Fischer vs Spassky: The Rivalry (Part 1: 1960-1971)

Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky are two of the greatest legends of the game. They had a rivalry spanning over a quarter of a century from 1960-1992.

Table of Contents:

• First Meeting - 1960
• 1961-1966
• 1967-1971

First Meeting - 1960

Spassky first saw Fischer in 1958 when Fischer visited Russia and played some informal games with some of the Soviet players at the Central Chess Club in Moscow (Bronstein, Petrosian, Lutikov, Vasyukov). Spassky later reflected over half a century later: "He was a man of tragic fate. I understood that immediately after seeing him for the first time."

They were the two youngest Grandmasters in the world. Spassky set a record for youngest Grandmaster in 1955 at 18 years old. Fischer broke his record in 1958 by becoming a Grandmaster at the age of 15. They were both young rising talents in the late 50's and early 60's. Their first game took place on March 30th, 1960 at the Mar del Plata Tournament in Argentina during Round 2.

Fischer and Spassky were officially introduced to each other by David Bronstein.

“I travelled to Argentina with Boris Spassky. Luckily for us, our flight was delayed in London due to adverse weather conditions and I used this chance to show Boris the London nightlife.

When we arrived in Buenos Aires, we discovered Bobby Fischer’s name on the list of participants.

The next morning, when we went to the station to go to Mar del Plata, Bobby was waving to me from the train and I had the pleasure of introducing Boris Spassky to the great American player. They became friends instantly and have remained so until this day.”

David Bronstein, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, 1995. Given in Douglas Griffin Wordpress Blog.

Mar del Plata Group Photo. Fischer second on bottom row. Spassky second from right.

Fischer and Spassky both tied for first place with 13½/15.

Chess Life, May 5, 1960

Spassky wrote about Fischer in an article in the Soviet chess magazine Shakhmaty v SSSR after the tournament.

"Robert is capable of playing chess at any time of the day or night. He was often seen playing blitz games after a tiring evening adjournment. The champion of the USA plays blitz with pleasure and daring. The only thing in the sphere of chess that he does not do with pleasure is losing. When he loses he straightaway puts the pieces back on the board for a revenge game. If he doesn't manage to get his revenge he is very nervous. He hastens with comments and tries to comfort himself saying he had a won position."

"Fischer has a great knowledge of chess literature, especially the Soviet literature. Once, while he was in our hotel room, he noticed a copy of the bulletins on the latest Soviet championship. He borrowed it and vanished from the room. Fischer is one of the most diligent readers of our chess magazines, and he is concerned about which of his games are published in our press."

"Although attracted by the tactical battle, the young American can manoeuvre very well, squeezing and besieging his opponent."

"Fischer has good experience of playing in mixed tournaments. In such competitions he is especially dangerous. Playing against him, the weaker competitors have continually to solve tactical problems. In this respect he is similar to Tal."

Boris Spassky, Excerpts from Shakhmaty v SSSR, 1960 shortly after Mar del Plata. Given in David Levy, How Fischer Plays Chess, 1975 (p.51)

1961-1966

In 1961, Bobby Fischer published an article in the American Chess Quarterly, where he analyzed the King's Gambit and concluded that it loses by force for White.

"To the public, the player of the King's Gambit exhibits courage and derring-do. The gambit has been making a comeback with the younger Soviet masters, notably Spassky (who defeated Bronstein, Averbach and myself with it). His victories rarely reflected the merits of the opening since his opponents went wrong in the mid-game. It is often the case, also, as with Santasiere and Bronstein, that the King's Gambit is played with a view
to a favorable endgame. Spassky told me himself the gambit doesn't give White much, but he plays it because neither does the Ruy Lopez nor the Giuoco Piano."

Bobby Fischer, Excerpt from A Bust to the King's Gambit, American Chess Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Summer 1961), pp. 3–9

Fischer played in the 1962 Curaçao Candidates Tournament. Spassky's last Candidates Tournament was in Amsterdam 1956. He didn't manage to qualify to the Bled-Zagreb-Belgrade Candidates in 1959 or Curaçao.

In the magazine Chessworld, Fischer had an article where he picked the ten greatest masters in history. Spassky was one of the masters that he picked.

