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From: dpb@philabs.UUCP (Paul Benjamin)
Newsgroups: net.chess
Subject: Re: Bobby Fischer, Number 1 in the World???
Message-ID: <245@philabs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 27-Feb-85 19:05:57 EST
Article-I.D.: philabs.245
Posted: Wed Feb 27 19:05:57 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 4-Mar-85 06:29:40 EST
References: <295@ssc-bee.UUCP>
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Organization: Philips Labs, Briarcliff Manor, NY
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> You can't possibly believe that Fischer could fare well against Karpov
> or Kasparov.  (Especially in his current rusty condition.)

Undoubtedly it would take a period of practice to get him back into
match shape. Noone said it would happen today. What I was saying was
that he won the title of world champion perfectly fairly, and has
yet to be displaced as champion. There is no reason to believe he
could not recover his past form. After all, he is still much younger
than Korchnoi, who can obviously still play.

> In addition many experts believe that Fischer was VERY lucky to get
> by Petrosian...that match score could have been reversed.  Study
> games 1 through 5.

How about the USSR vs the rest of the world? Fischer beat Petrosian
the first two, then contented himself with two draws. One could
say in the same vein that both Karpov and Kasparov were lucky to
survive Korchnoi.

> There is no doubt that Fischer was a super -grandmaster, but so are
> Karpov and Kasparov.

Although the rating system is imperfect, it is still a fact that
Fischer's rating is higher than either Karpov's or Kasparov's
has ever been.

> ...and it should be noted so are a few other players.

At the time, so were Larsen and Taimanov. Fischer humiliated them.

> An excellent book ... Jan Timman's book, THE ART OF CHESS ANALYSIS
> has an excellent section on Fischer-Petrosian 5th match game.  The
> question was how Fischer ever survived the first part of that match.

If Petrosian was so much stronger than Fischer, why didn't he win?
The bottom line is that Fischer won not only some games, but the
match. There is no nondeterminism in chess. The winner of a
match is the better all-round player. Psychology is part of chess,
(ask Fine or Botvinnik).