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Bobby Fischer vs Mikhail Tal - 1959

Mikhail Tal blasts Bobby Fischer with the Najdorf

ChessAnalysisOpeningStrategyChess Personalities
The d5-battle

Featured is the game between Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Tal from the 1959 Bled-Zagreb-Belgrade Candidates Tournament. The key battleground square out of this Sicilian Najdorf game between two chess legends revolves around the d5 square. The position before Fischer’s 10th move is already time sensitive with the top engine suggesting that Fischer should increase the pressure on e6 immediately with f5. Tal was quick to launch his b-pawn to undermine Fischer’s queen knight and its control of d5. By move 13, Tal had already won the battle for d5 and the plan of progress from there would be to simply break with the liberating and thematic d5 push. This game between Fischer and Tal acts as an excellent demonstration of how quickly one’s position can collapse when control of the center has been lost.

Bobby Fischer vs Mikhail Tal | 1959 Candidates

Robert James Fischer vs Mikhail Tal: Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation, Lipnitsky Attack • lichess.org

Below the video I have highlighted 2 positions
https://youtu.be/uEv2djnfDKw

Question 1 of 2: How should black reply to 10. f5?

https://lichess.org/study/CuawoDiY/ys3V2PVh#19

Question 2 of 2: How should white reply to 16...Qa5?

https://lichess.org/study/CuawoDiY/xrQYmkpx#32

Closing words

Thank you in advance for any likes and/or follows you may give. Any questions or comments you may have can be left on YouTube or in the forum below. If you enjoyed the featured video, you may also enjoy the playlist I've created Bobby Fischer's Chess Games. I hope you have, in some way, benefited from this post. Thank you for taking the time to read.
-Jerry