The unknown kid lost his Queen in 15 minutes and burst out bawling. It’s a fact almost lost to history, but there was another kid playing Pavey that day, too. It was 14-year-old Edmar Mednis who went on to become a Grandmaster.
Mednis was a junior member of the Marshall Chess Club and along with Sylvan Katske they did better than Fischer; they both held Pavey to a draw. Fischer later declared that his loss to Pavey was what motivated him to improve, which he did.
Among the spectators was Carmine Nigro, president of the Brooklyn Chess and Checkers Club and after the game he approached Mrs. Fischer and Bobby and invited Bobby to join the club for free.
Nigro was trying to teach his uninterested-in-chess son William how to play and offered to coach Bobby as well. As you know, Fischer was more enthusiastic than William and took Nigro up on his offer. History was also made because Fischer was the first child permitted to join the Brooklyn Chess Club which also had no female members.
The following game was played in the preliminaries in the 1951 Manhattan Chess Club Championship and, according to Al Horowitz writing in Chess Review, there was so much action in it that that it was difficult to keep track of its tactical accuracy. He added that only a minute inspection of the game MIGHT have changed hands on move 16 if white had played 16.Kf1 instead of 16.Kf2.
To be sure of which move was better Horowitz noted that an electronic computer would be needed. Of course, they didn’t have one in 1951, but today we have a glut of chess programs with strong engines, so let’s take a look and see if Horowitz was correct.
Herbert Avram (1913-2006, 92 years old) won the Virginia State Championship in 1952, 1953, and 1954. He was the Maryland State champion in 1955 and 1979. In 1969, he won the Capital City Open. His wife, Henriette Avram, was one of the first computer programmers and was a key figure in the computerization of library catalogs.
There is s nice article on Boris Siff (1911-1998, 86 years old) HERE.
Boris Siff–Herbert Avram1–0D48Manhattan CC Champ Preliminary1951Stockfish 15.1 (10s)
QGS Semi-Slav: Meran System 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.c3 f6 4.f3 bd7 5.e3 e6 6.d3 dxc4 7.xc4 b5 8.d3 a6 9.e4 c5 10.e5 g4 At the time this was a
comparatively new idea against all the multifarious variations of the Slav.
The idea is to put pressure on white's P on e5, the mainstay of his game.
Nowadays black plays 10...cxd4 11.f4 Even at the cost of a P white intends
to maintain his P on e5. The result of this move though is that it enters a
maze of complications. 11.e4 This is the most solid continuation. a7 12.e3 xe3 13.fxe3 g6 14.0-0 h6 15.e2 0-0 16.h1 c7 17.ad1 c4 18.a3 b6 19.g4 f5 20.exf6 1/2-1/2 Atalik,S (2585)-Ivanisevic,I (2664)/Kallithea 2008
11...b7 This is not the most accurate. 11...cxd4 12.e4 b4+
Also playable is 12...Qa5+ 13.f1 b7 14.h3 h6 15.xh6 gxh6 The position
is equal. Kruger-Florian, Hungarian Chp 1950 12.g5 cxd4 13.xg4 dxc3 14.xe6 Safer was 14.O-O which places the K in safety and still maintains
attacking chances. The text invites complications and gives black plenty of
counterplay. It's speculation, but Siff probably played 14.Nxe6 on intuition. cxb2 14...fxe6 is really bad. 15.g6+ hxg6 16.xg6+ e7 17.g5+ f6 18.exf6+ gxf6 19.xf6+ and white is winning. 15.d1 b4+ What should white
play? Horowitz felt that since white is committed to attacking the right move
was 16.Ke2 because it allows the R on h1 to join the game whereas after 16.Kf1
the R is shut out of the game. Stockfish indicates that there is about a whole
P difference between the two and Horowitz was correct. At the same time
Stockfish is absolutely certain that black has a significant advantage. 16.f1 16.e2 fxe6 17.g5 c8 18.xb4 18.xe6+ is slightly less good. f8 19.f5+ Now if 19...Kg8 white can repeat moves with 20.Qe6+ f6 20.exf6 xf5 21.xf5 e8+ 22.e3 gxf6 18...c5 19.c2 Black is better. 16...fxe6 17.xg7 f8 18.xh7 xe5 Horrible! Black goes from winning to losing
in a single move. Was Avram under the impression that he has sufficient
xcounterplay against white's exposed K? 18...c7 19.g6+ d8 20.g5+ c8 21.xe6 c6 22.e7 e8 23.d6 xd6 24.exd6 a5 25.b3 h8 26.d3 a4 27.xa4 bxa4 Black is winning. Just a sample... 28.e1 xg2 29.g1 d5 30.d2 a3 31.h4 b7 32.g5 c6 33.f5 hg8 34.f4 xa2 19.xd8+ xd8 20.xe5 d5 20...d1+ 21.e2 xh1 22.g6+ f7 23.b8+ c8 24.xc8+ e7 25.c7+ e8 26.xf7+ d8 27.c7# 21.g6+ f7 21...e7 22.g7+ f7 23.xf7# 22.e2 c4+ 23.f3 e7 24.xf7 d3+ 25.g4 xf7 26.xb2 The rest is
technique as they say. c3 27.b1 e5 28.e3 e4 29.d1 b4 Superficially it
looks like black has a lot more play than he really does. 30.f5 d5+ 31.xd5 xd5 32.d1 e6+ 33.xe4 xa2 34.d7+ g8 35.d4 b1+ 36.e3
Black resigned. 36.e3 1–0
To his credit, Fischer expressed his appreciation of Carmine Nigro's tutelage more than once
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