Bobby Fischer vs Greenblatt: Chess Genius takes on Technology (1977)

Featured is an excellent game between chess genius Bobby Fischer and The Greenblatt Chess Program, played in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1977. The Greenblatt Chess Program, a nod to American computer programmer Richard Greenblatt, saw its development begin at M.I.T. in 1966 and was one of the earliest and most influential computer chess programs of its time. This program helped to pave the way for the development of more sophisticated chess engines. Observe how Fischer seizes the initiative in the middle game of the Sicilian Defense, Hyperaccelerated Dragon variation by pinpointing the weaknesses in Greenblatt's camp. For those who find the merging of chess and technology to be intriguing, this is likely to be an interesting watch.
PGN
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 Bg7 4. Nc3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Nc6 6. Be3 Nf6 7. Nxc6 bxc6 8. e5 Ng8 9. f4 f6 10. exf6 Nxf6 11. Bc4 d5 12. Be2 Rb8 13. b3 Ng4 14. Bd4 e5 15. fxe5 O-O 16. Bxg4 Qh4+ 17. g3 Qxg4 18. Qxg4 Bxg4 19. Rf1 Rxf1+ 20. Kxf1 c5 21. Bf2 Bxe5 22. Be1 Rf8+ 23. Kg2 Rf3 24. h3 Rxc3 25. Bxc3 Bxc3 26. Rf1 Bf5 27. Rf2 h5 28. Re2 Kf7 29. Re3 Bd4 30. Rf3 Ke6 31. c3 Be5 32. Re3 d4 33. cxd4 cxd4 34. Re1 d3 35. h4 d2 36. Rd1 Bc3 37. Kf2 Bg4 38. Rh1 Bd4+ 39. Kg2 Kd5 40. a3 Ke4 41. Rf1 Kd3 42. Kh2 Ke2 43. Kg2 Bh3+ 44. Kxh3 Kxf1 45. b4 d1=Q 46. Kh2 Qe2+ 47. Kh3 Qg2
I'm a self-taught National Master in chess out of Pennsylvania, USA who was introduced to the game by my father in 1988 at the age of 8. The purpose of this channel is to share my knowledge of chess to help others improve their game. I enjoy continuing to improve my understanding of this great game, albeit slowly. Consider subscribing here on KZbin for frequent content, and/or connecting via any or all of the below social medias. Your support is greatly appreciated. Take care, bye. :)
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[@chrishauser5505]

Had no idea Fischer ever played a computer, much less as early as 1977! Thanks, Jerry!

[@worsethanjoerogan8061]

He said the thing he liked best about the Greenblatt Computer was it couldn't resign and so it had to let him carry out his beautiful checkmate 😂

[@lowlight92]

Jerry asking existential questions to the f4 pawn made me sad...

[@tervrip3456]

😂🤣😂

[@Fishcaso]

Never heard him so angry

[@Yohyzo]

I really enjoyed that little Fischer bobble head on e4 for some reason 🤣

[@shubhamrahinj6864]

If chess analysis was a game , you would be magnus carlsen of that. Absolutely gorgeous analysis

[@ChessNetwork]

Thank you for the compliment. ❤️

[@YuriLowellFan]

Even though it's just one game, I'm surprised that a Chess computer in 1977 had a pretty decent accuracy against Fischer's very high accuracy.

[@HouseRN]

10:29 Me, being a long-time ChessNetwork viewer: “That’s a FAMILY fork!”

[@nirajways]

Was just thinking about watching an old video of yours and boom comes a notification. Its gonna be a good day! Thanks Jerry ♥️

[@soanywaysillstartedblastin2797]

I watched this on acid and it all started making sense wtf???!!

[@alphapharockson1800]

This kind of content is why I subscribed so many years ago. Love your informative style. Keep uploading

[@recchi51]

Slick editing on that E4 opening move. Along with all of your other progressions as a creator and player, I’ve enjoyed watching your development as an editor. Nice!

[@brennenhiatt8459]

Jerry you are an absolute legend of chess content. Thank you so much for all the knowledge you have given me

[@ChessNetwork]

👍😎

[@cptnoremac]

I loved this video. Fischer and early chess computers are both fascinating.

[@constantijndekker8343]

Interestingly, the one inaccuracy Fischer makes was actually when castling. Maybe he did not evaluate correctly that the endgame was equal after that h3 move! Instead I found (with the help of Stockfish) that he should have given a check on h4 and after g3, he can park his queen on h3 to prevent white from castling there. It can be chased away with Bf1 but then jt drops back to h5 and the queen remains a pest there

[@marksfeir7615]

jerry all you do is make great content

[@jeremyying3602]

Jerry, loved the video. Just wanted to say every time you say pop quiz, I sit up straighter in my chair. I've been out of school for years, and it's such a rush. Thank you so much for your hard work.

