World Champion Part 1 - Boris Spassky

Boris Spassky was born on the 30th of December 1937 in Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg. He became a GM in 1955, aged 18, which back then, was a feat. Spassky made his international debut at just the age of 16 when he played in a nineteen game long tournament in Bucharest, Romania. He beat Vasily Smyslov, who next year became World Championship Challenger, and also was future World Champion. He finished tied 4th, with 12/19. Here is his game against Smyslov:

Smyslov resigned, for obvious reasons. If Kh8, then Rh4 mate. Spassky beat six undisputed champions, each of them at least twice, although not always when they were reigning. (Vasily Smyslov, Tigran Petrosian, Mikhail Tal, Robert (Bobby) Fischer, Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov).

Title Contender

After 8 terrible years, Spassky decided to switch trainers, from aggressive Alexander Tolush to a more calm and strategic Igor Bondarevsky. This proved a great decision. Spassky went on to win his first two USSR titles, and much more. Famously he advanced to the Amsterdam Interzonal, where he came joint first with Mikhail Tal, Vasily Smyslov and Bent Larsen, all on 17/23.

World Championship Challenger

One of the key reasons to Spassky's success was his versatility. He could play quiet, strategical battles against tactical masters like Mikhail Tal and yet still be able to have quick mating finishes against players like  Efim Geller. Spassky lost a very close World Championship Match in 1966, Moscow, against champion Tigran Petrosian, having lost 4, won 3 and drawn 17. Here is one of his games:

And Petrosian finally resigned, after a long, hard-fought struggle.

Spassky's best games:

Here is a collection of a few of Boris Spassky's best games.

1 Boris Spassky vs David Bronstein Round 16 Leningrad URS 20.02.1960

An absolutely beautiful sacrifice! Black has everything for the taking! The rook, the knight can be captured in two ways and the whole position is unstable

2 Bent Larsen vs Boris Spassky Round 2 Belgrade SRB 31.03.1970

A stunningly quick and sharp game, against the co-founder of the opening! (Nimzo-Larsen Attack).

3. Boris Spassky vs Tigran Vartanovich Petrosian Round 19 Moscow URS 04.06.1969

And here Petrosian resigned, due to his far inferior position. (Complete destruction.) Already Tigran Petrosian captured on g4, a very bold and risky move, but probably necessary. An awesome sacrifice at the end to bag the game.

I hope you found this brief article interesting, and watch out for Part 2, Mikhail Botvinnik!