obvious, but thank you for your posts!

[ChessNetwork]

@MCbroomer 9:06

[dumpnchase]

That looked too easy. Thanks for the video.

[ChristopoulosGeorge]

modern defence in 1963! coooooool!!!!

[MrIran69]

jerry .Please do not do any more fischer games ! he backed september 2011 attacks and very arrogant and kicked his mum out of house as teenager and took money from serbia when they were slaughtering bosnians . . he should not be any one's role model

[Neueregel]

@MrIran69 No one said he is a role model. However, noone can deny his extraordinary chess ingenuity. Judge his games and not the man. Besides, many geniuses throughout the history, bear some seed of madness.

[noxure]

@MrIran69 It is possible to honor someone for what he achieved, and still despise what he became. Censorship is wrong.

[ChessNetwork]

@MrIran69 Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm very unlikely to take it.

[ex0duzz]

@ChessNetwork Glad to hear that.

@MrIran69 Please don't talk about people who aren't here(ie alive) to defend their political viewpoints, because i'm guessing you don't actually understand his position or the things he talks about well enough to say all the things you say. That, AND Fischer was one of the greatest chess players of all time. Cut him some slack. He didn't 'back' any sep 11 attacks. You make it sound like he funded it all. I'm guessing he believed in 'Karma', and he's right.

[00bikeboy]

@MrIran69 What does any of that have to do with Fischer's chess games?

[thechessstick]

@MrIran69 Bobby Fischer was a man of very high integrity and abhorred those of low integrity. That is why he often acted the way he did. He hated groups, individuals and governments that were corrupt.

[AlanWattParrot]

@MrIran69 like some notably profound poets /novelists who were rather unsavoury characters, the literary critic seperates out the man from his art, altho i don't find Fischer's views obnoxious myself, just misguided for the most part, same way Kasparov's eccentric view of history is. Fischer wasn't a bad man, he simply had 'issues' which came to the fore - i wdn't hang him on that. He mistakenly conflated the evil crimes of Zionism with Jewry and thus became the stereotypical self-loathing Jew

[dummychaos]

@MrIran69 It's like you've said after the WWII. Do not take scientific approach on human sacrificies during the war caused by nazis in medical history, just destroy the documents. As a human and scientist, you would, with no doubt, take the evidence and science from those files. As much as we HATE the nazis for gassing the jews, we can't ignore their progress they made during the war. If we would ignore it, much of our medicine wouldn't be there as fast as it is today.

[jerkasmo]

Unfortunately Fischer doesn't play queen's pawn openings. The Benko Gambit response by Pal Benko would have been glorious.

[CerebralAssassin1983]

killer sac...love it

[aldanjah]

nice game !

[chessenthusiast]

You should do more Fischer games. He's one of our favorite players, and you are by far our favorite commentator. :-)

[Aschenkopf]

Holy Fischer !

[Threepwoot]

I love when you post such videos of games that happened years ago and which are famous! The best are those of Bobby Fischer.

Great Video

[Sozialneutralist]

Can you explain why the retreat move instead of taking the black knight with the pawn, making space for whites queen?

[noxure]

@Sozialneutralist Because opening up the d-file isn't in white's interest.

Black could then play Qe3+... then capture the knight with dxc3 and then force a queen trade with Qg5.

White would be up one pawn, but the overstretched pawn on d6 doesn't look defendable and double pawn on the c-file. Black would save the game.

On the other hand, quietly maneuvering the knight from c3 to e2, g3 to f5 is pretty much unstoppable, even if he has 2-3 moves to come up with something. :-)

[gorantrevise]

@noxure black can definitly not take the knight after Qe3+ becaus Qf5 is ending the game

[noxure]

@gorantrevise Oops you're right; I shouldn't comment on chess video's this late. :-)

Play Qg5 right away then, the general idea is still correct I think.

Although, now I'm confused why Fischer didn't play Ne4 since that seems to be even stronger. Sometimes it's hard to tell with that guy if he's joking or not.

[gorantrevise]

@Sozialneutralist Hi, maybe i can help a little. First i think your suggestion e*d6 wins easily, but black has the idea of playing Qe3+ (h6 is protected) and after that maybe Rfe8(Qf5 is met by Kg8) and suddenly the rook on f6 and the Knight on c3 are hanging. I did not check with a computer but Fisher was also known for his cristal clear thoughts. Maybe Jerry shares his thoughts with us about that.

[Sozialneutralist]

@gorantrevise

That would make sense, yeah, thanks.

[tonybeir]

good game. thank you so much for posting this.

[MarcusLOC]

This is the first time i've seen your mouse Jerry, top work with all the vids

[dedalus1983]

Wow, Bobby Fischer really was the greatest ever! Great great game!

[Learnentz]

Hello guys, I recently discovered the website chessdotcom and have been interested into getting a diamond account in order to improve my game further more.

