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Famous Fischer game · 1971

Fischer vs. Taimanov, Vancouver 1971, Game 4

The fourth game of Fischer's 6–0 quarterfinal sweep: in an open ending his bishop outplayed Taimanov's knight, and a final bishop sacrifice cleared the way for his queenside pawns.

White
Bobby Fischer
Black
Mark Taimanov
Result
1–0
Date
Event
1971 Candidates quarterfinal (Fischer vs. Taimanov match)
Place
Vancouver, Canada
Round
4
Opening
Sicilian Defence, Taimanov Variation (B47)
Moves
71

Position after 24.Re5

  1. 1.
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  24. 24.
  25. 25.
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  27. 27.
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  33. 33.
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  44. 44.
  45. 45.
  46. 46.
  47. 47.
  48. 48.
  49. 49.
  50. 50.
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  62. 62.
  63. 63.
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  66. 66.
  67. 67.
  68. 68.
  69. 69.
  70. 70.
  71. 71.

Background

The Candidates quarterfinal between Bobby Fischer and Mark Taimanov was played in Vancouver from 16 May to 1 June 1971, over a maximum of ten games; 5½ points were needed to win. Taimanov was an experienced grandmaster who had already been a world championship candidate in 1953, and he was also a professional concert pianist. When the fourth game began on 25 May, Fischer already led 3–0. The second game had been decided only after two adjournments, when Taimanov missed a simple draw.[1][2][3][4]

The game is remembered above all for its ending. After the queens were exchanged on move 23, Tal wrote in his contemporary notes that White stood better, because in an open position with play on both wings the bishop is more active than the knight. Fischer used the b5-square, fixed by 33.a4, first for his bishop and later for his king, while Taimanov's kingside pawns stood on light squares within reach of the bishop. Douglas Griffin, who translated Tal's notes, calls it a textbook victory.[5][3]

Taimanov lost the fifth and sixth games as well, and the 6–0 result was complete on 1 June. There was little precedent for such a one-sided score in a match on the road to the world championship, and Fischer followed it with another 6–0 against Bent Larsen. For Taimanov the defeat had serious consequences at home: he later recalled that the Soviet authorities barred him from travelling abroad and took away his state salary. The six results tell only part of his story.[1][4][6][7][3]

Key moments

  1. The queens are off; rooks and minor pieces remain. Tal judged this ending favourable for White: the position is open, there is play on both wings, and in such positions the bishop is more active than the knight.[5]

    Engine check: The DeepSquare engine (depth 22) also chooses 24.Re5 here; evaluation afterwards: +0.1 from White’s point of view.

  2. A quiet but important move. Tal saw it as fixing the weak b5-square, which could later serve both the bishop and the king. That is exactly what happened: the bishop went there with 41.Bb5, the king with 50.Kb5.[5]

  3. Fischer exchanges the last pair of rooks. After 44…Kxd6 a pure bishop-versus-knight ending remains, with six pawns each. According to Griffin's note to Tal's commentary, Black could then no longer keep the white king away from b5, from where it later went on to a6 and b6.[5]

    Engine check: The DeepSquare engine (depth 22) also chooses 44.Rxd6 here; evaluation afterwards: +1.1 from White’s point of view.

  4. The decisive blow: Fischer gives up his bishop for the g6-pawn. After 62…Nxg6 the white king captures on b6 and c5, leaving three white queenside pawns against one black pawn – too many for the knight. Taimanov resigned after 71.b6.[5]

    Engine check: The DeepSquare engine (depth 22) also chooses 62.Bxg6 here; evaluation afterwards: +3.5 from White’s point of view.

PGN

[Event "1971 Candidates quarterfinal (Fischer vs. Taimanov match)"]
[Site "Vancouver, Canada"]
[Date "1971.05.25"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Fischer, Robert James"]
[Black "Taimanov, Mark E"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B47"]
[PlyCount "141"]
[Source "Chess Database by Ana L. Schaigorodsky, DOI 10.6084/m9.figshare.4276523, CC BY 4.0"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Qc7 5. Nc3 e6 6. g3 a6 7. Bg2 Nf6 8. O-O
Nxd4 9. Qxd4 Bc5 10. Bf4 d6 11. Qd2 h6 12. Rad1 e5 13. Be3 Bg4 14. Bxc5 dxc5
15. f3 Be6 16. f4 Rd8 17. Nd5 Bxd5 18. exd5 e4 19. Rfe1 Rxd5 20. Rxe4+ Kd8 21.
Qe2 Rxd1+ 22. Qxd1+ Qd7 23. Qxd7+ Kxd7 24. Re5 b6 25. Bf1 a5 26. Bc4 Rf8 27.
Kg2 Kd6 28. Kf3 Nd7 29. Re3 Nb8 30. Rd3+ Kc7 31. c3 Nc6 32. Re3 Kd6 33. a4 Ne7
34. h3 Nc6 35. h4 h5 36. Rd3+ Kc7 37. Rd5 f5 38. Rd2 Rf6 39. Re2 Kd7 40. Re3 g6
41. Bb5 Rd6 42. Ke2 Kd8 43. Rd3 Kc7 44. Rxd6 Kxd6 45. Kd3 Ne7 46. Be8 Kd5 47.
Bf7+ Kd6 48. Kc4 Kc6 49. Be8+ Kb7 50. Kb5 Nc8 51. Bc6+ Kc7 52. Bd5 Ne7 53. Bf7
Kb7 54. Bb3 Ka7 55. Bd1 Kb7 56. Bf3+ Kc7 57. Ka6 Nc8 58. Bd5 Ne7 59. Bc4 Nc6
60. Bf7 Ne7 61. Be8 Kd8 62. Bxg6 Nxg6 63. Kxb6 Kd7 64. Kxc5 Ne7 65. b4 axb4 66.
cxb4 Nc8 67. a5 Nd6 68. b5 Ne4+ 69. Kb6 Kc8 70. Kc6 Kb8 71. b6 1-0

Download PGNOpen in the game archive →

Sources

  1. Candidates' quarterfinal matches, 1971 · OlimpBase · n.d.; accessed 2026-09-14
  2. In Memoriam Mark Taimanov (1926–2016) · FIDE · 2016-12-05
  3. The Fischer-Taimanov Candidates’ Quarter-final (Vancouver, 1971), with annotations by Tal & Moiseev · Douglas Griffin / Soviet Chess History · 2019-06-06
  4. Candidates' quarterfinal matches 1971: PGN game file (wc1972-candqf.pgn) · OlimpBase · n.d.; accessed 2026-09-25
  5. Fischer–Taimanov, fourth match-game, Candidates' quarterfinal, Vancouver 1971: contemporary annotations · Mikhail Tal, 64 no.22 (1971); translated by Douglas Griffin · 1971; translation published 2019
  6. Bobby Fischer · Wikipedia (English) · version current on 2026-09-25
  7. Robert Fischer: biography · FIDE Open Chess Museum · n.d.; accessed 2026-09-14

Game data: Chess Database by Ana L. Schaigorodsky, DOI 10.6084/m9.figshare.4276523, licensed under CC BY 4.0; selected and converted to PGN for BobbyChess.