Bronstein and the "Game of the Century"

Sometimes our life is full of "coincidences"; or is it Destiny?

I was looking at "The Game of the Century", where Bobby Fischer, at the age of 13, played a brilliant Queen sacrifice against Donald Byrne. The game was played in the Third Rosenwald Trophy Tournament, in the Fall of 1956.

The tournament was won by Sammy Reshevsky.

Bobby Fischer won only two games and lost four; but one of his two wins was immortal:

Two months later, Bobby was on the cover of Chess Review Magazine:

(Bobby Fischer playing the "Game of the Century", about to make the move 17....Be6!!)

So where does coincidence kick in, you may ask?

Well, it goes like this....my favorite player is David Bronstein. One of his best books, a masterpiece, is called "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".

It is a great resource, if you want to improve your chess, or even if you just want to enjoy your chess! The book is a joy to read! You can open it at any page, and both enjoy and learn!

In this book, there is a game played in 1938, in which a very similar pattern to the Fischer game takes place:

One coincidence is that Bronstein (born in 1924) was probably also 13 years old when this game was played, and Fischer was 13 when he played his "Game of the Century".

But wait, there is more! When I went to see Fischer's game in chessgames.com, one commentator pointed out that he had seen this pattern before! He indicated it is game No. 76 in the book "107 Great Chess Battles 1939-1945":

And here is the game: