Lot 98 of the PFC Auctions sale consists of 20 sheets of paper (8” x 11.75”) containing 36 pages of handwritten chess notes by American Grandmaster Bobby Fischer. The notes detail eight matches from the April 1970 Herceg Novi Blitz Tournament held in what was then Yugoslavia. With three photocopied pages replacing three missing original pages. There is some slight tearing to the edges of the pages which does not affect the text. Several pages feature small marks and areas of paper loss (corners only) which is to be expected of documents of this kind. Overall in fine condition.
Fischer won the 1970 Herceg Novi tournament with a score of 19, beating Mikhail Tal by 4½ points. He went on to become the World Champion in 1972. The notes detail matches between Fischer and Viktor Korchnoi, David Bronstein, Vasily Smyslov, Predrag Ostojic, Vlastimil Hort, Samuel Reshevsky and Tigran Pertosian. Fischer has recorded each move in all eight games as well as detailed notes analysing his opponents’ moves.
The Herceg Novi blitz event is widely considered to be one of the most significant speed tournaments of the 20th century, with four World Champions competing. This is an extremely rare set of notes from the World Champion and winner of the historic tournament.
Despite being widely regarded as one of the greatest chess grandmasters of all time, Bobby Fischer items rarely appear on the market. In June 2009, Fischer’s personal chess library was sold for $61,000 to Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield, whose charitable foundation helped to fund The Chess Club and Scholastic Center. The original World Chess Championship chess set used by Fischer and Boris Spassky at their legendary match in Iceland in 1972, signed by both men, sold for $76,275 in 2011.
The notes come from the collection of Slobodan Bodo Stojnic, a friend of Fischer, who organised the tournament. An accompanying letter of provenance from Stojnic’s son states that Bobby Fischer, Mikhail Tal, Tigran Petrosian, Svetozar Gligoric and other professional chess players were regular visitors to Stojnic’s home in Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The accompanying letter of provenance reads, in full:
“To whom it may concern,
These are 36 original handwritten pages and three photocopied pages of Bobby Fischer’s analysis of several chess matches held in Herceg Novi in Yugoslavia in 1970. I found these notes amongst my father’s belongings after he passed.
My late father Slobodan Bodo Stojnic was managing director of the company that organized the tournament and paid the prizes. The company (original name: Zavod za Izdavanje Udzbenika SR BiH) published school books and a couple of chess books. Bobby Fisher, Mihail Talj, Tigran Petrosian, Bronstein, Gligoric and others were regular visitors in our home.
One time, in our home in Sarajevo, there were four of us in the dining room; Bobby Fischer, Tigran Petrosian, my father and me. Tigran was pretty much deaf and he wore a hearing aid, a huge one for today’s standards. Tigran and Bobby started a blitz match. In the middle of the match, when the board was still full, Bobby went to the kitchen for a glass of water, and Tigran took the opportunity to steal one of Bobby’s pawns. I then witnessed something unbelievable: on the way back, when Bobby was more than two meters away from the chess board, he noticed that the pawn was missing!
After that, my father asked Bobby to put his signature on the wall of my sister's bedroom. There was a square, maybe 10 x 10cm with wallpaper removed. The signatures of Petrosian, Tal, Bronstein and others were already there. Although there was enough space in the lower part of the square, Bobby refused to sign below the others, he said "I am the best and I can sign only above the others". I then had to take off a few centimetres of wallpaper from the top of the square, and Bobby put his signature there. Unfortunately, this wall was destroyed during the war in Bosnia.
A book containing all matches from Hercegnovi tournament was published and if I remember correctly, Bobby was paid two million Yugoslav Dinars for his part.
I confirm these pages are genuine as written by Bobby Fischer.”
You can view all the pages using the links given below. Please note: pages 1, 2, 35, 36, 37, 38 and 39 are missing and pages 31, 44 and 45 are photocopies of the original notes.
| Page
11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 |
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19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 |
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27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 |
We have entered pages 3-6 with Fischer's notes in ChessBase for you to play through. It gives us an impression of the level of his comments and some insight into what was going through his mind during the game. Perhaps other readers could similarly input the comments from the other games.
Here are the raw moves of the 22 games Fischer played at the 1970 Herceg Novi Blitz Tournament. They will be useful when entering his comments.
The PFC Auctions sale of Bobby Fischer's handwritten chess notes will last until September 27 at 20:00h GMT. Bidding allowed for registered users only. The current bid (Sept 12, 2012) is £220.00. A Buyers Premium (20% up to £30,000 of hammer price) will be added to each winning bid. You can contact PFC Auctions here if you have any questions about this lot or the bidding process.
Address: PFC Auctions, 5 Strand House, The Strand, St. Peter
Port, Guernsey GY11LJ
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