Bobby Fischer humiliated one of his biggest rivals, Efim Geller, by defeating in only 22 moves!
Robert James Fischer vs Efim Geller, Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game), Modern Steinitz Defense (C72)
Bled 1961, Round 6
Efim Geller was one of very few who had a positive score against Bobby Fischer. Out of 10 games Fischer won 2, Geller won 5 and 3 were drawn. Geller also had a positive score against most strong players at the time; Petrosian, Tal, Botvinnik, Smyslov…
He was one of Fischer’s biggest rivals, along with Spassky. In this game Fischer made up for his negative score against Geller, though. He won in only 22 moves! An astonishing game by 18 year old Fischer who managed to exploit Geller’s mistakes swiftly and defeat him in great style.
The Bled tournament of 1961. was an International Jubilee Grandmaster Tournament and a prestigious event not everyone could play. Bobby Fischer was only 18 at the time, which shows how good and how renown he already was at such a young age. He finished in 2nd place with a remarkable score of 13.5/19, and he was out bested by none other than Mikhail Tal who finished in clear first with one point ahead of Fischer. Along with Tal and Fischer, the event was full of the strongest names in chess at the time. Here are the final standings with all the participants:
Mikhail Tal 14.5/19
Robert James Fischer 13.5/19
Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian 12.5/19
Paul Keres 12.5/19
Svetozar Gligoric 12.5/19
Efim Geller 10.5/19
Petar Trifunovic 10.5/19
Bruno Parma 10/19
Arthur Bisguier 9.5/19
Aleksandar Matanovic 9.5/19
Klaus Viktor Darga 9/19
Jan Hein Donner 9/19
Miguel Najdorf 9/19
Fridrik Olafsson 8.5/19
Lajos Portisch 8/19
Borislav Ivkov 8/19
Ludek Pachman 7/19
Mario Bertok 6.5/19
Milan Germek 5.5/19
Mijo Udovcic 4/19
Game moves:
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 d6 5. O-O Bg4 6. h3 Bh5
7. c3 Qf6 8. g4 Bg6 9. d4 Bxe4 10. Nbd2 Bg6 11. Bxc6+ bxc6
12. dxe5 dxe5 13. Nxe5 Bd6 14. Nxg6 Qxg6 15. Re1+ Kf8 16. Nc4
h5 17. Nxd6 cxd6 18. Bf4 d5 19. Qb3 hxg4 20. Qb7 gxh3+ 21. Bg3
Rd8 22. Qb4+ 1-0