U.S. Chess Mates - Boris Spassky
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Famous Players

Early life
He was born in Leningrad, and learned to play chess at the age of five on the train evacuating from Leningrad during World
War II. Spassky was the most impressive Soviet chess prodigy since Mikhail Botvinnik. He first drew wide attention in 1947 at
age ten, when he defeated Soviet champion Botvinnik in a simultaneous exhibition. His early coach was Vladimir Zak, a
respected master and trainer. During his youth, from the age of ten, Spassky often worked on chess for up to five hours a day
with Master-level coaches. He set records as the youngest Soviet player to achieve First Category rank (age 10), Candidate
Master rank (age 11), and Master rank (age 15). At age 15 in 1952, Spassky scored 50 per cent in the Soviet Championship
semi-final at Riga, and placed 2nd in the Leningrad Championship that same year.

Towards Grandmastership
At age 16, Spassky scored very impressively in 1953 at a strong international tournament in Bucharest, Romania, finishing tied
4th-6th with 12/19, as the winner was his future trainer Alexander Tolush. He was awarded the title of International Master by
FIDE. In his first attempt at the Soviet Championship final, URS-ch22, Moscow 1955, at age 18, he tied for 3rd-6th places with
11.5/19, as the joint winners were Vasily Smyslov and Efim Geller. This excellent result qualified him for the Goteborg
Interzonal later that year.

At age 18 he won the World Junior Chess Championship held at Antwerp, Belgium, with a dominant score of 14/16, and
became a Grandmaster, a record at the time. Spassky competed for the Lokomotiv Voluntary Sports Society. By his tied 7th-9th
place, with 11/20, at the 1955 Goteborg Interzonal, he qualified into the 1956 Candidates' Tournament, held in Amsterdam.
There, he finished in the middle of the ten-player world-class field, tied 3rd-7th places with 9.5/18, astonishing for a
19-year-old. Expectations for him were very high, and this put pressure on the young star. At the 1956 Soviet final, URS-ch23,
held in Leningrad, Spassky tied for 1st-3rd places on 11.5/19 with Mark Taimanov and Yuri Averbakh, but Taimanov won the
further playoff to become champion. Spassky then tied for first with Tolush in a strong Leningrad tournament later in 1956. In
the 1957 Soviet final, URS-ch24 at Moscow, Spassky finished tied 4th-5th with 13/21, as Mikhail Tal won; Spassky had to that
point finished ahead of Tal, who began his meteoric rise with this title.

Qualification heartbreaks
But Spassky then went into a comparative slump. He lost to Tal in a very nervy last-round game in the 1958 Soviet final,
URS-ch25 at Riga, after having had the advantage for much of the game, and having missed a difficult win after adjournment.
He had earlier refused a draw offer from Tal, the eventual champion, which would have left him in a fourth-place tie with
Averbakh, necessitating a further playoff between the two for Interzonal qualification.

Spassky tied for first place at Moscow 1959 on 7/11 with Smyslov and David Bronstein. He just missed winning the title at the
next Soviet final, URS-ch26 at Tbilisi 1959, finishing half a point behind champion Tigran Petrosian and in a tied 2nd-3rd place
with Tal, on 12.5/19. Some consolation was provided by his impressive victory at Riga 1959 with 11.5/13, well ahead of Tal,
who had in the meantime qualified for a 1960 World title match with Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. Spassky was in the middle of
the pack at the next Soviet final, URS-ch27 at Leningrad, with 10/19, as fellow Leningrader Viktor Korchnoi won. Spassky
journeyed to Argentina, where he tied for 1st-2nd places at Mar del Plata 1960 with Bobby Fischer on 13.5/15, and he beat
Fischer in their head-to-head game, their first meeting.

Another crushing disappointment for Spassky came at the key Interzonal qualifier, the Soviet final URS-ch28 at Moscow 1961,
where he again missed advancing by one place, finishing tied 5th-6th with 11/19, as Petrosian won. The Soviet vanguard at
this time was extraordinarily deep with world-class players.

