Spassky's Accelerated Dragon and Birthday

Boris Spassky was born in Leningrad, which once again is St. Petersburg, January 30, 1937. He won the Soviet Championship four times from 1956 to 1973. He was a candidate for the world championship seven times from 1956 to 1985. He defeated Keres, Geller, and Tal in matches in his path to his first challenge to Petrosian, the world champion. Petrosian won their match in 1966 by one point, 12.5-11.5. Spassky defeated Geller, Larsen, and Korchnoi in candidates matches to again meet Petrosian. Spassky won in 1969 with a score of 12.5-10.5. As the champion, Spassky was not a candidate in the next cycle, which brought Fischer to the fore. In 1972, Fischer defeated Spassky 12.5-8.5. Spassky's opponent in this game was Semyon Furman (1920-1978). Furman was a factory worker in Leningrad and could not devote himself to chess enough to become a grandmaster until 1966. He did win tournaments and defeat top players, but became better known as a trainer and assistant to Bronstein, Botvinnik, Korchnoi, Geller, Karpov, and the Soviet teams.

The opening is an Accelerated Dragon, which features Black playing Nc6 before d6. This allows Black the possibility to play d6 later or to play d5, saving a tempo compared to playing d6 and then d5. This opening is coded B34-39. However, the game is often started outside of the Sicilian move order with 1.c4, 1.Nf3, or other move. For that reason, the same positions are found in databases under other codes. In addition, transpositions to the Dragon (B70-79) are possible.