Fischer Puts the Vulcan Nerve Pinch On Bazan

     Speaking of Bobby Fischer, Kasparov wrote that if you judge a player's strength by comparing him to is contemporaries, then the gap between him and his closest rivals was the widest there ever was between a World Champion and the other top ranking players of his time. 
     Recently I have been browsing a forgotten book in my library, Bobby Fischer, His Approach to Chess, by Elie Agur. First off, who is/was Elie Agur? My copy published by Cadogan says the book was copyrighted by Julie Hodgson in 1996 and reprinted in 1995 (sic!), 1996 and 1999, which makes no sense and there's nothing “About the author.” 
     As near as I could determine, Agur was a national master from the Netherlands who lived in The Hague and at some point he was affiliated with Israel with a modest 2285 rating. A lookup on the current FIDE rating list didn't turn up anything. 
     Jeremy Silman wrote that when the book first came out an IM made the snide comment that because Agur was a mere master, he could not have possibly written a good book on Fischer. Silman disagreed and stated that Agur had written a modern classic! 
     The book itself is more than just a collection of Fischer's games, it's more like a middlegame treatise, and to a lesser extent endings, taken from Fischer's games. For example, Agur examines the way Fischer handled the center in the King's Indian, the types of P-formations Fischer liked and his ability to seize the initiative, etc. What I especially like about the book is rather than just give a lot of variations, Agur uses verbal explanations which is more profitable for one's understanding. 
     One reviewer complained that Agur's analysis was “too superficial to provide any real deep insight into the positions” and that the book doesn't really clearly define Fischer's technique and that “most examples and characteristics could be found for most top GMs. The author did very little to contrast the effectiveness Fischer's style against the players of his time.” Pish! Silman is closer to the truth when he stated that while he didn't agree with all of Agur's analysis or opinions, he tried to understand the games and pass it along to the reader. 
     I am sure Agur's analysis was helped by the use of an engine, but a lot of it gets shot down by today's engines. That's not to say they played bad chess in the mid-1990s! 
     In 1994 Kasparov lost to Fritz 3 in a blitz tournament in Munich. Fritz also defeated Anand, Short, Gelfand, and Kramnik. GM Robert Huebner refused to play it and lost on forfeit. Kasparov got is revenge in a match against Fritz 3 by scoring +4 -0 =2. 
     At the 1994 Intel Speed tournament in London, Kasparov was eliminated from the knockout tournament when he lost to Chess Genius 2.95. In November 1995, Kasparov beat Fritz 4 and Genius 3.0. 
     The 6th Harvard Cup Human vs. Computer chess challenge was held in New York in December, 1995. The GMs won with a score of 23.5-12.5 score. In February 1996, Kasparov beat DEEP BLUE by a score of 4-2 in Philadelphia. But, Deep Blue won the first game, becoming the first computer to beat a world champion in serious tournament conditions. 
     If had any complaint it's that the book has important positions, not complete games, but that just me; I like to see how they players arrived at the critical position. 
     One position that caught my eye was Fischer's game against Bazan was played at Mar del Plata in 1960.  Soltis called this game a forgotten gem. Fischer puts the Vulcan nerve pinch on Bazan who never knew what hit him. 
     Osvaldo Bazan the chess player is not to be confused with Osvaldo Bazan, the Argentine musician or Osvalso Bazan the Argentine journalist and writer. 
     The chessplaying Bazan was born in 1934 in Cordoba, Argentina. His mother, Ernestina Vergara de Bazan was female the champion of Argentina several times and it was she who taught him how to play. 

Bazan

     Bazan's best result in the Argentine championship was second in 1959 and he won the championship of Cordoba ten times. Suffering from poor health all of his life, he passed away in 1997 at age 63. 
     At Mar del Plata in 1960 the relatively new to international chess, 17 year old Fischer and 23 year old Spassky, dominated the tournament and tied for first with 13.5-1.5. The undefeated Spassky gave Fischer his only loss in their individual game. Fischer drew with 3rd place Bronstein (who was undefeated) and won all the rest of his games. Olafsson was 4th and Bazan finished 5th. 
     This game demonstrates Fischer's ability to play actively when in came to defense. As Agur observed, it was often difficult to tell if Fischer was defending or attacking.