[@ChessNetwork]

👨‍🎓😎

[@PushyPawn]

I found an endangered, ChessNetwork species video in my notifications today. Score! 🍿

[@bobby5776]

Thank you Jerry!

[@RicardGomes76]

Wow! Fisher did played against an engine before Kaspa!!! That's good history! TY GM!

[@ryanpittel1829]

Speaking of computers, it turns out Stockfish 15 can now solve that one famous chess puzzle that gave engines problems (you made a video on it 10 years ago). It solves it after 1 billion nodes (a minute or two on my laptop). I’m not sure if an online version will cut it for the depth required though.

[@BREAKocean]

How did you acquire stock fish 15 and what kind of computer do you use?

[@hello37175]

Sir your videos and commentary are the very best out there. Thank you for your service and efforts. A request, can you post videos for the 60 games of Fischers from his book, my 60 memorable games ?

[@theherk]

I love your channel. Very simple explanations and that smooth articulation. Been here for a long time and appreciate you. Keep up the good work.

[@TheSoulBlossom]

Excellent video! Thank you

[@hinteregions]

Extra interesting, thank you 🙂

[@isaacong77]

That moving Fischer head at e4 :o

[@OregonMikeH]

Huge Thumbs Up! Absolutely Loved it! .. Thanks

[@JP-lr8rr]

Thanks Jerry, that was cool

[@EannaButler]

Excellent video! Definitely subbing... Thanks 👍👍

[@apiolxi]

Jerry, thank you. I Enjoy your analysis. Very helpful

[@richardfabrizio8998]

Great analysis Jerry. Very informative. Thanks

[@ChessNetwork]

👍

[@JustMe3.1415]

Instructive episode! Appreciate your way of walking us through the game.

[@ChessNetwork]

Thank you

[@alanplum7]

good analysis!

[@davesmith5656]

A lot of chess principles named and illustrated in this.

[@williamogilvie6909]

I played against that program in 1976 when I was a sophomore at MIT. I used a terminal of the Delphi computer lab to access it, late one night. I beat the program by pushing a pass pawn and queening it. At that point most of the pieces were gone. We were even for almost the whole game. It appeared to me that Greenblatt's program was ignoring my pawn pushes and was fixated on its own end game strategy. It took several hours to complete the game because very little cpu time was allocated to it. I think I started playing at 9:30 PM and finally won around 4:00 AM. About 5 years later, I met Richard Greenblatt and told him I had beaten his program. He was impressed. I have never played competitively. However, I have beaten one or two strong players in my time. The Greenblatt chess program I played against was not as strong as Fischer's version.

[@MrPharoah77]

Great video! I was born that year.

[@joseraulcapablanca8564]

A nice win. Thanks Jerry

[@denisrho1019]

Tale of the Tape; I like that on full screen (thanks).

[@tombailey6625]

Nice , interesting

[@JohnIshIshmael]

Calm, lucid analysis and commentary. Thank you (name?). Hugs and blessings ISH 🤗 John ISH Ishmael

[@DennisAllard]

His name is Jerry. He starts off all his videos with "Hi everyone, it's Jerry. "

[@artcamp7]

Fischer was the real machine here. I had always heard about these games as though they were laughably bad but what a good game.

[@coachwilliamsakadr.gambit5334]

EXCELLENT Kevin, I always learn something from your videos sir.

[@ChessNetwork]

*Jerry…thank you

[@alejogoncalves4424]

@@ChessNetwork now you are Kevin, just accept it :)

[@maxdemontbron9720]

Jerry by far the best chess content

[@michaelmassaro4375]

Have to hand it to Black very strong play so much for white having the advantage that weak pawn that was moved early to protect the other pawn did end up as a negative as you stated nice work by the Bishops

[@RoyGazoff]

The game is very good 👌

[@TomJones-tx7pb]

Really nice commentary.

[@MsUncleKevin]

Im so happy to see old games!

[@ConeDaRagusa]

10:15 does not have to capture knight...bishop and rook for a queen and bishop defends later c3...black did not castle yet and queen check from h3 is met by pawn on g3..so Fisher did well with pawn push to attack bishop on d4..

[@theincompleteskeptic8079]

Interesting. Thanks. How do you (or anyone reading this) make arrows appear on your (an) instruction board?

[@jumpreMusic]

usually right click

[@melusindhlovu8905]

Hi Jerry, it's everyone.

[@ChessNetwork]

😎

[@BM-wy3wl]

I love the intro always cracks me up.

