Bobby Fischer's GOATed Endgame

"When a young player is good at attacking or at combinations, this is understandable, but a faultless endgame technique at the age of 19 is something rare. I can only recall one other chessplayer who at that age was equally skillful at endgames - Vasily Smyslov"

Alexander Kotov on Bobby Fischer's play.

From January 27th - March 6th 1962, Bobby Fischer played in the Stockholm Interzonal. An Interzonal is a way to qualify for the Candidates. The top six finishers would qualify. Fischer won the Stockholm Interzonal with 17½/22, 2½ points ahead of Geller and Petrosian. This was a great accomplishment.

Bobby Fischer at the Stockholm Interzonal. Source: Ronny Karlsson, Colorized by https://bobby-fischer-1962.blogspot.com

In Round 4, he faced Lajos Portisch the Hungarian Grandmaster. This game is notable as it has one of Fischer's best endgames. He converted a seemingly drawn rook endgame into a win with impressive technique.

Fischer opened with his customary 1.e4 to which Portisch replied with the Caro-Kann. Fischer played his favourite Nc3-Nf3 system which was his main weapon against the Caro at the time:

They reached a rook endgame after 30 moves. Fischer found a dynamic way to play for win with 32.f5!. He wins the passed h pawn and opens a path for his King to win the f pawn. This will give him a kingside majority and a chance to create a passed pawn of his own. Fischer will then endeavor to play e6 which will create the passed pawn. There are interesting nuances in this stage of the game and Fischer's play is extremely instructive and enjoyable:

Fischer has successfully created the chance to create a passed pawn. Now he will use the pawn as a decoy to allow his King to create a passed pawn on the Queenside. This was achieved very cleanly and educationally by Fischer. The endgame is rich in detail and shows some nice subtleties:

I hope you enjoyed and learnt from this endgame tutorial.

Till next time! - RuyLopez1000.