deirdre thompson

One of my favourite photos not just of one of my favourite Actors - ROBERT MITCHUM - but of any Actor, taken on location whilst shooting Ryan's Daughter in 1970.

Bobby Fischer was able to defeat the Soviet school of chess by copying it, and then subverting it through a long term plan. He learned from reading their magazines, studying their games. In the 1960s learning certain openings and structures inside and out was the way to victory. This is something Botvinnik was teaching all the Soviet masters. And they passed this training on. Fischer picked it up in their literature. He didn’t have a Soviet teacher - which is another reason to admire his achievement. Beyond opening analysis - the USSR masters would focus on consistent endgame play. Fischer became proficient in winning endgames where he had a bishop and his opponent had a knight - he studied this endlessly and became unbeatable in such situations. And he mastered rook endings - which every GM must do. But his masterstroke to the World Championship was hiding his ideas until 1972. Fischer was so good that he beat everyone to become the challenger to Boris Spassky. But in doing so he played the openings everyone expected him to play. What he had been playing for a decade. The Soviets knew what he would do, prepared for it - but Fischer beat them anyway. Then he shifted course. When he played Spassky for the actual World Championship in Iceland, he unleashed new ideas in the Benoni, the Alekhine, the Queen’s Gambit. These were openings he mostly avoided his entire career. He had planned this stuff for years. For one moment in 1972. And he delivered. It’s an extraordinary achievement. It was a feat of great planning. And Fischer was the GOAT because he put far more distance between himself and every other player than anyone else - including Kasparov and Carlsen - has ever achieved.

Take a break from doomscrolling, and have a look at this little mouse with her stitchwort garland instead.