However, since this is the only serious website I know of, I wanted to know if any of you would recommend me a particular website ?

Thanks.

[guitarfella581]

@Learnentz ive been with chess.com for 2 years now, and i can say its one of the absolute best learning experiences ive ever had, chess mentor as im sure you heard of , a thing that gives you postions to learn from and solve, anything from openings to middle to endgames ,famous games, postional concepts, tactical concepts,master videos from really brilliant teachers,i would recoomend sam shankland roman dzinihasviliy, and several others,opening databse to look at.i recomend chesscube for playing

[MisterTP1]

Jerry, I like your analysis and blitz video's the best! I hope you make many more!

[ntrade]

Bobby Fischer game + Jerry's analysis = winning combination :)

[Physicsandmaths]

You really seem to be sad about Benko losing ;)

[MrGeometres]

Maybe black should have tried c5 instead of c6 @ 7:00, as it prevents the Bxd4 e5 idea and also threatens c4 to kick the light square bishop off the dangerous b1-h6 diagonal.

Houdini gives as best play:

1.... c5 2. b3 (to prevent c4) c4 anyway 3.bxc4 Nxc4 (temporary piece sac) 4. Bxc4 Qc8 (threatening queen exchange and winnong the piece back.

This line completly blows whites attack. Houdini gives +0.33 at depth 21

@Nimzowitz: in your line black is a piece down, how can he be better?

[Nimzowitz]

Excellent! Btw, Fritz 6 evaluates the ending position better for black! It gives the line 1. - c5 2. Rxd6 Qxe5 3. Qxe5 Bxe5 4. Rxh6 and black should stand better.

[AndyMH182]

unreal

[XRectalAnarchyX]

Does it mean that modern defence is bad opening?

[gofookalime]

@XRectalAnarchyX no, its not bad at all, ive played a little with modern defenses and i had a fine games

[tantzer]

Excellent commentary.

[Neueregel]

Modern defence seems a lot like King's Indian

[Ziddletwix]

Love these videos! You sound a bit sick or tired so I hope you feel better! Take some time off if you need

[Shockwave109]

Another reason why 19. Rf6 is so brilliant is because immediately playing 19. e5 can be met by ...f5, which not only blocks the bishop but forces the trading of Queens unless white retreats. The rook move obstructs the pawn; a fantastic sacrifice that is absolutely beautiful.

[20lukeo]

@chessnetwork hey jerry have you ever thought about doing a dual commentary blitz game against kingscrusher? it would be great! thanks for the great videos

[20lukeo]

@chessnetwork hey jerry have you ever thought about doing a dual commentary against kingscrusher? it would be great! thanks for the great videos

[yablecki]

I love studying Bobby Fischer games. Thanks for the analysis!

[20lukeo]

hey jerry have you ever thought about doing a dual commentary against kingscrusher? it would be great! thanks for the great videos

[esfelectra]

amazing game

[Pentazoid111]

always a pleasure jerry

[sushicartman01]

Black's Qe8 move looks like the move that killed benko and the one that could've been used instead to prevent the nasty combination. But you never go over the reasoning behing this move. Can you explain why you think Benko made this move?

[codexelectra]

at 8:13 why instead of retreating the knight not to sac the rook at h6 is there any refutatuion to that ?

[kah13176]

@codexelectra I was wondering the same thing.

[coosoorlog]

@codexelectra @kah13176 perhaps the possible ...f5 is a reason at this point.

[FMafia206]

Didn't expect a Bobby Fischer game to appear in my sub box :P Keep up the great work Jerry!

[x78340]

Jerry, what happened to your voice? Too much smoking and drinking? :/

[mavaddat]

I love this game!! It's one of my favourites. Thanks for reviewing it, Jerry. Your commentary is helpful and instructive as always!

[illusion887]

I'm searching for Bobby Fischer, anyone know where he is?

[codexelectra]

@illusion887 Dead

[xXLogicalArgumentsXx]

@illusion887 Hit play.

[xXLogicalArgumentsXx]

Jerry, you sound sick, hope you get better if you are! Perhaps staying up so late livestreaming isn't the healthiest thing :P. Anyways, thanks for spending so much time with your fans :).

[ChessNetwork]

@xXLogicalArgumentsXx Football season. I like to cheer on my team. :)

[WfireH]

@xXLogicalArgumentsXx I agree

[illusion887]

@FMafia206 ORLY? SRSLY?

[FMafia206]

@illusion887 lol...you fail at trolling.

[illusion887]

@FMafia206 This one time I had dinner with Bobby Fischer and there was a checkered table cloth..took him 20 minutes to pass the salt.

[FMafia206]

@illusion887 lolk

[MuseseekerMan]

@illusion887 he's six feet under. in the ground. :) Go get u're shovel.

[moviecritic6]

@illusion887 Dead.

[SohnoJam]

@illusion887 Look underground.

[tomasborlin]

Jerry is pretty awesome.