Resurgence with trainer change
Spassky decided upon a switch in trainers, from the volatile attacker Alexander Tolush to the calmer strategist Igor
Bondarevsky. This proved the key to his resurgence. He won his first of two USSR Championships, URS-ch29, at Baku 1961,
with a powerful 14.5/20. Spassky tied 2nd-3rd at Havana 1962 with 16/21, behind winner Miguel Najdorf. He placed joint
5th-6th at Yerevan 1962, URS-ch30, with 11.5/19. At Leningrad 1963, the site for URS-ch31, Spassky tied for 1st-3rd with
Leonid Stein and Ratmir Kholmov, but Stein wound up the playoff winner. Spassky won at Belgrade 1964 with 13/17, ahead of
Korchnoi and Borislav Ivkov. He was 4th at Sochi 1964 with 9.5/15, as Nikolai Krogius won.
Then, in the 1964 Soviet Zonal at Moscow, a double-round event and one of the strongest tournaments ever organized,
Spassky won with 7/12, to advance to the Amsterdam Interzonal the same year. At Amsterdam, he tied for 1st-4th places, along
with Tal, Vasily Smyslov, and Bent Larsen, on 17/23. He qualified for the Candidates' Matches the next year. With Bondarevsky,
Spassky's style broadened and deepened, with poor results mostly banished, yet his fighting spirit was even enhanced. He
added psychology and surprise to his quiver, and this proved enough to send him to the top.

World Champion
Spassky was considered an all-rounder on the chess board, and his adaptable "universal style" was a distinct advantage in
beating many top Grandmasters. In the 1965 cycle, he beat Paul Keres at Riga 1965 with careful strategy, triumphing in the last
game to win 6-4 (+4 =4 -2). Also at Riga, he defeated Efim Geller with mating attacks, winning with 5.5/8 (+3 =5 -0). Then, in his
Candidates' Final match (the match which determines who will challenge the reigning world champion for the title) against
Mikhail Tal the legendary tactician (Tbilisi 1965), Spassky often managed to steer play into quieter positions, either avoiding
former champion Tal's tactical strength, or extracting too high a price for complications. He won with 7/11 (+4 =6 -1). This led to
his first World Championship match against Tigran Petrosian in 1966.

Spassky won two tournaments in the run-up to the final. He shared first at Sochi 1965 with Wolfgang Unzicker on 10.5/15. Then
he tied for first at Hastings 1965-66 with Wolfgang Uhlmann on 7.5/9.
Spassky lost the final match in Moscow narrowly, with three wins against Petrosian's four wins, with the two sharing 17 draws.
However, a few months after the match, Spassky finished ahead of Petrosian and a super-class field which included runner-up
Bobby Fischer at Santa Monica 1966, with 11.5/18, half a point ahead of Fischer. Spassky also won at Beverwijk 1967 with
11/15 ahead of Anatoly Lutikov, and shared 1st-5th places at Sochi 1967 on 10/15 with Krogius, Alexander Zaitsev, Leonid
Shamkovich, and Vladimir Simagin.

As losing finalist in 1966, Spassky was seeded into the next Candidates' cycle. In 1968, he faced Geller again, this time at
Sukhumi, and won by the same margin as in 1965 (5.5/8, +3 =5 -0). He next met Bent Larsen at Malmö, and won with 5.5/8.
The final was against his Leningrad rival Viktor Korchnoi at Kiev, and Spassky triumphed with 6.5/10.

This earned him another challenge against Petrosian, at Moscow 1969. Spassky's flexibility of style was the key to his eventual
victory over Petrosian by two points in the 1969 World Championship, by adopting Petrosian's negative style. Spassky won with
12.5/23.

During Spassky's three-year reign as World Champion, he won several more tournaments. He placed first at San Juan 1969
with 11.5/15. He won a very strong tournament at Leiden 1970 with 7/12. Spassky shared 1st-2nd at Amsterdam 1970 with Lev
Polugaevsky on 11.5/15. He was third at Goteborg 1971 with 8/11, behind winners Vlastimil Hort and Ulf Andersson. He
shared 1st-2nd with Hans Ree at the 1971 Canadian Open in Vancouver.

Spassky's reign as a world champion only lasted for three years, as he lost to Bobby Fischer of the United States in 1972 in the
"Match of the Century". The contest took place in Reykjavík, Iceland, at the height of the Cold War, and consequently was seen
as symbolic of the political confrontation between the two superpowers. Going into the match, Fischer had never won a game
from Spassky in five attempts, while losing three times. In addition, Spassky had secured Geller as his coach, and Geller also
had a plus score against Fischer. However, Fischer was in excellent form, and won the title match convincingly, with 12.5/21.

Continues to challenge
Spassky continued to play some excellent chess after losing his crown, winning several championships. In 1973, he tied
1st-3rd at Dortmund on 9.5/15, along with Hans-Joachim Hecht and Ulf Andersson. A very important victory for him was the
1973 Soviet Championship at Moscow (URS-ch41). He scored 11.5/17 to finish ahead of a super-class field.

In the 1974 Candidates' matches, Spassky first defeated American Robert Byrne in Puerto Rico with 4.5/6 (+3 =3 -0). But he
then lost the semi-final match to the up-and-coming Anatoly Karpov in Leningrad, (+1 -4 =6). Karpov had publicly
acknowledged that Spassky was superior, but had nevertheless outplayed him over the board. However, Spassky's chances
were damaged by the defection of his coach Efim Geller to Karpov's side before the match.

