(2 of 2)
19. K—N1 N—K7 ck
20. K—B1 N x P ck
21. K—N1 N—K7 ck
22. K—B1 N—B6 ck
23. K—N1 P x B
24. Q—N4 R—R5
25. Q x P N x R
26. P—KR3 R x P
27. K—R2 N x P
Sitting over the board like an underaged Buddha, Bobby fiendishly kept offering piece after major piece for sacrifice—but each move held a pitfall that Byrne avoided. Then, on his 15th move, the boy seemed to botch the game. Old Master Sam Reshevsky watched him take one of Byrne's pawns with a knight, and muttered: "Now he's busted." But Bobby knew better. Later he said: "Byrne was playing pretty good, and then I gave him a hit in the head." It was a blow from which Byrne could not recover. After the 27th move, Bobby's mop-up of his opponent's shattered forces was routine.
Away from the chessboard, Bobby barely tolerates the world around him. An indifferent sophomore at Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High, he professes a certain interest in astronomy, prehistoric animals, hypnotism—"all that sort of stuff"—but admits to no urge toward higher education or any aspiration but more chess. To the annoyance of his sponsors at the Manhattan Chess Club, he has turned up his nose at the club tournament. Now that he is in the big time, Bobby can't be bothered. Winning the U.S. title makes him eligible for the interzonal finals this summer in Yugoslavia. And a good showing against the tough competition there would make him a potential challenger for the world championship—a title now being decided in Moscow between the defending champion, Russia's Vassily
Smyslov, and his countryman, Mikhail Botvinnik.
Although he has no idea who will pay the bills to get him even as far as Yugoslavia, Bobby is so sure that he will get to Russia that he has already begun studying Russian.