Byrne, D. vs Fischer, R. 1956. Part 1
I will begin this chess blog with an outstanding game played by the chess master Donald Byrne (White) vs. Bobby Fischer( Black), 13 years old at the time. It took place at the Rosenwald Memorial Tournament Oct 17, 1956 in New York City. It starts out with an unusual knight opening, that later developed into the Grünfeld Defense. I will be using the algebraic notation to follow parts of the game. ( This opening is classified as (D92) in Encyclopedia of Chess, with 3 knight variation.) It was very popular in the 60's.
Knight Opening
1. Nf3 Nf6 Not a common opening for both sides.
2. c4 g6 If white had started with c4, it would have been the English opening. Black develops king's side.
3. Nc3 Bg7 White has both knights out into battle, black could be heading into the King's Indian Defense.
4. d4 O-O (castles on the King's side) . Black King moves into safety.
5. Bf4 d5 (Grünfeld Defense ) When black moves the queen's pawn to d5, it becomes a Grünfeld defense.
6. Qb3 dxc4 Byrne is using an aggressive Russian system, ready to defend and counter attack the d pawn. Forcing pawn exchange.
7. Qxc4 c6 While the queen captures black's c pawn, he attacks Fischer's c7 pawn at the same time. black cooly moves the pawn one square to deflect attack. He could have also moved queen's Knight to a6, as a more aggressive approach threatening to move c pawn forward.
8. e4 Nd7 White continues, developing his center with his king's pawn. Black makes a seemingly harmless move, that blocks his white squared bishop development. Some chess gurus would suggest moving his king's knight to c7, instead. But this knight will play a future critical role in undermining white's central attack.
9. Rd1 Nb6 White supports central queen's pawn with rook (logical move). Black knight charges directly to attack the White Lady again!
10. Qc5 Bg4 White queen does not retreat to safety, but continues dangerously deeper into enemy territory to prepare a fierce attack. Fischer develops bishop and pins King's Knight to f3 square.
11. Bg5? Na6 !!Many experts consider white's bishop move as flawed, moving the piece twice. Fischer attacks White Queen again, as a sacrifice?
What would you do, if you were white? Take the pesky black knight seems the obvious. It is unprotected, and would eliminate a threat to the white queen.
(Position after 11. ..Na5)
We will continue with this game in the Part 2, in our next blog. If you have any favorite games, or questions about chess, please let me know by e-mail
gustavo.soto@austintexas.org. We play chess at the Windsor Park library , Monday 6-7 pm. everyone is welcome.
Wow! We had quite the special storytime at Ruiz this week. Not only is today Halloween and filled with costumes and treats, but we were also thrilled to host two very wonderful guests. The first was Marsha Riti, the illustrator of 
Our second special guest was Jorge Harada, staff member of the Ruiz Branch Library. He joined us, guitar in hand and accompanied our halloween songs. He did a rocking performance of the Monster Mash and Purple People Eater.
Think your Halloween fun starts with trick-or-treating at dusk? Think again! It should definately start at 10:15 a.m. when you and your kiddos join us for a very special Halloween storytime at the Ruiz Branch Library.
This week at Ruiz we read stories with creatures from the ocean. We visited a giant squid who was pretty sure he was the biggest thing around, an alligator that had the tables turned on him (so to speak), and an octopus who followed someone home. We had a lot of fun changing regular songs to ocean themed ditties and practiced our counting with some jelly fish. We had so much fun counting the jelly fish, we finished off by making our own special jelly fish picture to take home! The books we read today are listed below with links to the catalog. Check one out today!
Several years ago I decided I needed a hobby. And it had to be an inside hobby (The weather! Fire ants!). So I wasn’t exactly “called” to take up sewing, but rather fell into it because of a desire to do something indoors. Regardless of my less than inspired reason, I purchased a cheap, but serviceable machine and dove in head first.
