Boris Spassky was born on January 30, 1937 in Leningrad which is now St. Petersburg, Russia. At the age of 18, he won the World Junior Championship in Belgium. In the same year, he became the youngest Grandmaster in the world.
In 1966, he challenged Tigran Petrosian to the World Championship crown. He lost by the narrowest margin. In 1969, he challenged Petrosian again and became the 10th World Champion. He then lost his crown to Bobby Fischer in 1972 in the match of the century.
I personally have many fond memories of Boris Spassky. He has always been very kind and supportive of me. I wrote a large section about my experience with Boris in my book Breaking Through.
Please join me in wishing Boris a magnificent 70th birthday!
Happy birthday, Boris. You were (are) a true champion and perhaps the greatest sportsman in the history of chess.
Happy Birthday Boris! I have many wonderful memories of you! Such an ambassador for chess, world traveller, sportsman and loyal supporter of friends! I wish you the best of health, happiness and good times with friends! Many happy returns of the day!
To hell with Spassky who not long ago co-signed an antisemitic letter.
Happy b-day Mr. Spassky!
He had a small health crisis recently. I hope he has many healthy years ahead of him!
Spassky by his actions saved the 1972 match with Fischer. [I was a fan of Fischer before this match; I certainly wasn’t afterwards!] For this he deserves much praise.
Great was my surprise, then, with his behaviour in the 1977/8 Final Candidates match with Korchnoi. Spassky, 5 points behind, suddenly in Game 11 adopted a distraction tactic of never being at the board except to make his move. While not illegal, the motivation was clear. And it wasn’t as if he and Korchnoi had been enemies.
Korchnoi lost the next 4.
With all the talk of Spassky being such a gentleman, this episode seems a significant stain on his character. So I am not 100% sure about this guy.
This episode has always puzzled me. Does anyone know why he did it (if he was such a gentleman and sportsman)?
Happy Birthsday to GM and ex WCh Boris Spasski.
Reply to Chess44. concerning match with GM Korchnoi. I think that KGB suggested that behaviour. Kramnik was using similair ‘tactic’ in Elista versus WC Topalov ans someone is telling that K. is gentleman.
It was not hardest tactic used by Russians against Korchnoi to hold WC title. During the match against Karpov, the son of GM Korchnoi was arrested and sent to the prison in Siberia. They were not allowing to his wife to leave SU to join her husband etc.
Regards
P.
Sportsman of the century for chess and world champion!
Susan: Thanks for noting this. Except for Chessbase there seems to be little acknowledgement of GM Spassky’s 70th birthday, an important milestone for the chess world. Happy birthday to him, and I hope he has recovered fully from his recent illness.
I think this was the game in the photo. A pretty awesome game that looks like Spassky is in trouble until the very end when he manages to escape.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1110675
P,
I had thought of the KGB possibilty and the Soviet desperation to stop Korchnoi. However, Spassky was safely living in France by this time, so I wouldn’t have thought the KGB would have had too much leverage over him (in contrast to the time of the Fischer match when his behaviour was so much better!)And he didn’t, for example, sign the letter condemning Korchnoi’s defection in 1976.
So I’m not too sure about this idea, though it is possible.
I do not consider Kramnik to be a gentleman, so if what he was doing in Elista was a distraction tactic it would not surprise me at all.
However I thought that Spassky, who I thought was, would have been above this sort of thing.
Susan, when was that picture taken?
Happy Birthday to you, Mr. Spassky, and many more. Thanking you for supporting chess by staying active in the sport.
London Telegraph (2005)
Outrage in Russia as Spassky puts name to rabidly anti-Semitic petition
By Bojan Pancevski
Boris Spassky, the former chess world champion, has caused uproar in Russia by signing a petition that demands the country’s state prosecutor bans a number of Jewish organisations.
Spassky was among 5,000 Russians who put their name to a letter calling for a ban on all religious and national groups acting on the principles of the Shulchan Aruch, a repository of Jewish law originally written in the 1560s.
The “Letter of 5,000”, sent three weeks ago, branded Judaism “anti-Christian and inhumane” and accused believers of “committing ritual murders”.
