By Zaldy Dandan
Variety Editor

THE “Cary Grant” of chess, former world champion Boris Vasilievich Spassky turned 70 on Jan. 30. His name will be forever linked to Bobby Fischer, who has nothing but respect and esteem for the Russian legend. “When Spassky,” says former Chess Life editor Larry Parr, “joined some 1,500 spectators in applauding…Fischer’s Mozartian victory over him in game six of their 1972 world championship match in Reykjavik, Iceland, the only person surprised by this unaffected gesture was the man whom he was applauding, Fischer himself, who exclaimed wonderingly, ‘Did you see that? That was class.’ ”
Fischer, who could only score two draws in his five games against Spassky prior to their 1972 match, considered Boris, as early as 1964, as among the 10 greatest players in history: “A truly great player, with a dynamic, individual style.” One of the soundest attacking players ever, Spassky was feared, most of all, for his universal style. He could play different types of chess
A child prodigy, Spassky was born in Leningrad. He learned to play chess at the age of five on a train as he and other residents of the city were being evacuated during World War II. At age 10 he defeated Soviet champion Botvinnik in a simultaneous exhibition. Botvinnik, who would become world champion two years later, was impressed. Some believed that he played a role in Spassky’s being sent to the 1953 Bucharest international, where Boris finished tied for 4th-6th behind Tolush, Petrosian and Smyslov and was awarded the international master title.
Back in the USSR, he tied for 3rd-6th in the 1955 Soviet championship, equaling the scores of Botvinnik and Petrosian and, in the process, qualifying for the Gothenburg Interzonal. He then won the 1955 World Junior Championship. At Gothenburg, he tied for 7th-9th (+7 -5 =8) which allowed him to get into the Amsterdam candidates tournament of 1956. At 18, Spassky was already a grandmaster — a record at that time — and a candidate for the world championship. In Amsterdam, Spassky scored +3 -2 =13 and tied for 3rd-7th, two points behind Smyslov, but only a half-point below Keres, who finished second.
At 19, Spassky tied for 1st-3rd in the Soviet championship and was already poised to become the youngest-ever world champion in the next title cycle. But in the 1958 and 1961 Interzonal qualifiers, Spassky failed to make the cut despite storming to the lead in the early rounds. He simply collapsed in the final rounds. He was, Parr said, a sprinter rather than a stayer — a fast starter and a slow finisher. Spassky had “so many good starts, so many good games against the greats, and…so many poor ends, so many dreary losses against the less than great.” Spassky, according to Fischer, “sacrifices his pieces with the utmost imperturbability. He can blunder away a piece, and you are never sure whether it’s a blunder or a fantastically deep sacrifice. He sits at the board with the same dead expression whether he’s mating or being mated.”
His trainer at that time was GM Alexander Tolush, an outstanding master of attack and combinations, but Spassky needed to polish his style and he asked a former Soviet champ and world championship candidate, GM Igor Bondarevsky, to be his new second. It was Bondarevsky who “stressed the effort to combine Spassky’s genial tactical sharpness with unremitting positional discipline.” There followed five excellent results. In late 1961, Spassky won the world’s strongest national tournament, the Soviet championship, a feat he repeated in late 1963. In the 1964 Moscow zonal, he finished first ahead of Stein, Bronstein, Korchnoi and Geller. Then, in the 23-round Amsterdam Interzonal, he tied for 1st- 4th, scoring +13 -2 =8. He capped the year by winning the Belgrade tournament with an undefeated 13- 4 score against a field that included Korchnoi and Larsen.
“On the eve of the 1965 candidates matches,” Parr said, “Spassky was feared for his fearlessness and respected for a new-found solidity. His opening preparation was no longer an object of attention because of occasional gambit speculations but because of deep research in mainstream variations. At the chess board he replaced Keres as Caissa’s consummate poker-face, typically sitting sideways at the table with legs crossed, cigarette in right hand, head held back and eyebrows arched. He gave an impression of slightly bored detachment.”
On the way to the world title match against then-champion Tigran Petrosian, Spassky dispatched Keres, Geller and Tal, one after the other, in set matches. Spassky was the hot favorite to defeat the “short, swarthy Armenian with a Nixonesque five o’clock shadow,” which was how Parr described the Iron Tigran. According to Tal, Petrosian’s “problem” in the 1966 title match was how to “unsettle the general conviction that Spassky must win.” But Spassky was not sufficiently the irresistible force that he needed to be to dislodge the immovable object that was Petrosian. Spassky flailed at Petrosian but ran out of wind. Rope-a-dope nei.
For the next three years, Spassky grew stronger. He finished first at Santa Monica in 1966 — half-point ahead of Fischer — as well as at Beverwijk and Sochi both in 1967. In the 1968 candidates matches, Spassky was simply devastating, routing Geller (+3 =5), Larsen (+4 -1 =3) and Korchnoi (+4 -1 =5) to once again win the right to face Petrosian for the world crown. And this time, Spassky was not to be denied. He beat Petrosian “through force majeure, backing him up against the chess wall until the champion’s systems against 1. e4 collapsed.” In their 1969 match, moreover, Spassky “came prepared as Black with the active Tarrasch Defense to the Queen’s Gambit and did not permit Petrosian to dictate the tempo of the match….”
Spassky, 32, was champion of the world at last. But having reached the peak of the chess world’s Mt. Everest, Spassky became “unwilling to endure further storms of heroic exertion to stay there.”
