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Leisure
An
Evening with Boris Spassky | Spassky-Bronstein
USSR Championship 1960 King's Gambit
Grandmaster
Larry Evans Lecture | Fischer-Evans
Game
Boris
Spassky Events
Simultaneous
Exhibition | Book Signing
Event | Chess Lecture
Review
of Clash of the Titans BBC Documentary
Clash
of the Titans
On Sunday the final day of the tournament, the concluding event
was a special showing of a BBC documentary called "Clash
of the Titans". The film had not been previously shown
in the United States. It had some very unique footage of the 1972
World Championship match preparation and interviews of various parties
that were involved with that event. In particular the film showed:
• The height of the 'Cold War' was the pretext
of the entire event.
• Marx and Lenin were good chess players and the USSR used
state subsidies to promote the game to show the superiority of their
economic system over capitalism. Chess was 'gymnastics of
the mind' and needed to be retained as the domain of the
Soviet system. Russian chess players were heroes in their homeland.
• Robert Byrne discussed how previous instances of collusion
and cheating by the Russians didn't help relieve the tensions of
having to play against Fischer.
• The film showed the pre-match preparation each player undertook
including showing some footage of Bobby Fischer stretching and exercising
with Jack Lalane on his television, while Boris had footage showing
off his tennis playing ability.
• Before the match Bobby was staying at Dr.Saidy's house in
New York worried about various things dealing with the match. When
Henry Kissinger called and asked Bobby to play the match his demeanor changed completely and he became resolute
almost as if going off to war.
• The match started 10 days late after the opening ceremony
was cancelled and Fischer finally showed up.
• The Russian contingent wanted Spassky to pull out
of the match but he insisted on staying and playing.
• After Fischer forfeited game 2 of the match,
the US contingent was sure that Fischer would want to leave and
return to the US. Robert Byrne related that to prevent that from
happening Father William Lombardy went out to Fischer's car and
ripped out the starter so there would be no way to get to the airport.
Later when Fischer and Lombardy were in the car trying to leave
and it wouldn't start (Byrne said "of course Fischer
didn't know anything about cars") Lombardy said "well
I guess we'll have to stay and continue the match".
• Prior to the 3rd game, Spassky protested the conditions
of playing in the back room but consented to play anyway. It was
at that point that Boris felt he lost the match psychologically.
Each game Fischer continued to get stronger and Boris was not able
to hold onto his advantage. His admiration for Fischer's
play was demonstrated after game 6 when he too stood on stage and
applauded Fischer's effort. Later Fischer told Larry Evans
he couldn't believe that Spassky did that.
• There was a comical review of the debate whether special
effects or forces were happening during the match since Spassky
was playing at such a level below his capabilities. This
led to the inspection of the tournament site and the chairs that
each of the players were using. Boris said this was just some protecting
tactics that were used by the Russians to counter some of the outrageous
demands that were coming from the Fischer camp during the match.
• Finally the match concluded, which almost seemed a relief
to Boris that the tremendous responsibility of carrying the title
was not his to bear. The closing event highlight was when
Bobby came over to Boris and started analyzing their game on a pocket
set. He realized then that chess was Fischer's entire perspective
on life.
After the film was shown, Boris and Larry Evans answered questions
from the viewers. See picture of the audience participating in the
lecture.
• When asked if he was prepared for Fischer playing something
other than e4 he said yes that he was. His opening
preparation was superior to Fischer's except he couldn't capitalize
on the middlegame positions that arose
.
• When asked why he was able to beat Petrosian
in the second match for the championship in 1969 and not 1966, he
said he was more cavalier about the game in 1966 and that he was
just living and enjoying the moment. But after losing he realized
he would only have so many chances to attain the crown and took
the rematch much more seriously.
• When asked about the state of the current chess
championships, Boris said first that there is no real champion
and he doesn't equate today's play with the true champions of the
past. He feels that one needs to use computers
but that you should be the master of the technology not the other
way around.
• When asked about his opinion of Garry Kasparov's
play, Boris said Garry is only good in positions where
he is leading the game and has the initiative and is able to display
his creativity. He is not good in defending difficult positions.
• On his relationship with Anatoly Karpov,
Boris said it has vastly improved and that Anatoly and he are very
close. He felt it was possibly the fact that their best days of
chess are over and that they are both doing similar things about
promoting chess around the world.
Boris also
said he pleaded with Karpov to make sure there was a match in 1975.He
felt for the good of the game that chess needed the continuity in
the World Championship cycle and he felt if a match had
taken place that Fischer would have won because Karpov did not have
the experience necessary to compete at that level. Since
Karpov was a loyal communist party member, and Boris never was,
Karpov took the party line which was that the Soviets wanted the
title back very seriously and therefore could not agree to all the
terms that Fischer wanted for the match. What a loss to chess history
that was.
• Boris said he enjoyed the return match in 1992 as much as
the first match in 1972. It is ironic that the men that
represented their country in 1972 are now both living in exile.
• With that Boris bid us all well and told us to save our
energy to 'fight' in the last round of the tournament.
What can be said about having spent 5 days with an ex-World Chess
Champion? One conclusion is inescapable. The world of chess is truly
fortunate that Boris Spassky is the person he is. As Robert Byrne
said in the film Clash of the Titans, "he is truly
a classic gentleman". The fact that Fischer had Boris
as an opponent in his matches, left all of us in the chess community
richer because of the many memories, games and historic events that
add to the legacy of the game. As one person in the audience commented
to Boris during the discussion, "Thirty-two years ago
you and your play inspired me to take up the game of chess which
has since provided me with years of enjoyment. For that I say thank
you". That immediately generated a heartfelt round
of applause from the captivated audience. Shown below is Boris signing
books at the dinner in his honor.
Answers to Simul Position:
1.Bxf4 dxe5 2.g3!
Qd8 back home to protect against Nxc7+ 3.Bxe5 Nc6
protecting the loose Bishop on b4 4.Bf6 Qd7 5.Bxh8 Ng8
back home to protect against Nf6 6.Rxf7!! Qxf7 7.Nf6+ Qxf6
8.Bxf6 Nxf6 and because Black’s pieces are all congested,
White went on to win.
The author is the President of Chess-Now Ltd. a training and
development company that teaches chess to build skills that we use
in our complex daily lives. More information and a complete description
of available programs are located on the company website at www.chess-now.com.
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