Could Spassky have beaten Fischer?

I feel like I have spotted a fischer fanboy.

Agreed. A long time after the match in an interview, Spassky says that made a psychological mistake in continuing the game.

Agreed.

I have a feeling that testuoshima has irritated every single one of us. He's such a fischer fanboy who can't even give an ounce of respect to Spassky or even Kasparov.

I know, right?

Nice fantasy.

So true.

It was shear luck Euwe was able to catch Fischer at the Rekjavik Airport before Bobby departed. One in a thousand, really. That was how close Fischer was to becoming an obscure footnote.

Spassky admired Fischer's play for a long time and when he finally got the chance to play a match against him, the last thing he wanted was for it to be called off, regardless of whether or not his title would be secured.  In fact, after Fischer forfeited match 2 Spassky wanted to replay the match anyway after which the Soviet chain of command told him, presumably, "Not a chance buddy, the US must lose this match."  Spassky felt guilty about having a free win for the rest of the game and it's been speculated that this is why he was playing a fraction of his best.  Something similar happened in the Korchnoi - Spassky match.  Before the match they were great friends but during the match there was an interpersonal conflict between the two that had a profound effect on Spassky's game.  It's a shame that Spassky let things like this get to him, but he did.

But anyway, Fischer was so far ahead of everyone else that I doubt even without any kind of psychological edge Spassky had a chance.  I'm sure he would have put up a better fight without all the bullshit that occurred though.

anyone would have struggled to maintain confidence after Fischer destroyed Taimanov/Larsen/Petrosian the way he did.

Spassky and Petrosian were pretty much equal over their careers...then Fischer destroyed Petrosian. That had to get into Spasskys head

the cold war pressure surely worked against Spassky, who never seemed like too much of a commie flagwaver

then there was the matter of a 100+ elo pt difference

It's ridiculous to suggest Spassky had no chance. He defeated the near unbeatable Iron Tigran for the title. Not to mention his having never lost to Fischer prior to that match. Bobby's antics played a large part in his loss i think. In retrospect he had every right to refuse to give in to playing in that back room. That being said, I do believe that Fischer was a greater player.

Had Spassky just gone home with the title, we would probably be calling Fischer the greatest player never to have won the title today.

Because he would undoubtedly have done something self destructive in the next candidates cycle.

Couldn't it be that Spassky had been bribed or something to play that passive against Fischer ? May be that was why he passed to French citizenship afterwards?

A world champ of that calibre (see his games against Tal) and all-round aggressive style, does not attempt a single attacking move on games 3, 5 and 6 ??

If you think about the exaggerated importance that had been put on the match, about how cooperative Spassky was against Fischer's team, I still think it is of high probability that he was somehow persuaded to play "light" against Fischer.

Remember that Spassky was a tscharist ( as he explains later) and was against Soviet regime himself, so he was no heavy patriot by then.

Erratic behavior by Fischer before the match in Iceland could have helped to provide the necessary time for negotiations between the mentors and former champ.

What also makes me think like this is Fischer literally escaped from defending his crown against Karpov.

Although I much like Fischer's poetic, simple style of play, I also think there is still this possibility, as I know no world class top level player dropping that much in strength and changing his style completely within just 3 years as Spassky had been.

Imagine had Fischer played the crown match against Tal or Botvinnik ( or even Petrossian), would the quality of games be that low ?