Boris Spassky, 1937-2025

 

Gligoric (l.) vs. Spassky, 1965. Source: see below.

Boris Spassky was the 10th chess world champion. He was also, simply put, a gentleman. He was always generous and gallant. In particular, his willingness to continue the match with Fischer in 1972 after Fischer lost the first game and forfeited the second was one reason the match was not aborted. Edward Winter had updated his web page about Spassky with a like to an "exceptionally fine" obituary by Leonard Barden, from which this photo is taken. Needless to say, Winter's web page is intended merely as a sampler of the great amount of material in Chess Notes about the 10th world champion. 

Almost all the obituaries note that Spassky was, even more than a chess player, a gentleman: generous to other players, including his opponents. To give only examples from Winter's page noted above, Spassky was very generous towards Fischer, pointed out Keres as a "particularly kind and gentlemanly colleague," and his evaluation of Petrosian was higher than that of some other masters, notably Botvinnik, to say nothing of the chess public which often belittled Petrosian (see also Winter's page about Petrosian for more details.) 

It is a bit odd to speak in this way of a world champion, but it seems that in the popular perception among the rank-and-file players, Tal and Fischer - due to their aggressive and perhaps more accessible style - are seen as superior to the "loser" (to Fischer) Spassky and "weak" Petrosian. As if Spassky's 1972 match was the whole of his career, or Petrosian is to be faulted, as Winter notes, for not playing in Tal's style. But in the case of one of the truly great players, like Spassky, I am certain history will remember him more kindly than the often-jingoistic press and potboilers falsely portrayed him.

Interestingly, it was claimed that Spassky is Jewish - but as the Jewish News Syndicate reports, Spassky himself denied this and was "mystified" how this rumor was circulated. It should be noted that, as the same source notes, Spassky rather foolishly signed an infamous 2005 antisemitic petition, but he distanced himself from it almost immediately.

Spassky was in Israel for the 1964 Olympiad. He was occasionally mentioned in this blog (check "Spassky" in the subject list for details). The chess world lost not just a legendary player, but a gentleman. 

"The First Jewish Chess Olympiad"

Source: here.

The above was the iformal title given to the tournament of Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, given in the above book by Singfried Schoenle, which is reviewed here (in German). While this title may be slightly inaccurate, the motivation for so naming the tournament in 1946 is undestandable. The organizer of the tournament, Nathan Markowsky, was a strong player and the stepfather of the famous surrealist artist Samuel Bak, who due to him survived the Holocaust as a child. This partially explains Bak's fascination with chess in his drawings. We thank Herbert Halsegger for notifying us of this interesting book. 

Yosef Goldschmidt

 

Source: Al Ha'mishmar, 15 October 1971, p. 10

Igor Beridchevsky reminds us in a Facebook post that Yosef Goldschmidt was born on February 13th, 1897, and diced on 31 January, 1973. He was, notes Berdichevsky, one of the "founders of Israeli problemist activity" and that Eliahu Fasher published a book in his honor with over 300 of his problems. In fact, Fasher went further: he dedicated his book The Israeli Problemist to Goldschmidt, as well. 

Fasher adds in The Israeli Problemist (p. 66) that Goldschmidt was the editor of Al Ha'mishmar's chess column since 1953 (above, an example from 1971). Fasher adds some more personal details: Goldschmidt lost an eye in the German army in the First World War, was a Zionist pioneer (came to Palestine in 1920), and for years worked in the Nesher beer facory as a security guard. Fasher also notes Goldschmidt was indeed one of the most active Israeli problemists, with worldwide recognition, winning over 40 prizes for over 250 problems. 

Chess-Themed Unit Symbols

Photo: A. P.

Another rarer example of chess in the IDF is when unit symbols have a chess theme. Here, a certain unit has a "black knight" themed patch. It is, in this photo, worn by a major in the said unit on his uniform. 

Chess pieces, while not common, are not unheard of as part of a unit's insignia. Engineering units sometimes have a chess rook (or at least, an old turret that looks similar to the Staunton chess rook) as an emblem. Another example of a knight in the insignia is that of the US Army Psychological Operations.