21 April 2018

Early Chess960 in Hungary

Thanks to two recent, well publicized chess960 events...

...I learned a bit more about the early days of chess960. First, here's a blog post by GM Susan Polgar, I will attend 2018 European Fischer Random Cup in Reykjavik, which might have been better titled 'My Memories of Fischer Random'. After answering the question 'How did you meet Bobby Fischer?' [NB: after the 1992 Fischer - Spassky Rematch], the former Women's World Champion answered the followup question, 'Did you play chess with Fischer while he was in Hungary?'

I played many Fischer Random blitz games with him. In fact, if you Google "Fischer Random", the only published photos of Bobby playing Fischer Random [were] with me. When he arrived in Hungary, he was still torn about the final rules of Fischer Random. Therefore, he and I spent countless hours discussing the pros and cons of various rules. Then we worked on finalizing the rules, which includes castling. I probably ended up playing more Fischer Random games with Bobby than anyone alive today.

This adds some additional info to one of my early posts on this blog, Pictures of a Fischer Random Precursor (March 2010). Except for a couple of exhibition games with Anatoly Karpov, which I documented in Chess960 Fever in Little Sweden, GM Polgar has never shown much interest in promoting the fruit of her work with Fischer.

Peter Leko, another Hungarian GM who met Fischer in Hungary at about the same time (see the recent Youtube video Peter Leko talks about Bobby Fischer staying at his home), competed in some of the earliest Mainz events. See, for example, No Place for Chess960 (February 2011) on this blog along with other posts that can be found via search. He talked about his experience in Leko: "A milestone for Fischer Random Chess"; Interview with Peter Leko about a unique match (chessvariants.com; June 2001).

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