It warned of a “hidden campaign of genocide against the Russian people and their traditional society and values”, and was backed with quotes from anti-Semitic literature from the 19th century.
Late on Friday, after constant criticism from religious leaders and figures in the chess world, Spassky tried to distance himself from the campaign. He did not deny that he had signed it, but said: “The appearance of my name was a mistake. As a ‘Chess King’ I have always tried to fortify and unite the multinational kingdom of chess, and not to cause division within it. I will remain faithful to that principle in my old age.”
Evgeny Gik, a Russian chess master and writer who is a long-term acquaintance of Spassky, had condemned the letter in a Russian newspaper. He recalled how, in the 1990s, Spassky travelled from his home in France to the St Petersburg chess club to be the guest of honour at a dinner party.
There, according to Gik, Spassky remarked: “Everything is good in Russia, but I don’t know how the Russian people can have allowed so many big-nosed people into government.” Gik said that several grandmasters left the table in protest.
Lev Ponomarev, a respected human rights activist, also condemned Spassky’s involvement in the letter. “I am ashamed that people of such high moral authority are taking the lead in creating a kind of orthodox Taliban,” he said.
Spassky, who was born in 1937 and learned to play chess at five, became world chess champion in 1969 – a title that he held until 1972, when he was beaten by the American, Bobby Fischer. The match was perhaps the most legendary chess duel of all time.
Many leading Soviet-era players were Jewish, including Garry Kasparov, officially the highest-ranked in the world but now retired. The intense competition created a “them and us” division between Jewish and non-Jewish players, who include Spassky. Although this is the first time that Spassky has given vent to anti-Semitic feelings in public, Fischer – whose parents were, in fact, Jewish – has frequently exposed himself as a Holocaust denier and anti-Semite.
In an interview in 1999, he said that Jews were “criminals, parasites, liars and thieves” and described America as a “farce controlled by dirty, hook-nosed, circumcised Jew bastards.”
The American was detained in prison in Japan last year for travelling on a passport that had been revoked by the US. He was wanted for breaking a trade embargo by playing a rematch with Spassky in the former Yugoslavia, in 1992. The wording of the petition signed by Spassky was almost identical to an earlier “Letter of 500”, signed by key Russian politicians and sent to the prosecutor, Gen Vladimir Ustinov, in January.
Both petitions called for a ban on the sale and publication of the Shulchan Aruch and for Jewish schools to be monitored to stamp out “extremism”. Other leading Russians who signed the later letter included the sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov, the mathematician Igor Sharevich, the writer Vassily Belov, and Orthodox church officials.
>>Great was my surprise, then, with his behaviour in the 1977/8 Final Candidates match with Korchnoi. Spassky, 5 points behind, suddenly in Game 11 adopted a distraction tactic of never being at the board except to make his move. While not illegal, the motivation was clear. And it wasn’t as if he and Korchnoi had been enemies.
Korchnoi lost the next 4.
With all the talk of Spassky being such a gentleman, this episode seems a significant stain on his character. So I am not 100% sure about this guy.>>
The Chess Life & Review reports were written by Korchnoi’s seconds, who naturally put as bad a spin on it as possible.
“The motiviation is clear”, indeed. Ridiculous. A less likely theory is harder to imagine. That a guy 5 points would decide to annoy his opponent by doing nothing at all. He doesn’t do it when the match is in reach, he waits until he needs 8 out of the next 10 points.
The motivation is clear all right. Spassky was shattered. He’d beaten Korchnoi in a match before and was now getting blown off the board by him. He was too shellshocked to even sit there at the board and endure his gaze. Rather than enjoy his triumph, Korchnoi responded by going completely to pieces and kicking up a fuss.
>>yaron wartski,
Is there proof of this, and of his intentions? What was this letter?>>
Of course there’s “proof”. He did this in public, not private.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/04/10/wspas10.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/04/10/ixworld.html
Thanks for your post, anonymous @11:53:00 PM.
I cannot say that you are wrong, though I am not entirely sure at this stage that you are right either.
