My Favorite Game Of. Number 27. Boris Spassky. Plus Some Bonuses!

Afternoon Everyone.

A week or so ago conversations turned to the mass of World class players who were around in the 1950s and 1960s, and it came into my head that I had never written anything on the Great Boris Spassky ( capital G!!) In an hour or so I had more material in the folder than I can sensibly put into one post ( both with my own time available and yours!!) so lot's won't be included.

Boris Spassky. What a wonderful player!! ( and thoroughly decent man, by all accounts)

In his day - when the title of Grandmaster meant something - he was the youngest Grandmaster in the World. Kids today can laugh, until you ask them to qualify for the World Title Candidates!! ( big congratulations to Firouzja by the way! Great effort mate!)

He tends to be rather underrated, I think - probably because of the nature of his match losses to Fischer and Karpov - but he was SERIOUSLY strong. Having mentioned the strength in depth of the era, lets have a look at some of his results in serious matches.

1965. Spassky - Keres. +4 -2 =4.

1965 Spassky - Geller. +3 -0 =5.

1965. Spassky - Tal. +4 -1 =5.

1966. Spassky Petrosian. +3 -4 =17.

1968. Spassky - Geller. +3 -0 =5.

1968. Spassky - Larsen. +4 -1 =3.

1968Spassky - Korchnoi. +4 -1 =5.

1969. Spassky Petrosian. +6 -4 =13.

1974. Spassky - R.Byrne. +3 -0 =3.

1977. Spassky - Hort. +2 -1 =13.

1977. Spassky Portisch. +4 -2 =9.

I think that record stacks up pretty well against most of the legends of the game.

Much was said about his 'universal style'. I am in agreement with the assessments of Korchnoi and Kasparov. Korchnoi said that he was not afraid of Spassky in the opening or endgame, but described his middle game play as 'inimitable'.

A couple of quotes from Kasparov which match my own thoughts. 

I believe that judged by his style of play, Spassky is much closer to Alekhine and Tal than to Smyslov, Botvinnik, or Petrosian. This is probably why, when Spassky was in his best form, neither Tal nor Korchnoi could really put up much resistance against him. Spassky could read their play (especially that of Tal) like an open book.

The universal chess style, characterized by the ability to play quite different types of chess positions, is considered by many to derive from that of Boris Spassky. But I think that the general idea that Spassky has a universal style overlooks the fact that from an early age, Spassky had a bent for sharp, attacking play and a good eye for the initiative. – Garry Kasparov

He was indeed a truly formidable attacking player, albeit in a way that did not try to defy positional rules - more an Alekhine than a Tal - and everyone feared him in that regard. One small quote from many.

When Spassky offers you a piece, you may just as well resign. – Miguel Najdorf.

O.K. To finish off this part - loads of quotes I haven't included btw. I give this one - no idea if it's authentic, but It's a bit of fun.

On to some chess and pictures - will throw in a few games that came into my head before the main game ( no time to do notes ) and some pictures from twitter that are not the usual ones you will see.

First up a game that I just love! One of the most instructive games you will ever see. It was in the BBC 'Master Game' television series, with Spassky reproducing  his thoughts during the game. He sounded totally depressed with his position most of the time, then on move 22 came out with ''What am I thinking about? The Pawn is Garbage!!'' In that second I learned a lot about chess, and Spassky.

Queen's Gambit to Muzio Gambit!!

I don't know the numbers, but Spassky's results in the Saemisch King's Indian must  be pretty astronomical. I thought of 2 games straight away - a disasterous effort by Korchnoi, and this lesser known one.

Pure class - like the man himself.

No idea what's going on in this next picture - but it's a gem!!

In his later years Spassky lacked motivation - been there, done that, but, like Steinitz, waking the sleeping lion was not the thing to do! Two examples.

You could spend your whole chess life just with the games of those four! Back to Geller shortly!

O.K., I suppose I should stop enjoying myself and get back to the title of all this. My favourite game of Spassky is - unusually for me - quite a well known one. Sitting on my left are 6 books with the game, and I stopped looking..

One of them is my favourite book about Spassky, full of tournament and match reports, stories and background, as well as games.

I decided to give it in the form that I first saw it, by using the notes from this book from my innocent chess youth. ( I met the author a few times back then - he once awarded me a best game prize - a lovely man, a passionate chess lover, who helped to inspire my love of chess players from the past. Importantly he was about the only source over here for games from Soviet literature - I still have some books from his library. Thanks for everything Bernard. Top bloke!)

Well, what follows is basically a full article in itself, so you may want to come back to the whole basis of all this later, when you have had a break. My stuff is often like that - once my head gets into one piece of chess, the monsoon arrives - as I say, lots of material not included here!!

Geller - Spassky 1964. A crucial game in a very strong and important tournament. Douglas Griffin has done a fine article about it all here:-

https://dgriffinchess.wordpress.com/2018/12/15/the-zonal-tournament-of-seven-moscow-1964/  

It includes the notes to the game by Bondarevsky that Cafferty's notes are based on, as well as others. An enjoyable day was spent with that particular article.

By an amazing coincidence, the day I started grabbing bits for all this my friend @kamalakantaposted one of his beautiful articles. https://www.chess.com/blog/kamalakanta/gellers-magister-ludi-moment  

In it he included a quote of Spassky on the subject of Geller! ( double spooky, last night someone posted a position from the Polgar game on twitter!!).

 "When Geller was on song, he could crush anyone. And I always admired this thoughtfulness of his-not only the excellently played opening-this goes without saying, but the thoughtfulness of his play after it, the planning. He was a grandmaster of very high class, and he would play one or two games a year which would determine the direction that chess took in this or that opening. Such a game, for example, was his win against Smyslov in the Grunfeld Defence in the 1965 match, where he several times sacrificed his queen."

Spassky's match results against Geller are given above. One game from those matches sticks in my head - an unusual variation on an old theme.

On to the bonus material. Spassky's opening 'surprise' ( he had played in other ways before' ) dates back to a game of Alekhine's - if you only get to study one player from pre 1945, study Alekhine - so here is the story - comments to the first game from Alekhine's 'My Best Games. vol.2.'

And the game he refers to in the notes.

Beautiful!! And, finally, the game from which Alekhine goy his key idea in the Grob game, which he would have seen as it was being played.

All of that out of the way we finally get to my favourite game of Boris Spassky. Not necessarily his best game, but to beat - with Black - an openings expert and tactician such as Geller, in such a way, and to have the confidence to play in such a way in the circumstances ( we can all play brilliant chess when it means nothing!!) WOW!! Magnificent! This is a great player at work.

To finish, one more quote - from The great Max Euwe in his informator book ; From Steinitz to Fischer. one true gentleman, sportsman and great player talking about another.

''Spassky is a sportsman by vocation and a great admirer of athletics in which, as a young man, he recorded some good performances. Highly cultured, with interests in all fields of human knowledge, a man of impeccable comportment, great modesty, and undeniable chess talent, Spassky is and will be for many years to come one of the favourites of all chess players'.

Yep, he is one of my favourites.