It is well known that Anatoly Karpov never played a game of chess with 1972 World Champion Robert James Fischer. However, they both sat at the chess board and stared at the position shown here, Karpov with the white pieces, Fischer with the black pieces. Fischer played Dr. Anthony Saidy, the secondest strongest chess player in the state of California by the end of 1969, sporting a 2447 rating in December of that year. Interestingly, this is the only game we have on record for Mr. Fischer for that entire calendar year. Karpov's game was about 4 years later in Madrid against Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez, listed as a 2400 player at the time he crossed swords with Karpov.
Here is each of their games:
Dr. Anthony Saidy vs. Robert J. Fischer
New York, 1969
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 f5 4. Bg2 Nf6 5. d3 Bc5 6. e3 f4 7. exf4 0-0 8. Nge2 Qe8 9. 0-0 d6 10. Na4 Bd4 11. Nxd4 exd4 12. h3 h5 13. a3 a5 14. b3 Qg6 15. Nb2 Bf5 16. Qc2 Nd7 17. Re1 Nc5 18. Bf1 Ra6 19. Bd2 Rb6 20. Bxa5 Rxb3 21. Bd2 Ra8 22. a4 Ra6 23. a5
Anatoly Karpov vs. Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez
January 12, 1973
1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 f5 4. Bg2 Nf6 5. d3 Bc5 6. e3 f4 7. exf4 0-0 8. Nge2 d6 9. 0-0 Qe8 10. Na4 Bd4 11. Nxd4 exd4 12. a3 a5 13. b3 Bf5 14. Nb2 Qg6 15. Qc2 Nd7 16. Re1 Nc5 17. Bf1 Ra6 18. Bd2 Rb6 19. Bxa5 Rxb3 20. Bd2 Ra8 21. a4 h5 22. h3 Ra6 23. a5
Mr. Fischer played 23...Kh7 against Saidy and went on to win. Lopez played 23...Nb4 against Karpov and the game was drawn.
Given that so much time has passed, I am wondering if Mr. Fischer would be interested in playing out the remainder of this game via correspondence with Mr. Anatoly Karpov? Since he would be playing Karpov and not Saidy, it would only be fair to allow Mr. Fischer to move with the black pieces in the event he does not wish to play 23...Kh7 at this point in time.
Mr. Karpov and Mr. Fischer, I extend the invitation to each of you to continue on from this point in your game.
This blog is private. Only Mr. Fischer and Mr. Karpov can post to it. It is also not visible to the outside world, except by explicit invitation. Won't you please consider playing?
