Bobby Fischer’s first US Championship title! This is his round 5 victory over Arthur Bisguier in which Fischer played a brilliant positional Winawer French.
Robert James Fischer vs Arthur Bisguier, French Defense, Winawer, Advance Variation (C16)
US Championship (1957/58), New York, Round 5
After his appearance at the Third Rosenwald Trophy (1956), in which he played the game of the century against Donald Byrne, Bobby Fischer continued his steep rise towards being the best US chess player. In the 10th Championship which took place in 1957.-’58., Bobby had his first major success which brought him world wide recognition. He won the tournament convincingly, scoring 10.5/13, in clear first. He came ahead of his biggest rival, Samuel Reshevsky, who finished 2nd.
Here are the final standings:
Robert James Fischer 10.5/13
Samuel Reshevsky 9.5/13
James T Sherwin 9/13
William James Lombardy 7.5/13
Hans Berliner 7/13
Arthur Feuerstein 6.5/13
Arnold Denker 6.5/13
Edmar J Mednis 6.5/13
Herbert Seidman 6/13
Sidney Norman Bernstein 5/13
Arthur Bisguier 5/13
Abe Turner 4.5/13
Attilio Di Camillo 4.5/13
George Mortimer Kramer 3/13
The field was significantly weaker than Fischer, who was 14 years old at the time, an age by which he had the strength of top European grandmasters. The only two formidable opponents we Reshevsky and Bisguier, who he faced in this game. Bobby opened with 1.e4 (as he himself said: “Best by test”), and Bisguier chose the French Defense. The position which arose out of the opening had common problems for both sides. Black lacked counter play if c5 wasn’t played, and he had a bad light squared bishop, and white had to slow down his queenside progress while, simultaneously, attacking on the kingside.
Bisguier misjudged and misplayed the position, allowing Fischer to get a free hand in the attack, and, what followed, was one of Bobby’s memorable positional victories over an opponent who had nothing else to do but resign.
This was Fischer’s first major success, and it will be one of many US Championships he will go on to win. He will also become the youngest grandmaster in history shortly after this game (a record which will be broken by Judit Polgar in 1989.!).
Game moves – French Defense, Winawer, Advance Variation (C16):
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 b6 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Qd7 7.Qg4
f5 8.Qg3 Ba6 9.Bxa6 Nxa6 10.Ne2 O-O-O 11.a4 Kb7 12.O-O Qf7
13.c4 Ne7 14.Bg5 dxc4 15.Qc3 Nd5 16.Qxc4 Ra8 17.Bd2 f4 18.Ra3
g5 19.a5 c6 20.axb6 axb6 21.Qb3 Nac7 22.c4 Rxa3 23.Qxa3 Ra8
24.Qb3 Ne7 25.Nc3 Qf5 26.Qb4 Nc8 27.Na4 f3 28.Nc5+ Kb8 29.Nd7+
Kb7 30.Qb3 Qg4 31.Nc5+ Kb8 32.g3 Qxd4 33.Be3 Qa1 34.Rb1 Ra3
35.Nd7+ Kb7 36.Qd1 Qa2 37.Nxb6 Nxb6 38.Rxb6+ Kc8 39.Qxf3 Qxc4
40.Qf8+ Kd7 41.Qxa3 1-0