More than half a century later, the 1972 Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spassky series in Reykjavik remains the most famous of all world championships Contest. It sparked a global chess craze, especially in the United Kingdom, which within a short time became the second largest chess nation after the Soviet Union.
The annual Reykjavik Open kicked off at the Harpa Conference Center in the city center on Friday, with 420 players taking part, ranging from elite masters to ordinary amateurs, nearly a tenth of whom are British. Free activities on race morning include a visit to Fisher’s grave. 60 years have passed since the first Reykjavik Open was won by Mikhail Tal in 1964. Tarr joins Spassky as Fischer’s greatest contemporary rival, with an impressive overall score of 12.5/13.
Reykjavik’s top seed in 2024 is Bogdan-Daniel Deak, who has been in fine form this week, with the Romanian winning the title on Tuesday. The second seed is Vasily Ivanchuk of Ukraine. The England squad, led by 29-year-old national team general manager Daniel Fernandez at No. 9 and including 15-year-old Shreyas Royal, is aiming for his third and Last GM spec; 14-year-old Sohum Lohia is looking for the IM title, and 9-year-old prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan is rated 2088, just for A dozen points qualify her as a female master of faith, the next step on her long road to the top internationally.
Questions remain about the events of July 1972, when the game came close to collapse twice early on. First, Fisher remained in New York on the opening day of the competition and did not fly to Reykjavik until British investment banker Jim Slater doubled the prize to $250,000; then, he lost first place due to a Bxh2 error. inning, and defaulted on the second inning due to a TV camera controversy, the Americans prepared to fly home.
Fisher’s prevarication violated the rules of the game, and Spassky resisted pressure from Moscow and returned home. In a 2016 interview filled with little-known offbeat anecdotes, he said the decision was a mistake and claimed that one of his team members, Ivo Ney (later linked to The New York Times’ Robert Byrne co-published a book about the game) betrayed him.
The general conclusion is that the third game was the turning point in the game, when Fisher was persuaded to play in a small back room away from the cameras and earn his first ever victory over Spassky. However, this left Spassky still effectively two points ahead as he retained the title in the event of a draw, with game four clearly a success for him as Black moved from Fisher favorite The Bc4 system pulled out the fangs when he prepared a formation for Sicily that never appeared in the game.
It can be said that the real turning point was the fifth game, when the 27 moves were the shortest in the game. White Nimzo – India 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4, Spassky avoids Leningrad 4 Bg5 which he never lost, instead opting for a blocked pawn chain, Fisher in Classic Renowned in the open game, Nimzowicz’s subtle positioning style was used very cleverly in moves 11, 16 and 20. Spassky made an error in move 27 that seemed to presage a long ordeal, triggering a disastrous game-deciding game in which he scored just one point in six innings.
Spassky, 87, survived despite suffering two strokes. As shown in the interview above, despite the injury to his left side, he remained awake and alert. His son, also named Boris, spoke about his father in an interview at the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis last year, focusing on Spassky’s later life, when he immigrated to France for decades before returning to Moscow in 2012 .
Fisher v Spassky brought huge attention to chess, and together with Slater’s awards to the top five British Grandmasters, sparked a Golden Age of British chess. The number of GMs increases from zero to dozens. At the 1984, 1986 and 1988 Olympics, England finished behind the Soviet Union in silver medals.
How is this achieved? These young talents mainly come from grammar schools and public day schools, with St Paul’s College producing four general managers and Bolton Wanderers producing two general managers. Frequent weekend open events feature hundreds of entrants, low entry fees, high prize money and a national grand prix. Clubs like Centymca and Richmond played a role. Dozens of teenagers are invited to compete in simulated tournaments against star general managers such as Spassky, Karpov and Kasparov, or receive financial support to attend Lloyds Bank, Hastings and other major events.
Coming close to winning gold at the 1986 Dubai Olympics ahead of the Soviet team led by Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. With 4 rounds of 13 games left, England had 8 wins and 8 losses, and the Soviet team was tied 2-2 with a two-point lead over the Soviet Union. The Guardian even prepared an editorial praising England’s victory. Then there was an ugly episode, when England’s Spanish opponents seemed to get advice from their Soviet coach during the game, and England suffered a disastrous defeat. In the end, the Soviets narrowly won the gold medal by just half a game point.
The British chess boom began when Nigel Short beat then world number two Anatoly Karpov 6-4 in the semi-finals of the 1992 Candidates Tournament. The last hurrah has arrived. They were tied 3.5-3.5 before Short took control in the eighth.
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In the 1993 World Championship against Kasparov, Short missed some good opportunities with white, but black was eliminated. His misfortune was that he was born at the same time as Kasparov, not at a different time. The level he showed against Karpov was enough to earn him a chance against many other world champions from the Soviet era – Mikhail Botvinnik, Tigran Petrosyan, Vasily Smyslov or Spassky.
Indeed, even with significant support from government funding, the chances of British chess entering a new golden age are slim, and had government funding emerged in the 1970s and 1980s the situation might have been different. The 2020s may well be the era of India, Uzbekistan and the United States, with world number two Fabiano Caruana the favorite to play in next month’s Toronto Candidates event and currently on the 25th this week Leading the pack in the $10,000 America’s Cup race.
The 11-minute chess movie “The War is Over!” “On March 10, the film won the Best Animated Short Film Award at the Oscars. The game it is based on was played at Southsea 1950, when 16-year-old 10-time British champion Jonathan Penrose defeated GM Efim Bogolyubov and Saveli Tata Kovill.
3911: 1…Rg5! (Threat 2…Rh5+! 3 Kxh5 Qg5 teammates) 2 Kh3 Rh5+ 3 Rh4 Rxh4+ 4 Kxh4 h5! 5 Rg2 Qxg2 6 Kxh5 Qg5 match.
3911 (1): 1BD8! Ke3 2 c7 Kd2 3 c8N! Ke3 4 Nd6! cooperates with 4…Kd2 5 Nc4 or 4…exd6 5 Bxg5.
