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Spassky - Fischer 1972 WCH Game 19 - B05 - Alekhine's Defense

Spassky - Fischer 1972 WCH Game 19 - B05 - Alekhine's Defense

NimzoRoy
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After winning with Alekhine's Defense in Game 13 Fischer boldly plays it again, but this time employs the Modern Variation instead of Korchnoi's Variation as in Game 13. This time Spassky is apparently prepared because after 15 moves he used one minute to Fischer's 40, but four moves later he gives away picks a second-rate move that allows Fischer's first-rate defense to equalize in a fascinating and complex endgame.  The dense annotations, compiled from several sources, are easier to read if you download the pgn file and paste it into your own chess program - at least I find them much less confusing to follow when they are shown in a much larger "box" than chess.com provides for the moves and sidelines.

Halldor Petursson of Iceland was a famous caricature artist who drew 18 cartoons about the match for a local newspaper. You can see them all in much better resolution without anything being clipped off here: http://www.dos.is/chess/3_halldor_postcards.html

Left to Right (background) Spassky's seconds: GMs Krogius, Geller and Nei; Chief Arbiter GM Schmid, (unidentified), Fischer's second GM Wm Lombardy (also Father Lombardy until 1978) and his atty Fred Kramer