I did not see the Chess Life & Review reports. But I was getting the english magazine ‘CHESS’ at the time, and if I remember rightly, their comments on Spassky’s behaviour weren’t too complimentary either. However, Keene and Stean were English, so perhaps all the Anglo-Saxon media could have adopted this slant.
I agree that Korchnoi could have controlled himself better, but it does seem clear to me that he thought he was being ‘got at’. If Spassky’s behaviour was as gentlemanly as you say, couldn’t he have let Korchnoi know through the arbiter that he couldn’t endure sitting at the board, so as not to cause suspicion in his opponent? One thing for sure is that Spassky knew after game 11 that this behaviour upset his opponent. I find it hard to believe that there was such a huge blowup unless there was ‘something’ going on.
You make a good point in querying why Spassky only adopted this behaviour mid way through the match. I cannot entirely answer this.
Clearly, it was not premeditated before the match. I do know that Spassky had a very difficult time in qualifying for this Candidates Final, and at 40, perhaps felt it was his last serious chance for a Title match. In going 5 down, Spassky had committed some incredible howlers, blowing half points and even possible whole points. So perhaps he was feeling hacked off; and of course at 5 down had to be totally desperate. So maybe he just decided to ‘do anything’ gentlemanly or not, to change the way the match was going.
It would be interesting to see further opinions on this episode.
>>I cannot say that you are wrong, though I am not entirely sure at this stage that you are right either.>>
Well, I’m not saying that Spassky’s behavior wasn’t disturbing. I’m just saying that if you want to deliberately disturb your opponent enough to score 8-2 against him, doing nothing and getting out of his way isn’t the kind of plan most people would choose.
Keene tried to argue that the behavior was illegal because Spassky was analyzing off a second board (the demonstration board), even though he admitted that all GM’s do that. He also admitted that lots of GM’s (he named Larsen specifically) would probably just shrug it off and keep playing. Keene wrote all the Chess Life & Review reports.
>>I agree that Korchnoi could have controlled himself better, but it does seem clear to me that he thought he was being ‘got at’.>>
He thought he was, sure. But he should have been more mature about it. He should have won with more grace, like Susan is always saying. He beat his opponent so badly that he couldn’t even bear to stay at the board. Spassky was still a Soviet citizen then (albeit living in France). Korchnoi should have had a little more appreciation for just what a crushing loss to a guy like himself could do to a person.
Instead, he not only beats Spassky into a hole, but adds insult to injury by trying to drag him out of it and calling him a cheat. Granted, Korchnoi did do some good things too. He gave back Game 12 after Spassky walked out and forfeited it.
Keene was a little unfair to Spassky on that. He compared it to Fischer, and said that when Spassky forfeited, Korchnoi gave it back, but when Fischer forfeited to Spassky, Spassky kept it. He forgot that legally Fischer had forfeited Game 1 too. Spassky DID give that game back, in exchange for an apology, but when Fischer forfeited Game 2 also, who can blame him for keeping that one?
>>If Spassky’s behaviour was as gentlemanly as you say, couldn’t he have let Korchnoi know through the arbiter that he couldn’t endure sitting at the board, so as not to cause suspicion in his opponent?>>
I don’t think Spassky was being especially gentlemanly at the time. But I don’t think he was plotting to win the match with his behavior either. He was plotting to survive it with his sanity intact, more likely.
And I don’t think Korchnoi did himself any favors by going ballistic that way. All he did was show Karpov’s handlers how easily he could be rattled. You know they noticed that next year.
>>One thing for sure is that Spassky knew after game 11 that this behaviour upset his opponent. I find it hard to believe that there was such a huge blowup unless there was ‘something’ going on.>>
He definitely knew by then.
>>I do know that Spassky had a very difficult time in qualifying for this Candidates Final, and at 40, perhaps felt it was his last serious chance for a Title match.
>>
He didn’t qualify from the Interzonal. He only got in the Candidates at all because he took Fischer’s place. Then he almost lost a match to Hort, and only won by a miracle (Hort let his time run out in a winning position). He won pretty handily against Portisch, but he couldn’t have been too happy with his play overall.