"Spassky, a 25-year-old Russian player is on this list principally because of his unique style. His game is marked by super-sharp openings; in addition, he has his own openings and his own little lines which work quite well for him.

Spassky sacrifices with complete abandon. I recall a game he played in a Russian championship with Bronstein. Bronstein attacked Spassky's Rook with a Pawn. Spassky left the Rook where it was, and made a Knight move instead. He lost the Rook, sacrificed his knight, and five moves later he mated Bronstein.

In a game I played him several years ago, he lost a Pawn for no compensation. Then he played as if the Pawn he had lost meant nothing. While I was trying to figure out what was going on in his head, I blundered and lost the game. Spassky sits at the board with the same dead expression whether he's mating or being mated. He can blunder away a piece, and you are never sure whether it's a blunder or a fantastically deep sacrifice.

He has some weaknesses, but he makes it difficult for an opponent to take advantage of them. He doesn't play closed positional chess very well. Still, he always seems a little ahead of you on theory. He ought to have a very good future. It's difficult yet to tell his relative strength because he has played mostly tournaments, no matches. But he rates a place on this list because of his dynamic, individual style."

Bobby Fischer, The Ten Greatest Masters in History, Chessworld, (p.56-61), January-February 1964. Given in Edward Winter Article, Fischer’s Views on Chess Masters

Spassky qualified to the Candidates Matches through the 1964 Amsterdam Interzonal (a tournament where the top six finishers get to qualify for the Candidates Matches Knock-Out, only 3 players from the same nation could qualify). Spassky tied for first in the Interzonal along with Larsen, Smyslov and Tal. FIDE changed the format for the Candidates from a round robin tournament to a knock out series. Fischer did not participate in the Interzonal. Spassky went on to defeat Keres (6-4), Geller (5½-2½) and Tal (7-4) in the 1965 Candidates Matches to challenge Petrosian for the title. Petrosian defeated Spassky in the 1966 Chess World Championship during April 9th-June 9th, 12½-11½.

The Second Piatigorsky Cup took place in July 17th-August 15th, 1966. The tournament was a double round robin. Fischer and Spassky were both invited. Jacqueline Piatigorsky later said that if Fischer hadn't accepted the invitation to the tournament then it wouldn't have happened. Fischer was invited to the first edition in 1963 but did not play after his request for a two thousand dollar appearance fee was declined. Fischer had been involved in a dispute with Piatigorsky during his match with Reshevsky in 1961, where Piatigorsky wanted to reschedule the 12th game, which Fischer objected to, leading to the match not being finished. The tournament was designed to be first-class with the best conditions. The optimal lighting and the large playing room were top notch. Before the start of the tournament, the Piatigorsky's held an outdoor party for the players. Fischer played blitz with Ivkov and Larsen there.

Group Photo: Jacqueline Piatigorsky standing in front, From Left to Right: Lajos Portisch, Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky, Jan Hein Donner, Bent Larsen, Miguel Najdorf, Boris Ivkov, Tigran Petrosian, and Wolfgang Unzicker. Samuel Reshevsky also participated (not in photograph).

Fischer stumbled in the middle of the tournament and lost to Larsen and Najdorf in Rounds 6 and 7. In Round 8, Fischer was paired against Spassky.

Fischer made a great comeback in the second half of the tournament, scoring four wins in a row during Rounds 10-13. He also scored two wins in a row in Rounds 15-16. Fischer went from being second to last in tournament, to sharing the lead position with Spassky. In the second to last round (17), Fischer was paired against Spassky again. Over 900 people showed up to watch this game, as it could decide the winner of the tournament.

After their draw in the previous round, Fischer and Spassky were still sharing the lead with one round to go. In the last round, Fischer was paired as Black against Petrosian. Spassky was paired as White against Donner, the tail-ender. Spassky won and Fischer drew, making Spassky the victor of the tournament with 11½/18, half a point ahead of Fischer.

"It was Fischer's tournament. He played better than anyone else, including myself."

