Last night I attended a lecture on Bobby Fischer by IM DonaIdson. I asked about an incident I read somewhere about a power failure during the Fischer Petrosian match in Buenos Aires. On Fischer’s turn the lights went out. The arbiter stopped Fischer’s clock. Petrosian protested, saying Fischer was still studying the position. When asked Fischer said he was indeed, and the clock was restarted.
This morning I read the Chess Life and Review articles on the match from the November 1971 to February 1972. Hochberg, Kashdan and R. Byrne did not mention such an incident.
Lights went out (lamps were still working) board was visible fischer continued thinking, after a while petrosian protested saying that Fischer should move away from the board or have his clock restarted. Fischer agreed to have his clock re started in semi darkness rather than move away from the board
Fischer won the game from a terrible position, and pretosian’s novelty 11) ..d5 is still considered the refutation to that line today. I do not believe Fischer ever played that line again after this game
Information from page 409 in volume 4 of my great predecessors.
This line was analyzed by fischer in my 60 memorable games (incorrect analysis as fischer missed d5 as a possibility) My 60 memorable games was written before this game was played. One of the very few incorrect lines of analysis by Fischer in the entire book.