by 3911A (right): White partners in five moves (by Fritz Giegold, Munchner Presse 1929). Almost one game line…Production: The Guardian
More than half a century later, the Bobby Fischer v Boris Spassky series at Reykjavík 1972 remains one of the most famous world championship matches. He sparked a world chess boom, especially in Britain where a galaxy of talent made England the No 2 chess nation behind the Soviet Union for a short period.
On Friday, the annual Reykjavik Open starts at the Harpa conference center in the heart of the city with a total of 420 players, from elite old masters to ordinary amateurs, almost a tenth of them British. The tour on the free morning of the tournament includes a visit to Fischer’s grave. It is also 60 years since Mikhail Tal won the first Reykjavík Open in 1964, joining Spassky as Fischer’s main contemporary rival, with an impressive total of 12.5/13.
The best seed from Reykjavík for 2024 is Bogdan-Daniel Deac, who is in proven form this week – the Romanian won the title on Tuesday. The No. 2 seed is the Ukrainian Vasyl Ivanchuk. The England contingent is led by the No. 9 national, GM Daniel Fernandez, 29, and includes Shreyas Royal, 15, aimed at his third and final GM norm, Sohum Lohia, 14 and in pursuit of the IM title, plus the 9-year-. a girl of the age of Bodhana Sivanandan, who, with a rating of 2088, needs only a dozen points to qualify as a Women’s Fide Master, her next step on the long road to the international top.
Related: Chess: Danny Gormally tries to thwart junior rivals to win British Rapidplay
Questions remain about the events of July 1972, when the game twice came close to failure at its inception. First, when Fischer stayed in New York on his opening date, and flew to Reykjavík until English investment banker Jim Slater doubled the prize fund to $250,000; and then again when the American prepared to fly home after losing the first game due to a mistake by Bxh2 and missing the second after a dispute over TV cameras.
Fischer’s prevarications broke the rules of the game, and Spassky resisted pressure from Moscow to return home. In a 2016 interview full of little-known jokes, he called that decision a mistake and accused one of his staff, Ivo Nei, who later collaborated with Robert Byrne of the New York Times on a book about the game, of cheating. , it. .
The general verdict is that game three, when Fischer was persuaded to play in a small back room away from the cameras, and won his first ever victory over Spassky, was the turning point of the match. However, that still left Spassky two points ahead, as he retained the title in a tied set, and game four was a clear success for him, as his well-prepared formation as Black pulled the fangs out Fischer’s favorite Bc4 system against. the Sicilians, who did not come up again in the game.
Arguably, the real turning point was game five, at 27 moves the shortest of the game, White in Nimzo-Indian 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 Spassky avoided the Leningrad 4 Bg5, with which he had never he lost, and instead. chose a blocked pawn chain where Fischer, famous in open classical play, adopted a positional style a la Nimzowitsch with fines at moves 11, 16, and 20. It seemed like a long grind until Spassky a one-move mistake in move 27, which ended his disastrous game by deciding a single run in six games.
At age 87, Spassky lives on despite two incapacitating strokes. As the above interview shows, he is still lucid and alert despite damage to his left side. His son, also named Boris, spoke about his father last year in an interview for the World Chess Hall of Fame in St Louis, focusing on Spassky’s later life where he emigrated to France for many years before returning to Moscow in 2012.
The massive publicity for chess inspired by Fischer v Spassky, as well as the Slater prizes for the first five British masters, ushered in a golden age for English chess. The number of GMs went from zero to a few dozen. In the 1984, 1986 and 1988 Olympics, England won silver medals behind the Soviet gold.
How was this achieved? Most of the young talent came from grammar and public day schools, where Paul’s College produced four GMs and Bolton two. There were hundreds of competitors, low entry fees, high prizes, and a national Grand Prix often opening on weekends. Clubs like Centymca and Richmond had their share. Thousands of juniors were invited to play in simulations against star GMs, up to Spassky, Karpov and Kasparov, or received financial assistance to play at Lloyds Bank, Hastings, and other major events.
Dubai 1986 was close to the ultimate achievement of the gold ahead of the USSR team led by Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. With four rounds of 13 remaining, England had won eight games and drawn 2-2 with the Soviets, who led their team by two points. Even The Guardian had prepared an editorial, praising England’s victory. Then came an ugly incident when England’s opponents seemed to receive advice from USSR coaches during the match, England lost the game badly, and in the end the Soviet team only managed to get half a point of the gold.
The final thrust of England’s chess boom came when Nigel Short defeated Anatoly Karpov, No. 2 in the world as it was, 6-4 in the semi-finals of the Candidates in 1992. They were tied at 3.5-3.5 before Short took control in game eight.
In the world championship match in 1993 against Kasparov Short had some good chances as White but was outstanding as Black. His misfortune was that he was born a contemporary of Kasparov rather than at another time. The quality of play he showed against Karpov was enough to give him even chances against many of the other world champions of the Soviet era – Mikhail Botvinnik, Tigran Petrosian, Vassily Smyslov or Spassky.
Realistically, there is every chance of a new golden age of English chess, even with government funding that could have made the difference if it had been available in the 1970s and 1980s. The 2020s are likely to be the era of India, Uzbekistan and the US, where Fabiano Caruana, world number two and next month’s Toronto contender favorite, leads this week’s $250,000 America’s Cup.
The 11-minute chess film “War is Over!” won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short at the Oscars on March 10. The game on which it was based, where a check immediately met a check, was played at Southsea 1950, which was also when 10-time British champion Jonathan Penrose, then 16, made his name through GM a beat Efim Bogolyubov and Savielly Tartakower.
3911: 1…Rg5! (threat 2…Rh5+! 3 Kxh5 Qg5 mate) 2 Kh3 Rh5+ 3 Rh4 Rxh4+ 4 Kxh4 h5! 5 Rg2 Qxg2 6 Kxh5 Qg5 mate.
3911(A): 1 bhd8! Ke3 2 c7 Kd2 3 c8N! To 3 4 nd 6! and 4…Kd2 5 Nc4 mate or 4…exd6 5 Bxg5 mate.