>>It would be interesting to see further opinions on this episode. >>
I’ve never heard Spassky’s version of it. I doubt he’d want to admit how destroyed he was, so he probably hasn’t talked much. The final solution to the crisis was to move the demonstration boards so that they couldn’t be seen from the relaxation boxes.
Somewhere I still have a cassette tape of Keene telling his version of what happened in this match. I ought to make an mp3 of it before it dies.
Incidentally, Spassky was one of only three Soviet GM’s who refused to sign the so-called “dirty letter” denouncing Korchnoi when he defected (I think Botvinnik and Bronstein were the other two). That’s part of why I wish Korchnoi could have won with a little more grace. The guy’s been nice to you recently, you’ve beaten him into a hole he’s afraid to come out of. You’re 5 points up and only need 3 more to win. So what if he wants to hide in his relaxation box? Just win the match quietly and don’t make a scene. If anyone should have been mad, it should have been the people who bought tickets to see Spassky and weren’t getting their money’s worth.
Thank you very much. That’s very interesting.
I myself at the time didn’t really quite understand why Korchnoi went as ballistic as he did. As you say, good material for the Karpov handlers – and it may have cost Korchnoi.
I more or less took Keene’s version on board at the time (though I didn’t like his gloating), but given some of Keene’s later actions [eg breaking the clause in his contract as Korchnoi’s second in the 1978 WC match specifically prohibiting him writing a book while the match was on (which due to the distraction it caused to Keene’s duties as Korchnoi’s main second may have cost Korchnoi the match)], I did later have a few doubts.
What you say looks very reasonable. I guess my only comment could be that in the semi-final Korchnoi was crushing Polygayevsky even worse {6-1 [5 wins, 2 draws] after 7 games (!!)} and Polu didn’t react this way, but I guess different personalities react different ways.
Spassky’s acceptance of Fischer’s forfeit in game 2 seems entirely reasonable to me. In any case given the reaction it would have caused from his Soviet masters if he didn’t, he probably really didn’t have any choice.
Agree about Spassky’s lead-up to the Final. He was twice behind in the Portisch match, too, and only pulled away towards the end.
Gulko didn’t sign the “dirty letter” either. I believe he paid dearly for this.
Bronstein was not allowed to play abroad again for 10 years.
You really should make an mp3 from that tape!
One would have thought that at 70, Spassky would have little to lose by talking about it. Indeed I would love to hear Spassky talk about the Fischer match and annotate those games. How can we get the ‘lazy Russian Bear’ off his couch and write a ‘Chess is my Life’?
Perhaps Susan can interview him!
You seem very knowlegable. I wonder if you are able to solve another wee mystery for me:
It concerns the Petrosian-Korchnoi semi-final Candidates Match in 1971. The one that Petrosian qualified from to meet Fischer by drawing 9 games and winning one (the 9th).
In the original edition of ‘Chess is my Life’ [and I understand the story is not different in the later edition, though I have not seen this], Korchnoi just describes this match as a difficult one that went wrong. However, in a later book, Karpov says Korchnoi had to throw this match because the Soviets decided that they preferred Petrosian to face Fischer. This is really weird as you would expect Korchnoi to sling any mud he had at Petrosian, while you would think this would be the last thing that Karpov would say about his Soviet establishment!
I think I’m inclined to believe Korchnoi, but I just don’t really know. So is Karpov lying, or what??
Thanks again.
>>I myself at the time didn’t really quite understand why Korchnoi went as ballistic as he did. As you say, good material for the Karpov handlers – and it may have cost Korchnoi.>>
Keene wasn’t quite able to explain it, apart from assuring us that Korchnoi was genuinely hurt by it, which is probably true, but there is something to be said for not wearing your heart on your sleeve. Especially when Karpov is watching.
>>and Polu didn’t react this way, but I guess different personalities react different ways.>>
Yeah, Polugaevsky took defeat a lot better. Maybe Spassky’s hopes were higher before the match.
>>Gulko didn’t sign the “dirty letter” either.>>
Korchnoi didn’t mention Gulko as an exception in his Chess Life article, but I wouldn’t be surprised. He may have forgotten to mention him.
