“I’d rather have a Pawn than a finger”*

I’ve just been exposed to 64-square awesomeness.

October 17, 1956, New York
13-year old Bobby Fischer plays a chess game against International Master Donald Byrne. It will go down in history as The Game of the Century.

I’ve finished re-enacting the game (I know, this will definitely not help me get more social points) and it really is breathtaking. The Black moves at amazing speed, agressively, boldly and brilliantly, cornering and disconcerting the White. The game is rapidly turning into an amazing labyrinth. It keeps branching into tens of possible combinations, like an everblooming poisonous flower, culminating with Bishop to e6. Fischer offers to sacrifice his queen in a move that might send your heart racing if you’re the type that gets excited before a chessboard.

The fact that Fischer chooses to chase the White King for quite some time instead of checkmating sooner is, I think, a showy display that kind of overshadowed my joy but otherwise the mere reenactment of the game makes you feel like peeking through a keyhole into the mind of giants.

*Rueben Fine
**thanks to Wiki for all the juicy details and side comments plus Fischer’s own notation of the game; you can also check out the detailed moves there.