Boris Spassky, Frank Brady, Profile of a Prodigy, 1973, (p.107)

"The Piatigorsky Cup started tournament started very badly for Fischer, who was wasting too much of his nervous energy in a search for an absolutely silent hotel room. Each time he changed rooms he soon discovered another source of noise and wanted to be moved again. By the halfway stage (when he was in last place with Ivkov), Fischer had made himself a social outcast, searching endlessly for a silent room instead of fraternizing with the other players. Then Spassky asked him why he was wasting himself instead of relaxing with his friends during his free time, and almost at once Fischer gave up his search, became more socially amenable and improved his score so much that when he met Spassky for the second time, in the penultimate round, he could have won the tournament had he defeated him."

David Levy, How Fischer Plays Chess, (p.93), 1975

Prizegiving ceremony presented by Jacqueline Piatigorsky and Gregor Piatigorsky. Spassky won and Fischer came second.

Between October 23rd-November 20th, Fischer and Spassky participated in the Chess Olympiad in Havana, Cuba. Before going to the Olympiad, The U.S. team confirmed that they would not play between sundown Friday and sundown Saturday due to Fischer's religion. Fischer followed the practices of the Worldwide Church of God which held a Sabbath. The Soviet team and the U.S. team were paired together on Saturday, 5th November, for a game scheduled at 4.pm. Alexi Serov, manager of the Soviet team stated that the team would show up at 4.p.m and would not postpone the match till 6.p.m. as the U.S. team requested. U.S. team captain Robert Byrne then called Ed Edmondson, Executive Director of the United States Chess Federation. After a discussion between the team members and USCF they confirmed that they had properly confirmed their arrangement to not play during Fischer's Sabbath. Byrne also cabled FIDE President Folke Rogard about the situation.

The U.S. team decided to show up as planned at 6.p.m., and discovered they had been forfeited 4-0 in favor of the Soviet team. Rogard cabled back that there should be a 'friendly agreement' to replay and reschedule the match, but Serov refused. An arbitration commitee asked the Soviets to replay the match, noting that every other team in the Olympiad agreed to reschedule their match against the U.S. team if the same situation arose. Igor Bondarevsky, team captain, now acted as spokesman for the Soviet team and said that they would have to wait for a decision from the USSR Chess Federation in a few days. But then on the next day, the director of the Cuban Sports Federation announced that the Soviets had agreed to reschedule the match. For the replay on November 14th, Petrosian was substituted with Spassky on Board One against Fischer.

https://youtu.be/egVR3NPzJIQ?t=4

The Soviet team won first place in the Olympiad. The U.S. team finished second. Fischer narrowly missed out on a gold medal for Board One scoring (88.2%) out of 17 games to Petrosian's (88.5%) out of 13 games.

1967-1971

Spassky was directly seeded into the 1968 Candidates Matches as he was the challenger for the 1966 World Championship. Fischer played in the Sousse Interzonal in 1967 but withdrew during the middle of the tournament, ending his qualification cycle. Spassky defeated Geller (5½-2½), Larsen (5½-2½) and Korchnoi (6½-3½) to challenge Petrosian again. In the 1969 Chess World Championship, Spassky defeated Petrosian 12½-10½ to become the 10th World Champion.

Spassky later reflected: "In the first match I flung myself at Petrosian like a kitten at a tiger, and it was easy for him to parry my blows. But by the second I’d matured and turned into a bear that was always putting the tiger under pressure, by which I mean I held him in a grip that even if it was loose was constant, and he didn’t like that."

1969 Chess World Championship, Spassky-Petrosian, Credit: V. Tutov / TASS.

Between September 5th-27th, Both Spassky and Fischer played in the 1970 Olympiad in Siegen, West Germany. It was suggested that one of the reasons that Fischer played was because the FIDE Congress on whether Fischer could play in the Interzonal without having qualified through the national tournament (U.S. Championship) took place there. So Fischer's participation would help the process go more smoothly. The match between the USSR team and the USA team was a big event because Spassky and Fischer would play each other on board one. As Spassky was now World Champion everyone looked forward to his encounter with Fischer. Almost 5,000 people packed in to watch, most of them could not see the players and they followed the game on demonstration boards outside, or through the closed circuit TV. This was a big moment.