>>You really should make an mp3 from that tape!>>
I’m in the process of dumping old tapes to CD. I saw that one in the box last night. I think it cost $5 way back when. I think I’ll convert it tonight. Other tapes that old are all working.
>>One would have thought that at 70, Spassky would have little to lose by talking about it. Indeed I would love to hear Spassky talk about the Fischer match and annotate those games. How can we get the ‘lazy Russian Bear’ off his couch and write a ‘Chess is my Life’? Perhaps Susan can interview him!
>>
That would be nice. Spassky has talked very little. There was an interview with him just before the Korchnoi match, where he says his nerves were shot against Fischer, and thought he could have steadied them if he’d resigned Game 3 and walked out the minute Fischer yelled at Schmid to shut up, during the argument they had in the opening. With 20/20 hindsight, that might have been interesting.
>>In the original edition of ‘Chess is my Life’ [and I understand the story is not different in the later edition, though I have not seen this], Korchnoi just describes this match as a difficult one that went wrong. However, in a later book, Karpov says Korchnoi had to throw this match because the Soviets decided that they preferred Petrosian to face Fischer.
>>
I’ve never heard Korchnoi say that. Karpov said it in Karpov on Karpov. This book came out around 1990, when it was easier to speak out about such things, but if it happened, I don’t know how Karpov knows about it.
Karpov says the reason they picked Petrosian is that he believed in himself and his chances, while Korchnoi threw his hands up and said nobody could beat Fischer. That sounds reasonable, but it’s hard to know if it really happened or not, since Karpov doesn’t cite his sources. Before 1972, Petrosian was always a little better than Korchnoi, and certainly won that match in “Petrosian Style”. He even gave a draw in a winning position in the last game. If the match was fixed, you’d think they’d give Petrosian a little more convincing victory than that squeaker, but who knows? I hope it’s not true, I wouldn’t want to think that about either one of those two.
I think I’m inclined to believe Korchnoi, but I just don’t really know. So is Karpov lying, or what??
Thanks again.
Gulko is mentioned as one who didn’t sign the letter on
http://wcn.tentonhammer.com/print.php?sid=1129
(an Evans on Chess article). I’m not sure Evans is always 100% accurate, but I know I read it somewhere else in the past, too.
Interesting that Botvinnik didn’t sign!
“Korchnoi just described this match as ‘a difficult one that went wrong'”
Not those exact words – that was my summary. He said something to the effect that he was trying hard in the openings, but they were just not working out for him. I do clearly remember that he said not a word (or give any indication whatsoever) about the match being thrown. You certainly think he would have if it had been! (the book came out about 1977, I think.)
It would be interesting to know if he responded to Karpov’s claim in the new edition released recently. But I can’t afford to buy everything!
I’m a little surprised that the Soviets would have thought Petrosian a better bet to beat Fischer in view of Fischer’s 3-1 beating of him in USSR vs World in 1970.
But I also think that Korchnoi, as well as being a bit better bet to win, would also have been more likely to lose more heavily. Perhaps the Soviets were more scared of a 7-0 whitewash!
Regards.
Boris Spassky is, next to my chess teacher, my chess hero. So much so that, to honor him, I took his name as my ICC handle (Spaskey69). (I deliberately mispelled it because I will never play like him, but I wanted to evoke his name as an inspiration.)
Spassky has played some of the most beautiful games of chess I’ve ever seen. Who can forget Spassky-Bronstein 1960, or Larsen-Spassky 1970?
I really wish that Boris had not said anything anti-Semitic, or signed that kind of letter. That does not become his legacy of decency.
This is not however the time or place for such reflections. I very much hope that Boris does not join the ranks of that very great chessplayer who succumbed to the darkest forces within the human spirit.
So: Happy Birthday, Mr. Spassky, from those who love and admire you so much! May you have many more, and may you take up your pen to share your brilliant, shining story.
Hi friends,
I am writing from Brazil!
Please, Susan and fellows, do you have the chess game of 1947 when spassky defeated Botvinnik in a simultaneous situation?! Spassky was only ten years old!!
If you have the game please send it to me at celsochini@gmail.com
Best Regards,
Abraço a todos!!
Celso Chini
celsochini@gmail.com