Sunday, March 05, 2006

A bit of Reshevsky & Fine trivia

Samuel Reshevsky played every world champion from Lasker through Karpov, a combined total of 112 games. Against Lasker and Euwe, he had plus results of +1 and +6 -2 =6, respectively. Against Capablanca and Karpov, he had even results of +1 -1 =4 and =1, respectively. Against the other champions he was less successful.

Reuben Fine of course had a much shorter career, but it was overwhelmingly successful on the international arena. He never played Smyslov, Tal, Petrosian, Spassky or Karpov. However, in the 27 games he played against world champions, he achieved plus scores against Lasker (+1), Alekhine (+3 =4 -2) and Botvinnik (+1 =2 -0), and an even score against Capablanca (=5) and Euwe (+2 =3 -2). Only against Fischer did he have a minus score (they never met in official games, but Fischer beat Fine twice in Manhattan Chess Club games in 1963).

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