[@Jrkgzn]

New subscriber! 👋

[@ChessNetwork]

👍 Welcome

[@mehrdadlachini7186]

Bobby fischer the king of chess❤️

[@KF1]

Nice

[@gianfrancociv1982]

Hi Jerry, I like a lot your material and it really has helped me on a lot of matches. But I wonder, could you do a video explaining how to analice the moves you do on a game? For example the 2 previous videos where you played balck and white with the queens gambit you illustrate the way you analice what piece to move and why and its amazing how you seem to predict your opponents moves and intentions. How do I learn to do that? Could you make a video on that particular matter ? How to move correctly and congruently with what is happening on the board. Thanks again for you great material, sorry for any misspellings

[@ekremkorkmaz8762]

ty for the content. I watch your video's when going to sleep.

[@alvarocastroregueiro]

It’s fun how Fischer plays the late endgame, he wants the full queen as you say, he wants to end the game asap, perfectionist mentality. Its like saying to the white rook, you should have taken the passed pawn when you could, now that you havent done it, you will never be able to. Yeah I think he must have thought the computer should have resigned before, he could have played Bf3 + and queening in the next move and he chose to give the check in h3 winning the rook, not sacrificing the bishop, I think he wanted to teach white rook a lesson. Very nice analysis as always. Thank you

[@cloudforest4087]

Deflections are extreme poison.

[@00bikeboy]

Always enjoy Jerry's content, but I only have the patience to play it at 1.25x 😊

[@pianosRepic]

I often play ..g6 against 1.e4; then 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 c5. After all, I'm gonna want to play c5 at some point, so if I can get away with it why not here? Got a lot of flak on my chess club, but it's good to see Fischer doesn't consider it bad ^^

[@guckfoogle2779]

Jerry is a prime example of why the chess community of KZbin keeps me from simply ignoring KZbin.

[@michaelmassaro4375]

The knight is poison good point had me laughing 😂

[@thejoetandy]

Such a classy finish, making sure he won with a queen on board

[@AgentSmith911]

I believe it was actually called Mac Hack, according to Wikipedia

[@michaeledwards2251]

I am convinced Fischer's accuracy is underrated. The apparent inaccuracy is due to his probing GREENBLATT.

[@cyberhype5495]

Bobby Fischer circa. 1977 would have bashed Deep Blue 6-0

[@Leo_1162]

Like Done Host

[@loplop7029]

Hi Jerry.

[@jeffersonthomas1269]

At around 14:30 Jerry asked what now? I have watched many Bobby reviews and I call it putting your brain into Bobby mode. I have seen him many time id the undefended piece in the camp of his nemesis and immediately seek it with abandon and kill it. Bobby mode. Here not so. This is what they call a situation?

[@kenallen4175]

Did Fischer win all 3 games or just this one? Also I though he never played again until the rematch with Spassky.

[@garycooper3095]

Didn't play official games.

[@SixNAC]

Interesting game, crazy to see a chess computer be defeated by a human, that wouldn't be possible today

[@ZDTF]

11:00 One piece

[@georgetomlinson2731]

You finally made a video that actually lead to checkmate instead of a resign for once +1 point

[@bcfblack]

This is apparently part of why Fischer enjoyed playing against the Greenblatt computer - it allowed him to play his combinations and ideas out to the end!

[@georgetomlinson2731]

@@bcfblack well it toke merry long enough to do a full match

[@scribebat]

😎

[@sanelprtenjaca9147]

...c5 played twice.

[@jeffersonthomas1269]

Extremely well done. I am not an overly polite guy and thus rarely would I say this type of thing. Good job.

[@ChessNetwork]

Thank you

[@Tirthankar17]

After move 21, what happens if white plays Nd5?

[@MrUtubePete]

Black takes the Bishop

[@Riker-ER]

👍

[@jeffersonthomas1269]

Normally I would complain about a 20 minute slow paced video, however, I have watched this twice and saved it for viewing a third time. THAT is a first ever for me and a slow paced 20 minute video. Kick Arse.

[@ppal64]

Normally, if you have a problem with a 20 minute video - you know what you can speed it up. And it becomes a 10 minute video mind blown.

[@justinlindfors8512]

Hubert roasted himself after losing to a computer. He was right but at what cost?

[@d3faulta]

Sometime I just want to watch the game with minimal commentary and analysis

[@michaelmassaro4375]

I felt Jerry did a Great Job with this one to the point

[@trethekid]

You can copy and paste the game notation and follow along yourself if you want…what’s the point of watching a chess account that breakdown the game, if you don’t want in depth commentary?

[@Sagdog77]

I actually found the winning move when jerry said only 1 move wins for the first time let’s goooo

[@jaycdp]

Still caspro and his student magnus rules.

[@pwcrabb5766]

Same content in half the time. Tempo!

[@ppal64]

Computers can do anything. They are only limited by us. If they are failing at anything it’s not the computer’s fault. It’s our inability to write the correct instruction set.

