Agreed that Fischer's demands concerning the 3rd game should never have been met. If he, at that point, refuses to play, it would be because of his own actions. Spassky should've stood his ground.
Boris Spassky (Any views)
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An amazing fact about this chess player
Spassky learned to play chess at the age of 5 on a train evacuating from Leningrad during the siege of Leningrad in World War II. He first drew wide attention in 1947 at age 10, when he defeated Soviet champion Mikhail Botvinnik in a simultaneous exhibition in Leningrad.[7]
As a westerner. Bobby was my hero growing up. Definitely in my top 5 best players ever.
I always wondered as I got older how Spassky was treated back in Russia after losing the title.
He is a great chess player for the game and never forgot his contribution to the history game and he play vs leyes of the chess table
Boris Spassky was a very talented, natural player, and his games are well worth playing over. He was treated terribly after he'd lost the match against Fischer. He lost his monthly stipend, he was constantly maligned in the press, and was not allowed to go abroad to play chess for six months. It must have been so sweet for him to win the Soviet Championship in 1973, ahead of Karpov, and the entire field of Soviet grandmasters.
To be perfectly honest, and this is not said as a way of idolizing Fischer, but in 1972 Fischer was the far superior player (previous results are no guarantee of future results, put it like that). He only lost a big handful of games (7 or so) from his come-back in 1970 through to defeating Spassky at Reykjavik, and won nearly twice as many as he drew. He was just so much better than everyone else at the time.
Spassky was a great player, often underrated. Spassky himself has said that he felt he was slightly stronger than Fischer in the 1968-70 years,, but that by 1972 Fischer had become stronger
Jul 27, 2020
0
#8
Fischer was the better chess player, but Boris was the better person. Don't forget, when Bobby refused to play after the match had begun, Boris could have taken the title with him back to the Soviet Union. But he didn't; He *wanted* to play Bobby.
If you want to enjoy some great fighting, "old school" chess, check out the games from the candidates matches that Spassky won in order to become the challenger in 1966 and 1969. The first time around, he won matches against Keres, Geller, and Tal. In 1969 he won matches against Geller, Larsen, and Korchnoi. A colossal achievement!
Wow!!. They were giants of chess to my father back then. Paul Keres, Tal and Korchnoi were favourites of his. He also received a monthly chess journal from Russia in those days. The Russians chess was state of the art for analysis back then.particular for solid defensive strategies Maybe that is why I like Sergey Karjakins game. A solid defensive chess player amongst his armoury
I'll check out Spassky "old school" games too.
I read too that he was a gentleman in his style. But they were trying times in that world title fight. Game 6 proved it too me by his sportsmanship in applauding fischer magic. Something I admire in defeat
A synopsis of Boris Spassky's career.......
Spassky won the Soviet Chess Championship twice outright (1961, 1973), and twice lost in playoffs (1956, 1963), after tying for first place during the event proper. He was a World Chess Championship candidate on seven occasions (1956, 1965, 1968, 1974, 1977, 1980 and 1985). In addition to his candidates wins in 1965 and 1968, Spassky reached the semi-final stage in 1974 and the final stage in 1977.
Spassky emigrated to France in 1976, becoming a French citizen in 1978.
If you're not afraid of the sight of blood, check this out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49koufMb-bY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTJUr-VMeQo
The first one was very bloody😵
Spassky use of the closed sicilian instead of his earlier more preferred use of the open most times was decisive. That was a massacre
Jul 28, 2020
0
#15
funny how people still say that fischer was the far better player to this day. fischer won because of the amazing prep he had over spassky. fischer won because he was a consistently good player, unlike spassky. fischer won because his drive was far stronger than spassky's at the time. fischer may even have won because didnt want to be world champ anymore. and even if u disregard all of this, u can just look at their games and see how close they were. fischer was never far above spassky. he actually couldve lost like, 4 or 5 games to spassky had spassky not been in time trouble lol
Well!!
Spassky played a "symphony of music" in that game against Korchnoi.
Exquisite.....
Spassky is a gentleman who loves chess as the art sport and science it is and wanted to play Fischer for the sake of the game, not caring about the dumb us-su feud going on at the time... I don't think that fischers childish demands affected Spassky but we can't know for sure...I am not aware of any interviews Boris has given on the subject but he is a class act and by the looks of it was quite an unbothered dude unfazed by Bobby's wannabe mind games. What the SU did to Spassky (and even worse to master pianist Taimanov) was the same as a spoiled kid crying over not getting what they want... simply petty brat behavior.... now as far as level goes I agree with what was said, Spassky was better than Fisher for a while but at the time of their match Fischer had already surpassed him a bit.... Fischer, despite being crazy and obsessed accomplished the amazing feat of beating the whole SU practically by himself, considering he didn't have the resources they had... even if it was at the cost of some infantile tantrums
It's worth noting that Spassky enjoyed pretty friendly relations with Fischer both before and after the match. Fischer was also quite friendly with Stein. Bobby reserved his anger and bad behavior for tournament organizers
Bobby was genuinely humbled by Boris's sportsmanship after his stunning game 6 victory. It was reported that he stood and quietly applauded what unfolded in front of him.
The consensus view was that Bobby Fischer was the superior chess player and earned the title of world champion in 1972 in Reykjavik Iceland. But should he have won THAT tournament.
1.Spassky had not lost to Bobby previously. Two wins and 3 draws
2.Apart from "why" which is a fair discussion point, the facr was that Spassky was leading 2 to 0 and should have firmly demanded the 3rd game by not agreeing to a challengers demands. Hence 3 to 0
3.it was believed Bobby would have not continued if his demands were not met
Hence Spassky should have retained his world title.
It is fair to say that he never recovered from the psychological victory Bobby had in dictating terms in that championship.
It is probably true also that Bobby would have won the crown anyway in a fairly run tournament.
But in my opinion he should never have won that particular world championship the way it unfolded