"Both players felt the importance of the game; Fischer desperately wanted to score his first victory over Spassky, and Spassky was so hypertense before the start of the game that he was visibly trembling and chain-smoked one Russian cigarette after the other."

Frank Brady, Profile of a Prodigy, 1973, (p.172)

https://youtu.be/51icHgS1vSE?t=733

Source: https://bobby-fischer-1970.blogspot.com

"There was one game which will be part of chess history, the game Spassky played against Robert Fischer at the Chess Olympics in Siegen, Germany. Nothing else seemed to exist that day. Spassky won the game and afterwards analyzed it for about ten minutes for the public in the demonstration room. Bobby Fischer was a sad man. They could not get him to say anything. Afterwards I talked to Spassky on his way to the hotel and he told me that one game does not mean much, although this particular game, before it took place, had become an important one to millions of chess fans all over the world."

Boris Spassky, George Koltanowski Interview, El Paso Times, (p.117), February 14, 1971

The USSR won the Olympiad, and Spassky got the gold medal for best performance on Board 1 (79.2%). The U.S. team fell below expectations, only finishing 4th in the Olympiad.

Q: “An old question, Boris, but who do you believe is your greatest threat?”

“Naturally it is Fischer but, unfortunately, he does not want to go through the Interzonal so that he can play me. He says that he won't play in the Interzonal unless the rules governing the matches that follow are changed in certain ways. He naturally would like to play me a match outside the domination of the FIDE, which is very hard for me to agree to.”

Q: “How about Petrosian winning the right to play you for the third time for the world title?”

“It would be an interesting match, but I still believe Fischer will win that right if he participates.”

Q: “When do you intend to prepare for your next world match?”

Spassky smiled: “Every game I play is a preparation for my next match.”

Q:“What do you think of Fischer's wins in Zagreb and Buenos Aires? He also feels he can wins against you in a match.”

Spassky's face became more serious. “It shows that Fischer, besides being a genius, works hard. But about beating me, that is a matter of opinion. I would, if I played a match with him, worry more about how I should prepare for the match than about its outcome.”

Boris Spassky, George Koltanowski Interview, El Paso Times, (p.117), February 14, 1971

Fischer qualified to the 1971 Candidates Matches through the Palma de Mallorca Interzonal, which he won. Fischer defeated Larsen and Taimanov 6-0, and defeated Petrosian 6.5-2.5 in October 1971 to become the challenger to Spassky for the 1972 World Championship.

Fischer vs Spassky: The Rivalry (Part 2: 1972 World Chess Championship) Coming Soon

Sources

1. Bobby Fischer Wikipedia
2. Boris Spassky Wikipedia
3. Fischer-Spassky Games (Chessgames.com)
4. Bobby Fischer, The Ten Greatest Masters in History, Chessworld, (p.56-61), January-February 1964, Given in Edward Winter Article, Fischer’s Views on Chess Masters
5. Boris Spassky, George Koltanowski Interview, El Paso Times, February 14, 1971 (p.117) (Provided by https://bobby-fischer-1971.blogspot.com/)
6. Boris Spassky, Kirill Zangalis Interview, Soviet Sport, 2010 (Tranlated by MISHANP)
7. Boris Spassky, Yuri Golyshak and Sergei Kruzhkov Interview, Sport-Express, 2016 (Translated by User Spektrowski)
8. Chess Life, May 5th, 1960
9. Bobby Fischer, "A Bust to the King's Gambit", American Chess Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Summer 1961), pp. 3–9
10. Larry Evans, Chess Life, Chess Fever In Havana, December 1966
11. Olimpbase, 17th Chess Olympiad
12. New York Times, Fischer Is Defeated By Spassky In Chess, September 21st, 1970
13. Olimpbase, 19th Chess Olympiad
14. Chess Life, January 1971
15. Frank Brady, Profile of a Prodigy, 1973
16. David Levy, How Fischer Plays Chess, 1975
17. David Bronstein, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, 1995. Given in Douglas Griffin Wordpress Blog
18. The Petrosian-Spassky World Championship Match (Moscow, 1969), with annotations by Tal, Korchnoi, Boleslavsky & Bondarevsky. Douglas Griffin Wordpress Blog