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 link 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. 

Nice Photo of Porat

Source: Chess Review, August 1964, p. 249.

The following photo of Yosef Porat (variant English spellings, as one can see, abound) was brought to our attention by Herbert Halsegger. We note that the same page has the game Gligoric-Porat, where Porat won due to Gligoric's blunder. It happens to us all...

Hayim Segel's Private Olympiad

Source Ha'Tzophe, 4/12/1964, p. 6 of the weekend supplement

A frequent correspondent sends us the story of the "private olympiad" of Hayim Segel (sitting on the right in the photo) a 28-year-old amateur player, who - in the 1964 Tel Aviv olympiad -- somehow managed to get the greats of the chess world to play many friendly games with him. These included Efim Geller (sitting on the left), Boris Spassky (whom he beat 2:1), and many others. 

The whole thing started, according to the report, when Segel - waiting, with others, for Reshevsky whose plane was late -- passed the time playing Darga. He beat him in two blitz games, raising the interest of Unziker. Unziker beat him 3:1 in a blitz match, but praised his play. He thus got to play - apart from those mention above -- also Kotov, Boleslavsky, Gligoric, Ivkov, Najdorf, and many others. He often drew or won, including (in the case of Spassky) in "regular" friendly games (i.e., without clocks). Reshevsky - an orthodox Jew -- was also his guest for a shabbath. 

When asked why he doesn't, in fact, play on the Israeli team - his reply was that, as a yeshiva students studying for the rabbinate, he has no time to play. 

The same correspondent adds that, later in his career, Segel was jailed for "white collar" offences when he served as a senior rabbi in the Israeli rabbinate. He was considered by the other prisoners as an expert in three things: religious law, investment advice, and chess. The paper says, with unnecessary understatement, that the man who bear Spassky 2:1 in a friendly match was "one of the best players" in the prison. 

Source: Ma'ariv, 25/2/1977, p. 56 of the weekend supplement

It is surely Segel who is described, unnamed, as the 'yeshiva student' who 'challanged' the best players in the world to a game in the 1964 olympiad, in a book of essays by a Jewish author whose title I undfortunately forgot (can any reader add the details?). That book gives a partial explanation of Spassky's performance: after starting with 1.a3, which is playable (the Anderssen opening), Spassky continued 2.h3, which 'showed he had something else than chess on his mind' (quoting from memory). Spassky was surprised that his opponent was too strong for what is, in effect, two-move odds. 

In Memorium: Svetozar Gligoric, 1923-2012

The recent death of Svetozar Gligoric, one of the strongest players of the 20th century (he played for his country, Yugoslavia, in 15 Olympiads, with great success) is universally regretted, Gligoric being known not only as a strong player, but also as a gentleman and a decent, friendly person.

For example, he remained friendly with Robert "Bobby" Fischer for decades -- no easy task -- and recorded his first popular music album at the age of 88 (I haven't checked, but it's probably some sort of record). He was also known as a chess teacher for generations of younger players.

This being the case, I am sure Gligoric would not have minded for me to commemorate his death with a game he lost -- because he lost it in an amusing manner, showing all us patzers that, contrary to what we might think, awful one-move blunders occur on all levels of play. What's more, the move he missed -- a queen sacrifice -- is pretty in itself.

The Jewish connection? He blundered against the Israeli chess master, Yosef Porat.

Perhaps the most famous example of high-level blunders is Fischer's 29. ... Bxh2? in the first game of the world championship against Boris Spassky, 1972. Fischer, however, surely saw the reply 30. g3 traps the bishop. His real error was more excusable error of calculation: he mistakenly believed that he could extricate it. In the Gligoric-Poratt game, on the other hand, the error is a real "oops!" one-move slip.

Gligoric-Porat, Amsterdam Interzonal, 1964.  Position after 18. ... Rad8.

Porat played well and has some advantage, although the game should probably be a draw. Gligoric, perhaps wishing to "make a draw" by exchanging queens, played 19. Qf5?? --- only to resign immediately after Porat's pretty 19. ... Qg2! (20. Rxg2 Re1#; 20. Rd1 Rxd1+ 21. Kxd1 Qf1+ 22. Kd2 Qxc4-+).

It happens to them, too.