Boris Spassky

This article is an extract from the chess website bestofchess.com.... you can read the full article by clicking on the link below. Boris Spassky was a Russian citizen who was formerly of French origin. He was crowned the 10th World Champion of chess and reigned Supreme from 1969 all the way to 1972.  Besides being one of the best chess players in the world, he is also said to be the player who lived longer than most of the champions. He too took a journey of self realization before rising to be a chess king and accumulated his fair share of accolades along the way.

He was born in one of the cities in Russia that bread Chess Champions, Leningrad City. He stumbled upon the game of chess in a rather dramatic way; he was five years old and escaping the war (World War II) with his family on a train. To pass time, he used to play chess in the train and this is where his interest to play chess grew. Vladimir Zak who was a renowned master of chess and a remarkable trainer noticed the interest in the boy and decided to be his own personal coach. From Vladimir, he learnt all he could about the game and b the age of 10, he was already practicing and playing in mini tournaments that he achieve a Category rank in chess while at the age of 10 and later on achieved a Master Rank (Candidate) at the age of eleven.

When he reached the age of sixteen, he made his first grand entrance to International Chess in 1953. His first major game was in Bucharest where he tied with Laszlo Szabo in the 4th position. In the next tournament he played, he beat down Vasily Smylsov who was to contest for World Championship in the following year. FIDE did not fail to recognize his skill and prowess and they immediately awarded him with the International Master of Chess award. This gave him confidence to try out on stronger fields, and his next one was the Soviet Championship of 1955.

In this tournament he managed to scoop third place after finishing with a score of 11 ½ out of 19. The points were high enough to earn him a chance to compete at the Gothenburg Interzonal chess tournament. His accumulation of wins did not stop there; he proceeded to compete at the World Junior Chess Championship that had been pushed to Antwerp in Belgium. He amazed the crowds by finishing with a score of 6 out 7 which qualified him to the finals of the tournament. At the finals, he came out with another astonishing score of 8 out 9 which was a point above what Edmar Mednis scored.

Because of his previous performance at the Gothenberg tournament he was qualified to play the candidates tournament of 1956 which saw him fly to Amsterdam.  After several matches against strong opponents, he scooped the first place and was crowned the Grandmaster of Chess. Boris Spassky was one of the few chess players who were privileged to get the Grandmaster title at such a young age.

With a steady career of wins and taking up prestigious titles, this budding Russian chess player also met his fair share of disappointments along the way.  His first snag came around 1958 when he was not able to secure a place to advance to the interzonal chess tournaments. The sad part was that the Interzonals were a must for any chess guru to advance to the World Championship events. Things were hard at home as well as they were in the chess field; the marriage he had believed in so much was coming to a teary end after three years of extreme struggle to salvage it. it is also the very same year that Boris Spassky fell out with his personal chess trainer Tolush.

To regain back his composure after this hard hit, he first decided to switch trainers from Tolush to Igor Bondarevsky who was more of a strategy employer than his first trainer who was more on attack. He started training on how to employ strategy in all his games, which gave him the reboot he needed to jump start his career. In the next matches he played he came out strong with two wins which were the USSR titles in Baku. He went on to play in Havana where he tied second place with another Russian Polugaevsky.

With his form regaining and him capitalizing more on strategy plays, he finally saw the doors of Lenigrad Chess championship open up in 1963. After the rigorous match he tied the first position with two other contestants who are Stein and Ratmir. This called for a rematch held in 1964 in which Stein finally emerged the winner. Nevertheless this did not deter him, he proceeded to play in Belgrade around 1964 and he won undefeated with a score of 13 out of 17.

Boris Spassky was described as a distinguished chess player who was different on the chess board. His style of playing was dubbed the Universal Style which was characteristic all rounded form of play. The difference between him and other top champions was the ability to attack you from different angles and switch his style when you think you have already learnt his pattern.

It is this Universal Style of his that helped him squash Paul Keres at the 1965 quarterfinals in Riga. In his candidate match against the champion Mikhail Tal he managed to beat him. The wit of his game play was being able to lure the opponent to match more quiet zones where he would steer clear of their tactic strengths. This way he could lure any player into his ‘traps’ and hence win the match.

Despite having gone through a very tough time in which his emotional side was seriously tested, he chose to rise above the ashes and fight for the one thing he was good at; playing chess. His regrouping strategy was fantastic including switching trainers so he can focus more on strategy. He goes down in history as one of the chess players with an all rounded way of thinking. And of course, Boris Spassky is the man who was able to de-crown Petrosian from his World Champion title.