[@michaeledwards2251]

There is no reason to disregard the notion, yet, machines are unable to play high quality chess, as their are own positions they cannot solve. The notion humans can play high quality chess can definitely regarded as false.

[@JimBalter]

babbling

[@di380]

Profesor Hubert was not wrong unfortunately he was just not a good enough human chess player😂

[@c2c001]

Actually, 3...Bg7 is a mistake. Beyond 4.dxc5 which is preferable for white in comparison to a regular Sicilian the positional 4.d5 is better for white

[@Tinil0]

...I'm having real trouble understanding how 3...Bg7 is a mistake instead of a sideline. What does it sacrifice bad enough to be considered a mistake by the third move?

[@c2c001]

@@Tinil0 I honestly don’t know how else to put it but to fully answer your question I’ll need to write a small book and include a lot of analysis. On the other hand if I’ll give you a short answer it may not explain anything to you. I’ll try to sum it up but I don’t know if I I’ll be successful: First of all, my main point is the comparison between the three possible basic set-ups and their corresponding variations. Those being: 1) a regular Sicilian after 3…cxd4, 2) a Benoni style structure after 4.d5 and 3) 4.dxc5. 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. d4 Bg7 3) 4. dxc5 after 4… Qa5+ 5. c3 Qxc5 white is already doing amazingly well. Black’s queen had to move twice and is positioned directly where white can develop whilst further attacking it thus gaining time so even 6.Be3 is perfectly fine. The Bg7 is attacking granite because the c3-pawn is doing a good job. White has open lines everywhere and more space. This is a very simple case of white being better and black literally has zero “compensation”. Black has no tricky ideas, no counter attack, no initiative, nothing whatsoever. However, to demonstrate just how bad it can get let’s continue with 6.Na3! This seemingly innocuous move is actually amazingly tricky to meet. If black just wants to continue developing in normal Sicilian like manner whilst disallowing e4-e5 he may very well choose 6…d6 where we can immediately see why white is so much better (and in fact the computer engine already gives this position a +1) after the continuation 7.Nb5! (Threatening Be3) and here an idea variation to demonstrate my concept can be seen after 7… a6? 8. Be3 Qc6 9. Na7! (Another idea in the structure is 9. Ng5! axb5?? 10. Qb3 threatening both Qxf7+ as well as Bb5 1-0) 9... Qc7 10. Nxc8 Qxc8 11. Qb3 Nf6 12. e5 dxe5 13. Nxe5 O-O 14. Nxf7 Rxf7 15. Bc4 1-0 2) 4.d5 for all pragmatic reasons makes playing the Sicilian defeating the very purpose. White kept the central duo, it will be harder for black to play Nc6, white has more space and most importantly this is a somewhat Benoni structure (Benoni: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 g6 4. Nc3 d6 5. e4 Bg7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. h3 a6 8. a4 Nbd7 9. Bd3) where white has been theoretically proven to be winning. So it could continue with: 4…d6 (4... Nf6 5. Nc3 with a favourable Pirc like / Modern like structure) 5. c4 trans-positioning back to a Benoni. In comparison to the two variations and their corresponding structures mentioned above, the normal Sicilian after: 1) 3…cxd4 (which will result in an accelerated (hyper) dragon Sicilian) is simply far far far more beneficial to black. I’m not going to go into AD theory but the mere fact that black has a game and has counter play should be sufficient to understand why it was better. For instance, after 3… cxd4 4. Nxd4 (4. Qxd4 Nf6 5. e5 Nc6 where black has the usual Sicilian counter play) 4... Nf6 5. Nc3 (5. e5 Qa5+) 5... d6 and we’re back in Sicilian land.

[@BRNRDNCK]

@@c2c001Bro all you needed was to give the refuting line for Bg7, this is too much info

[@c2c001]

@@BRNRDNCK Assuming you're being serious you have no idea how naive what you just said truly is. Rare is the occasion where anything has a simple, singular, one line only, refutation.

[@DAS_k1ishEe]

13:40 I though you cannot castle when the either the rock or King is threatened? blacks white bishop attacks h1.

[@tomandband]

only for king

[@G102Y5568]

You can't castle if your king is in check, or your King has to pass through a square controlled by the Bishop. Nothing about the Rook.

[@ifbfmto9338]

Only the king is relevant for that rule, not the rook

[@JimBalter]

Why did you think that?

[@bennya2846]

OMG ???? Please just make the moves and explain it, no need to start letting your mind wander into every possible move available, u could have done 3 games?..

[@brilliantFlame]

the analysis is just perfect, what are you talking about?

[@dodekaedius]

pearls before swine...

[@bdpv025]

Why are you complaining lower rated guy?

[@TerriblyIronic9]

Hop off your soapbox please

[@ArcaneTricksterRS]

Go play pac-man, kid.