In 1976, Spassky had to return to the Interzonal stage, failed to qualify from the Manila Interzonal, but was seeded into the
Candidates' matches when Fischer declined his place. Spassky won an exhibition match with rising Dutch Grandmaster Jan
Timman at Amsterdam 1977 with 4/6. He triumphed narrowly in extra games in his first Candidates' match over Vlastimil Hort
at Reykjavík 1977 with 8.5/16. Spassky won an exhibition match over Robert Hubner at Solingen 1977 with 3.5/6, then defeated
Lubomir Kavalek, also at Solingen, by 4/6 in another exhibition match. His next Candidates' match was against Lajos Portisch
at Geneva 1977, and Spassky won again with 8.5/15, to qualify for the Candidates' final. But at Belgrade 1977, Spassky lost to
Viktor Korchnoi, +4 -7 =7.

Spassky, as losing finalist, was seeded into the 1980 Candidates' matches, and faced Lajos Portisch again in Mexico. After 14
games, the two players were tied at 7-7, but Portisch advanced since he had won more games with the Black pieces. Spassky
missed qualification from the 1982 Toluca Interzonal with 8/13, finishing half a point short in third place behind Portisch and
Eugenio Torre. The 1985 Candidates' event was held as a round-robin tournament at Montpellier, France, and Spassky was
seeded in as an organizer's choice. He scored 8/15 to tie for 6th-7th places, behind joint winners Andrei Sokolov, Rafael
Vaganian, and Artur Yusupov, but only four players advanced to matches. This was Spassky's last appearance at the
Candidates' level, 29 years after his first qualification in 1956.

International team play standout
Spassky played five times for the USSR in Student Olympiads. At Lyon 1955, he was on board two, scored 7.5/8 (+7 =1 -0), and
won team and board gold medals. At Reykjavík 1957, he was again on board two, scored 7/9 (+5 =4 -0), and again won team
and board gold medals. At Varna 1958, he was on board two, scored 6.5/9 (+4 =5 -0), and was part of the winning team. At
Leningrad 1960, he was on board one, scored 10/12 (+9 =2 -1), and won team silver. Then at Marianske Lazne 1962, he won
team gold, but the individual scoring data is incomplete at olimpbase.org.

Spassky first appeared for the adult Soviet Union team at the inaugural European Team Championship at Vienna 1957, where
on board five he scored 3.5/5 (+2 =3 -0) to capture the board gold medal, and was part of the championship team. He played
only once more at the European level, at Bath 1973 on board one, where he scored 5/7 (+3 =4 -0), again winning board and
team gold medals.

His first of seven selections for the Soviet Olympiad team was for Varna 1962, where on board three he scored 11/14 (+8 =6 -0)
to win the board gold medal, and helped his team to overall gold. For Tel Aviv 1964, he was second reserve, and scored
10.5/13 (+8 =5 -0), capturing the bronze medal on his board, and was part of the championship gold medal winning team. At
Havana 1966, he was on board two, scored 10/15, and helped the Soviet Union to team gold. At Lugano 1968, he was again
on board two, scored 10/14 for the board bronze medal, and helped the Soviet Union to team gold. For Siegen 1970, he was on
board one, scored 9.5/12 for the board gold medal, and again was part of the championship team. He was not selected for
Skopje 1972, but returned for Nice 1974 on board three, scoring 11/15 for the board gold medal, and helping the USSR to team
gold medals. The USSR did not play in 1976. At Buenos Aires 1978, he was on board one, scored 7/11 (+4 =6 -1), and the
Soviet Union had to settle for the team silver medals behind Hungary. For the Soviet Union in Olympiads,
Spassky scored (+45 =48 -1), for a strong 73.4 per cent.

Spassky played board one in the USSR vs. Rest of the World match at Belgrade 1970, scoring 1.5/3 against Larsen.

Spassky then represented France in three Olympiads, always on board one. For Thessaloniki 1984, he scored 8/14 (+2 =12
-0). At Dubai 1986, he scored 9/14 (+4 =10 -0). Finally at Thessaloniki 1988, he scored 7.5/13 (+3 =9 -1). He also played board
one for France at the inaugural World Team Championships, Lucerne 1985, where he scored 5.5/9 (+3 =5 -1).

Later career
Spassky's later years showed a reluctance to totally devote himself to chess. He relied on his natural talent for the game, and
sometimes would rather play a game of tennis than work hard at the board. Since 1976, Spassky has been happily settled in
France with his third wife; he became a French citizen in 1978, and has competed for France in the Chess Olympiads.