And then came Fischer. When Spassky lost to the American juggernaut, he had no excuses, unlike the Soviet authorities who depicted their fallen champion as a “victim of an imperialist intelligence operation.” “I lost to Bobby,” Spassky said after their 1972 match, “because he was already stronger than I.”
Fischer would soon begin his descent to madness, but the Soviets would have a new hero in Karpov who, together with Soviet defector Korchnoi, would dominate the chess scene from 1974 to 1985. Spassky would still, from time to time, play superb chess, but it was clear that he had lost his fighting spirit. Married to his third wife, a French diplomat, since 1975, Spassky has long settled in France, still friendly, always polite, ever popular. The art in his elegant chess conceptions will live on.
Game of the week. Here is Spassky against another chess legend, in the game used in the famous opening scene of the James Bond film “From Russia with Love.” Bernard Cafferty annotates.
White: B. Spassky
Black: D. Bronstein
King’s Gambit
USSR Championship 1960
1. e4 e5 2 . f4 Somewhat of a surprise in modern tournaments. 2...exf4 3.Nf3 d5 Spassky-Fischer 1960 Mar del Plata went 3…g5 3.h4 g4 5.Ne5 Nf6 6.d4 d6 7.Nd3 Nxe4 8.Bxf4 Bg7 and Black with an extra pawn, has every reason to be content. 4.exd5 Bd6 5.Nc3 Ne7 6.d4 0-0 7.Bd3 Nd7 A rather timid move. More enterprising is to exchange White’s Bishop by 7…Bf5 with less fear of an attack. 8.0-0 h6 Intended to prevent 9.Ng5 but the loss of tempo and weakening of the K side are more important factors. Spassky likes 8…Nf6 9.Ne5 Nexd5 10.Nxd5 Nxd5 11.Qh5 g6 12.Qh6 Qf6 with not bad play for black. 9.Ne4! Quite happy to give up his forward d pawn so as to achieve an attacking position on the b1/h7 diagonal. 9…Nxd5 10.c4 Ne3 11.Bxe3 fxe3 12.c5 Be7 If 12…Bf4 13.g3 Bg5 (or 13…f5 14 Nc3 Bg5 15.h4 Be7 16.Nd5 with a strong attack) 14.Nfxg5 hxg5 15.Qh5 with a winning attack. 13.Bc2 White could win the e pawn by 13.Qe2 but then Black would complete his development by 13...Nf6 14.Nxf6+ Bxf6 15.Qxe3 Re8 or 14.Qxe3 Nd5 White has few attacking prospects. After the text White achieves a pickup of the e pawn by Rae1 concentrating all his forces on the best squares. 13…Re8 the position is difficult to assess after 13…Nf6 14.Qd3 Nxe4 15 Qxe4 g6 16.Qxe3 Kg7. 14.Qd3 e2 15.Nd6!? Capablanca would have played 15.Rf2 and the game would run a normal course after 15…Nf8. Spassky gambled everything on one trap. He admits that he was carried away with the concept, but Bronstein had left himself with only 20 minutes for the next 26 moves. Now Black’s h7 ad f7 are both under attack. Black was shocked by the fact that White was prepared to give up a whole rook for the attack and must have analyzed the position with the thought nagging at the back of his mind that Spassky had found a forced win in all variations. 15…Nf8 Correct is 15…exf1Q+ 16.Rxf1 Bxd6 17.Qh7+ Kf8 18.cxd6 cxd6 19.Qh8+ Ke7 20.Re1+ Ne5 21.Qxg7 Rg8 22.Qxh6 Qb6 23.Kh1 Be6 24.dxe5 d5 25.Qf6+ Kd7 after which the king reaches safety with a probable draw. Postponing a decision about taking the rook and hoping White will still be deterred by the cheeky Black pawn in his midst. For Black to go wrong in the circumstances already described is far from surprising. After Black is finally able to safeguard his king, the game would then probably end in a draw. As White has a pawn for the exchange and can still trouble Black by attacking the d pawn, while Black has Qf2 in the offing to tie White down to the defense of g2. It is hardly surprising that Bronstein opted to defend his king in the orthodox way rather than be driven about the board in this undignified manner. 16 Nxf7! exf1=Q+ “A dying man can eat anything.” 17.Rxf1 Bf5 Not 17…Kxf7? 18.Ne5+ Kg8 19 Qh7+ Nxh7 20.Bb3+ and mates. The only defense is 17…Qd5 18.Bb3 Qxb3 (if 18…Qxf7 19.Bxf7+ Kxf7 20.Qc4+ Kg6 21.Qg8 Bf6 22.Nh4+ Bxh4 23 Qf7+ Kh7 24.Qxe8 with the Black pieces congested) 19.Qxb3 (if 19.axb3 Kxf7 is safe) Be6 20.Nxh6+ gxh6 21 Qe3 White keeps the initiative, but the outcome of the game is in doubt. 18.Qxf5 Qd7 19.Qf4 Bf6 closing the f file but White has more than enough pressure to force a win. 20.N3e5 Qe7 21.Bb3 Bxe5 if 21…Ne6 22.Qg4 22.Nxe5+ Kh7 23.Qe4+ 1-0 On 23…Kh8 24.Rxf8+ Rxf8 25.Ng6+ is decisive.
Puzzler.
White — pawns on g3, h4; Nb4, Qb8, Nf6, Kf7, Bg1
Black — pawns c3, c4, d7, e5, g6; Na5, Rc5; Bd1, Kf5; Nf8
White to play and mate in four moves.
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