This Week's ChessVideos Show: Tal-Spassky, Glenrothes 1988

It's a game I didn't even know existed until earlier today, and although this 1988 battle between two legends and former world champions was only a blitz game, it's still absolutely worth watching.

Boris Spassky, in a must-win situation with the black pieces, essayed the Pirc Defense. It's not a bad choice in general, though it is rather provocative against a player like Mikhail Tal. (In fact, I know of one reasonably decent player* who had been successful with the related Modern Defense, managing to beat even titled players in tournament games with it. He thought it would be a smart idea to use against Tal in a simul...and got obliterated.) Tal used the Austrian Attack, arguably the most principled reply, and they followed an earlier game of Spassky's until the latter varied with a logical and ambitious new move.

Logical, but mistaken. With some fine prophylactic moves Tal prevented Spassky from implementing his plan, and then Tal turned his attention to what he did best: attacking the enemy king. While he did miss some little improvements along the way, it was an impressive performance - especially for a blitz game - and it's an instructive game for anyone who plays that line with either side.

So have a look here for all the details. The show is free, as always (free registration required), and will be available on-demand for the next month or so.

* That would be me.

Lombardy on the 1972 Fischer-Spassky Match

I'm not sure where this 1974 article by GM William Lombardy was originally published, but it's a good read and offers some insight and info on the 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky that was at least new to me.

HT: Brian Karen

This Week's ChessVideos Show: Spassky-Fischer and the Blockade

Last week's show was a Nimzo-Indian that saw White's creative attacking play break through Black's attempts at a blockade; this time, the Nimzo-Indian blockade holds firm. It's game five of the 1972 Spassky-Fischer match and this game, won by Fischer, tied it up at 2.5-2.5. The game was cut short by a blunder, but even before that moment Fischer's deep strategy had proven effective, and at best White would have had to grovel for a draw.

The game is a nice complement to last week's show, and for those of you unfamiliar with the game and the blockading ideas therein, it will be a useful brick in the edifice of your chess knowledge. The show is here and it's free (free registration required if you're new to the site), and will be available on-demand for the next month or so.

Spassky On The Mend

At least that's what seems to be the moral of this story, after running it through an online translation program.

HT: Stephen Dunning

Spassky Apparently Doing Better

From an email from Ken Regan:

Dear Dennis,

Here's a Google Translate of the item linked in Mig's current item:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsport.rian.ru%2Fsport%2F20100928%2F280078579.html

Neat that links work that way.  The original Russian link is http://sport.rian.ru/sport/20100928/280078579.html

Thanks for sending that along, and let's hope that Boris Spassky can make a full recovery.

Boris Spassky in Critical Condition

See this page on ChessVibes for further details. It looks like a very bad year for chess greats is on the verge of becoming the worst year ever.

The Battle of World Champions: Karpov vs. Spassky on TV in 1982

In 1982, Hamburg TV ran a very strong tournament in two stages. In the first stage there were two double round-robin quads. In one, Anatoly Karpov won with 4.5/6, a point ahead of John Nunn; Slim Bouaziz and Yasser Seirawan tied for last with two points apiece. In the other, Boris Spassky won with an enormous 5.5/6 score, ahead of Jan Timman (3), Eric Lobron (2) and Eugenio Torre (1.5).

In the final match, Karpov played Spassky. I won't tell you what happened, if you want to see the drama for yourselves, but after you watch the videos, click here - I give all the games from that match.

For those of you who prefer the drama, you can watch the Hamburg presentation of the two 1-hour games between Karpov and Spassky - complete with voice-over commentary by the players themselves. The links from one to the other aren't so clear, so I'll provide them all here.

Game 1, Part 1

Game 1, Part 2

Game 1, Part 3

Game 2, Part 1

Game 2, Part 2

Game 3, Part 3

And remember to check out the replayable boards on here when you're done watching!

(HT: Ben Vinyard)

Boris Spassky Commentating at Gibtel

For more than three hours at that. Have a look here - he starts to comment at around 3:33:35. (For those of you who are fairly new to chess, Boris Spassky was the original post-war prodigy, making the Candidates as a teenager and setting the record for the youngest GM until Fischer broke it. He was also the world champion from 1969 to 1972. In case you think those were the dark ages, he has an even score against Kasparov, and that's not because he beat Garry in simuls when the latter was in short pants.)

The Latest Korchnoi-Spassky Match is Underway

These two great old rivals, 78-year-old Viktor Korchnoi and 72-year-old former World Champion Boris Spassky, are playing what is at least the fourth match of their illustrious rivalry. The first two were the most important: a Candidates Final won by Spassky in 1968 and another Candidates Final won by Korchnoi in 1977. In 1999 they played a surprisingly bloodthirsty rapid match (won by Korchnoi with a +4 -2 =4 score), and now they're at it again.

It's an eight game match, and you can find more information, along with the games (downloadable in PGN or available on a replayable board) here. Korchnoi won game 1.