Fischer vs Cardoso, 1957

In 1957, Bobby Fischer was beginning to show the signs that he was a force to be reckoned with.  That August, Fischer had tied for 1st-2nd at the 58th U.S. Open, with Arthur Bisguier, who originally took the trophy and money home, only to be told later that it was in fact Fischer who had won on tie-breaks. Bisguier later gave the trophy to its rightful owner, and Fischer won $750. (According to www.dollartimes.com this sum would be worth $6827 today, not a bad little profit at all for such a young man!) 

Bisguier said of the event: "Who could have seen in the early stages, by not winning against Fischer, I created a Frankenstein!". Here is the game that Bisguier is referring to:

Another notable game from this event was Fischer's victory over one of the Byrne brothers- this time Donald, infamous for being on the receiving end of 'The Game of the Century'. I had actually annotated this game a couple of months ago while going through a book of Fischer's games, so thought I'd include my notes. Feel free to give any corrections:

However, Fischer was not the only junior on the chess scene making some waves: Philippine Junior Champion by 1956, Rodolfo Tan Cardoso took part in the fourth World Junior Championship, held in Toronto in 1957, which was of course won by William Lombardy with a perfect 11/11. Cardoso, however, managed a respectable 6.5/11, which placed him in fifth come the end of the tournament.

Crosstable from chessgames.com

To add to all of the aforementioned feats, in 1957 Cardoso became the first ever Asian International Master. A remarkable record to have, considering hundreds have followed in his footsteps since.

Rodolfo Tan Cardoso

If Cardoso was a trailblazer for Asian chess, then perhaps Pepsi-Cola were pioneers when it came to drinks companies sponsoring chess, with Red Bull being a company to do the same nowadays. Hikaru Nakamura would be pretty grateful if this were the case!

Yep, that's right- Pepsi-Cola sponsored a relatively low-key match between two teenagers battling it out over a chess-board in New York. So today, over 50 years later, it is my job to present to you the eight games of that very match...

Coverage of the first game in the New York Times

So, going into Round 2, Fischer had a one point advantage as well as the undeniable edge that comes with a "home" match (after all, Fischer practically lived in the Manhattan Chess Club by that time). Now he looked forward to stretching the advantage with the White pieces in Round 2.

(Another game that I annotated around the same time as the Byrne-Fischer game earlier in the article)

Up to this point, Cardoso had never seemed like putting up a fight. However, this is certainly understandable considering he'd probably have still been feeling the effects of a 13,665 km trip from Manila to New York. Of course, Fischer was nearly world-class by this point, but followers of the match would have wanted to see some resistance from Cardoso. And he delivered...

With this first win in the match, Cardoso became the first and only Filipino player to ever beat Bobby Fischer. Another record to his name.

So heading into Round 4 Fischer was leading 2-1. He probably would have wanted to steady the ship after his slip in the last round, and proceeded to grind Cardoso down with a mature performance:

Fischer was starting to pull away out in the lead at this point, and with every game up to now being a Sicilian Defence, he saw no reason to change the opening:

The sixth round so the first draw of the match, although an interesting imbalance would have satisfied followers of the encounter:

So Fischer emerged victorious from this match of the young champions, and pocketed  $325 (just under $3000 in 2019). Not a bad summer at all for the young American.

However, as a spectator of this match 52 years later, I can't help but feeling that a return match in Manila would have shown Cardoso's playing ability in a better light. He played well in the vast majority of these games, and managed one win, plus two draws (one of which should have been an easy victory), and who knows how he could have done on home soil with Fischer as the tourist this time.

These points aside, you have to say that even at this young age Fischer was rapidly shaping into a world-class player and thoroughly deserved his match victory against a seasoned player 5 years his senior. 

While the two men would go on to live very different lives, it is enjoyable to look back on that summer of 1957 when a pair of lads from countries half the world apart were unified by their love of the sixty-four squares.