Samuel Reshevsky - Outstanding Match Player, and Rivalry With Fischer

Outstanding Match Player, and Rivalry With Fischer

In 1952, New York hosted the first eight games of an informal match for "The Championship of the Free World" between Reshevsky and Polish-Argentine grandmaster Miguel Najdorf. An additional five games were played in Mexico City and five more in San Salvador. Reshevsky won the match, 11–7. The following year a rematch took place in Buenos Aires. Reshevsky again won, 9½–8½.

In his long career, Reshevsky proved a formidable match player. In 1941, he defeated I. A. Horowitz in a U.S. Championship playoff match by (+3 −0 =13). In 1942, he defeated Isaac Kashdan by (+6 −2 =3). In 1952, he defeated Svetozar Gligorić by (+2 −1 =7). In 1956, he defeated William Lombardy by (+1 −0 =5). In 1957, he defeated Arthur Bisguier by (+4 −2 =4). In 1957, he defeated Donald Byrne by (+7 −3 =0). In 1960, he defeated Pal Benko by (+3 −2 =5).

Reshevsky lost his first match in 1964 but it was a four game play-off match following the Amsterdam 1964 Interzonal, where he had tied for 8th–9th with the Hungarian Champion Lajos Portisch. The final spot for advancement to the Candidates Match was at stake and there was little time between the end of the Interzonal and the start of the match. Reshevsky's earlier matches had always had a lead time of several months, which allowed him to prepare his openings, but he proved to be at a distinct disadvantage in this area against Portisch, who was a full-time chess professional and always excellent in his opening preparation. Reshevsky was quickly outplayed on the White side of the Queen's Gambit Accepted in the first game and eventually fell on time in a lost position. In the second game, he played sharply with Black but Portisch was able to exchange the queens and a pair of rooks, thus draining much of the tension in the position. A draw by threefold repetition of position soon ensued. In his last game with White, Reshevsky had to go for broke. An Open Sicilian arose but Portisch seized the initiative on the queenside; having gained a clear advantage, he was able to translate it into a crushing kingside attack, thus winning the match and the final Candidates spot. Amsterdam 1964 was the first meeting between these two chess greats and Portisch was to prove a difficult opponent for Reshevsky, whose lifetime score against him was (+0 −4 =9).

Reshevsky played on top board for the USA in the 1955 team match against the USSR, held in Moscow, and defeated world champion Mikhail Botvinnik over four games, winning one and drawing three.

In 1961 Reshevsky began a 16-game match with the then-current U.S. Champion Bobby Fischer; it was jointly staged in New York and Los Angeles. Despite Fischer's recent meteoric rise, consensus opinion favored Reshevsky. After eleven games and a tie score (two wins apiece with seven draws), the match ended due to a scheduling dispute between Fischer and match organizer Jacqueline Piatigorsky, with Reshevsky receiving the winner's share of the prize fund.

Once Fischer made his debut at age 14 in the U.S. Championship with the 1957–58 event, he dominated completely, winning on each of his eight attempts, leaving Reshevsky, the seven-time former champion, back in the chasing pack. There was little love lost between the two players. Ahead of the Buenos Aires 1960 tournament, Reshevsky reportedly said, "I would settle for 19th place – if Fischer placed 20th." Reshevsky in fact won the Buenos Aires 1960 tournament, with Fischer well back; this was the only time Reshevsky finished ahead of Fischer in an international tournament.

In the 1967 Sousse Interzonal, Fischer turned up 53 minutes late (only seven minutes short of an automatic time forfeiture) for his game with Reshevsky, and made his opening move without a word of apology. Reshevsky, who had been convinced that Fischer had withdrawn from the tournament, lost the game badly and complained furiously to the organizers. Despite losing that game, Reshevsky advanced to the next stage. Reshevsky also refused to play for the U.S. team in the Chess Olympiads of 1960, 1962 and 1966 because Fischer was chosen ahead of him for the top board. He did, however, finally consent to play on a lower board in 1970, the only time the two men appeared in the same team.

Although Reshevsky and Fischer had one of the fiercest rivalries in chess history, Fischer greatly respected the older champion, stating in the late 1960s that he thought Reshevsky was the strongest player in the world in the mid-1950s, around the time when he defeated world champion Mikhail Botvinnik in their four-game mini-match, which was the top board of the USA vs USSR team match held in Moscow.

It was only in 1968, in his 57th year, that he finally lost a match where he had time for extensive preparation. This was against Viktor Korchnoi in Amsterdam in the first round of the Candidates. The match was scheduled for ten games but the younger Grandmaster proved too much for Reshevsky, who didn't win a game and lost by the final score of 5½–2½.

During his long chess career, Reshevsky played eleven of the first twelve World Champions, from Emanuel Lasker to Anatoly Karpov, the only player to do so (he met Garry Kasparov but never played him). He defeated seven World Champions: Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vasily Smyslov, and Bobby Fischer.

Aside from U.S. Championships, Reshevsky's important tournament titles included Syracuse 1934, Hastings 1937–38, Leningrad/Moscow 1939, Hollywood 1945 (Pan American Championship), New York 1951 (Maurice Wertheim Memorial), Havana 1952, New York 1956 (Lessing Rosenwald Trophy), Dallas 1957, Haifa/Tel Aviv 1958, Buenos Aires 1960, Netanya 1969, and the Reykjavík Open 1984 at age 72. Reshevsky competed seriously at least semi-regularly, virtually until his death in New York City in 1992. He defeated old rival Vasily Smyslov in a tournament game in 1991.