Even though Robin Ault was the ’59 Junior Champion, Bobby Fischer was two years younger than him! He played this game immediately after returning from the Bled-Zagreb-Belgrade Candidates.
Robert James Fischer vs Robin Ault, Pirc Defense, Byrne Variation B07
1959/60 US Chess Championship, Round 5, New York
Having returned from the Candidates in Yugoslavia, Bobby must have been the favorite to win the US Championship. He just played 28 games against the world’s best! Unfortunately he only finished 5th, and didn’t get to challenge Botvinnik for the title, but it was still immense experience. As expected, Bobby mopped up the competition and won in clear first.
His opponent in round 5 was Robin Ault, who’d just won the US Junior Championship. The funny thing is that he was two years older than Fischer (who was the youngest participant). Ault finished with 0/13, a less than ideal performance.
In this game they played a sharp Pirc Defense, Byrne Variation, and Robin Ault made an opening blunder on move 6. He prematurely pushed e5 (which is a common plan in many Pirc positions) when his king was still stuck in the center and his queen was pinned on d8. Fischer exploited his mistake and gained an almost winning edge in the position.
After a few more moves his advantage increased and he had a chance to convert into a material advantage, but he missed the winning capture and let Ault equalize. After a short period of black being on the offensive, Ault’s lack of experience and Fischer’s attacking chess one again turned the tables in white’s favor. Fischer started a deadly attack and soon made Ault resign.
It’s hard to say whether the US Chess Championship was as important to Fischer at this point, but he must have been glad to win in such a convincing fashion.
Game moves:
1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Bg5 Bg7 5. Qd2 Nbd7 6. O-O-O
e5 7. dxe5 dxe5 8. Nf3 h6 9. Bh4 g5 10. Bg3 Qe7 11. h4 g4
12. Nh2 c6 13. f3 h5 14. Kb1 Bh6 15. Qf2 Nc5 16. Be2 b5
17. Bd3 Rb8 18. Ne2 Na4 19. Nc1 O-O 20. fxg4 hxg4 21. h5 Nxh5
22. Nf1 Qg5 23. Bh4 Qg6 24. Ne3 Nf4 25. Nf5 Bg5 26. Qg3 Bxf5
27. exf5 Qg7 28. Bxg5 Qxg5 29. Rh4 Qg7 30. Rxg4 Ng6 31. f6 Qh8
32. Rxg6+ 1-0