But Spassky did score some notable triumphs in his later years. He tied for first at the elite tournament Bugojno 1978 on 10/15,
with World Champion Anatoly Karpov. He was clear first at Montilla-Moriles 1978 with 6.5/9. At Munich 1979, he tied for 2nd-4th
places with 8.5/13 behind Yuri Balashov. He tied for 1st-2nd at Baden-Vienna 1980 on 10.5/15 with Alexander Beliavsky. He
won at Hamburg 1982 with a powerful 5.5/6. His best result during this period was clear first at Linares 1983 with 6.5/10,
ahead of World Champion Karpov and Ulf Andersson, who shared second. At London Lloyds' Bank Open 1984, he tied 1st-3rd
with John Nunn and Murray Chandler, on 7/9. He won at Reykjavík 1985. At Brussels 1985, he placed second with 10.5/13
behind his old rival Korchnoi. At Reggio Emilia 1986, he tied for 2nd-5th places with 6/11 behind Zoltan Ribli. He swept
Fernand Gobet 4-0 in a match at Fribourg 1987. He tied for 1st-3rd at Wellington 1988 with Chandler and Eduard Gufeld.
Spassky maintained a top ten world ranking into the mid-1980s.

However, Spassky's performances in the World Cup events of 1988 and 1989 showed that he could by this stage finish no
higher than the middle of the pack against elite fields. At Belfort WC 1988, he scored 8/15 for a joint 4th-7th place, as Garry
Kasparov won. At Reykjavík WC 1988, he could manage just 7/17 for a joint 15th-16th place, with Kasparov again winning.
Finally, at Barcelona WC 1989, Spassky scored 7.5/16 for a tied 8th-12th place, as Kasparov shared first with Ljubomir
Ljubojevic.

Spassky played in the 1990 French Championship at Angers, placing fourth with 10.5/15, as Marc Santo Roman won. At
Salamanca 1991, he placed 2nd with 7.5/11 behind winner Evgeni Vladimirov. Then in the 1991 French Championship, he
scored 9.5/15 for a tied 4th-5th place, as Santo Roman won again.

In 1992, Bobby Fischer, after a 20-year hiatus from chess, re-emerged to arrange a "Revenge Match of the 20th century"
against Spassky in Montenegro and Belgrade; this was a re-enactment of the 1972 World Championship. At the time, Spassky
was rated 106th in the FIDE rankings, and Fischer didn't appear on the list at all (owing to his 20-year inactivity). This match
was essentially Spassky's last major challenge. Spassky lost the match with a score of +5 -10 =15. Spassky then played
young female prodigy Judit Polgar in a 1993 match at Budapest, losing narrowly with 4.5/10.
Spassky continued to play occasional events through much of the 1990s, such as the Veterans versus Women series.

On October 1, 2006, Spassky suffered a stroke during a chess lecture in San Francisco; his wife Marina reported several days
later that Spassky was doing well. [1] In his first major post-stroke play, he drew a six-game rapid match with Hungarian
Grandmaster Lajos Portisch in April 2007.[2]

Legacy
Spassky's best years were as a youthful prodigy in the mid 1950s, and then again as a mature warrior in the mid to late 1960s.
He seemed to lose ambition once he became World Champion. Perhaps since the climb had been so difficult, through so
many super-strong Soviet players, he had little left at that stage. The first match with Fischer took a severe nervous toll; his
preparation was largely bypassed by Fischer. He keenly felt the disappointment of his nation for losing the title.

Never a true openings maven, at least when compared to contemporaries such as Geller and Fischer, he excelled in the
middlegame with highly imaginitive yet usually sound and deeply planned play, which could erupt into tactical violence as
needed.

Spassky succeeded with a wide variety of openings, including the King's Gambit, 1.e4 e5 2.f4, an aggressive and risky line
rarely seen at the top level. Indeed, his record of 16 wins (including wins against Bobby Fischer, David Bronstein, and Anatoly
Karpov), no losses, and a few draws with the King's Gambit is unmatched.[citation needed] His contributions to opening theory
extend to reviving the Marshall Attack for Black in the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5
7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d5), developing the Leningrad Variation for White in the Nimzo-Indian Defence (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4
4.Bg5), the Spassky Variation on the Black side of the Nimzo-Indian, and the Closed Variation of the Sicilian Defence for White
(1.e4 c5 2.Nc3). Another rare line in the King's Indian Attack bears his name: 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 b5!?

Spassky is respected as a universal player, a great storyteller, a bon vivant on occasion, and someone who is rarely afraid to
speak his mind on controversial chess issues, and who usually has something important to relate.
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