Winning streak set Fischer apart as dominant force
Saturday, June 14, 2008 2:56 AM
By SHELBY LYMAN
Perhaps the best estimate of a world champion’s strength is how he compares with his contemporaries.
Garry Kasparov thinks that, by this metric, no one ranks higher than Bobby Fischer, who won an unprecedented 20 straight games against grandmaster opposition in a 1971-72 run-up to his world-title match with Boris Spassky.
In 1981, Fischer played 17 informal speed games with the two-time champion of Canada, Peter Biyiasas, a grandmaster of average strength. Fischer won every game.
Biyiasas’ utterly candid account is remarkable.
“He was too good,” the Canadian recalled. “There was no use in playing him. It wasn’t interesting. I was getting beaten, and it wasn’t even clear to me why. It wasn’t like I made this mistake or that.
“It was like I was being gradually outplayed, from the start. He wasn’t taking any time to think. The most depressing thing about it is that I wasn’t even getting out of the middle game to an endgame.”
Perhaps it is only a coincidence, but Biyiasas, who was 30 years old when the games with Fischer occurred, stopped competing in major chess tournaments that year.
The result of their encounters was probably predictable. Although Fischer and Biyiasas were both grandmasters, there was an unbridgeable gap in their level of play and feeling for the game.
Source: Columbus Dispatch
Carlsen is the next Fischer.
Hopefully NOT!
OK Susan…How did you do vs. Bobby in your blitz games?
Its like a man beating up on a little boy.