All black & white photos from the Icelandic Chess Federation Skáksamband Íslands.
After ten games the score was now 6½-3½ for Fischer. The champion had not won since the first game, and of the last eight points had only scored 1½ points – from three draws. In Garry Kasparov On My Great Predecessors, Part 4 the 13th World Champion writes:
"It is interesting that no one, in my opinion, has drawn attention to a staggering coincidence: at that point the match score was 6½-3½ – if Fischer's zero for his default in the second game is discarded, we have the final result of his match with Petrosian! Thus if it had been the best of 12 games, as in the Candidates matches, Spassky would already have been on his way home ...
However, from this moment in the match the play took an even course. The champion calmed down and began fighting with the desperation of the doomed: he sensationally crushed his opponent in the 11th game (the only occasion where Fischer risked repeating a variation that had occurred earlier: the 7th game was also a Sicilian with ...Qxb2) and then he confidendy gained a draw in the 12th."
In the magazine New in Chess vol 6/2012, pp.60-68, GM Lubomir Kavalek, who was in Reykjavik for the Match of the Century, both as a journalist and, in the second half, as one of Fischer’s seconds, wrote:
"The [eleventh] game brought back memories of my first game against Fischer from the 1967 Sousse Interzonal, which he famously left after he was in the lead. He allowed his opposition only three draws, winning seven games. We played the Poisoned Pawn variation of the Sicilian Najdorf to which, faced by Fischer’s novelty, I added a poisoned knight. It started a new trend and the knight has been sacrificed in many different ways ever since. Bobby grabbed the horse with gusto, but made one single slip and had to find a difficult escape from the slippery slope to make a draw. ‘You added a colossal brick to the opening theory’, Larsen commented on the game.
But I also saw two different sides of Fischer. During the game Bobby requested more lights and eventually we moved to a different table, closer to the window. It felt like we were playing in a TV studio, but it was not enough for him. Two more lamps were brought in, and it was like playing chess on the beach in the midday sun."
In the October 1972 issue of Chess Life & Review, which today has become the official magazine of the US Chess Federation Chess Life, GM Robert Byrne reporting from Reykjavik after game ten, wrote:
Now three points down, Boris fought back at once, again taking on the "poisoned pawn" variation of the Najdorf Sicilian, with which he had obtained a lost position in round 7, drawing only through Fischers careless endgame play. This time he improved by 10 BxN and 11 B-K2, leading to a far more preferable system than the 10 B-Q3 of game 7. But it was his spectacular 14 N-NI that made the game. Gligoric, who decked it out with seven exclamation points (His annotations in the match bulletins give the move only two.—Ed.], came running into the press room declaring "It turns the entire 'poisoned pawn' variation upside down. Fantastic! There's nothing to do about it." Nevertheless, the dust hasn't settled on it yet. Bent Larsen and Fridrik Olafsson are not convinced that it deserved the success it achieved.
Bobby went wildly astray against it, however, sacrificing a pawn, the acceptance of which gave Spassky an overwhelming position immediately. Realizing that there was no long-range way to fix up his game, Fischer swung into a desperate, unsound attack which Boris brushed off effortlessly, winning a Queen for a minor piece and making short shrift of what remained of Fischer's position.
Byrne: "Before this game, Boris had gone nine straight rounds without taking a single point over the board. Will this win build up his morale so that he can make a serious bid to get back into the match? We'll soon know."
In the November 1972 issue of Chess Life & Review, p.683, GM Robert Byrne wrote:
Rebounding from the thumping defeat his poisoned-pawn Najdorf suffered at Spassky's hands in the 11th game, Fischer made a stubborn attempt to recover the point in the 12th. Once again his 1 P-QB4 developed into a Queen's Gambit Declined as in the 6th encounter, but Spassky, mindful of the catastrophe his Tartakower Variation met with, diverted at the 7th move into the Old Orthodox Defense, hardly seen since Capablanca and Stahlberg fought over its fine points more than 40 years ago.
Although Bobby obtained a small advantage in the early middle game he found no way to press it, even with the two Bishops. After omitting the Strong 25 Q-K2, he began to get into difficulties, compounded by a mistake on move 35. However, Boris overlooked a powerful chance to play for a win, replying routinely to maintain an approximately level position. Shortly after adjournment Boris's exact defense destroyed whatever opportunities there might have been to make any progress and the game could have been agreed a draw. Nevertheless, Fischer obstinately continued until he lost a pawn in a dead drawn position with Bishops of opposite colors. That finally convinced him the game really was a draw.
In the following commentary, as in his game summaries above, we retain the descriptive notation that Byrne (like everyone in the English world at the time) was wont to use. It is good practice to follow his remarks in this archaic form.
On August 9th 1972, exactly 45 years ago, the 12th game adjournament ended with a draw. The score has now narrowed to 7.0-5.0 for Fischer. Spassky appears to be fighting back and the match has turned more exciting.
Here are the times for the two games, as recorded by Lawrence Stevens, who visited the match in Reykjavik and jotted them down from the video screens:
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Game 11, August 6th, 1972 Spassky Fischer (ar) indicates a player's arrival At the close of the game, people were applauding Spassky, but he gestured in a way that he wished the applause to be reduced. As we were about to leave the hall, a young chess prodigy, staring at the final position on the projection screen, exclamed, “That was sick!”, probably thinking of the loss of the queen and the number of moves made afterward before resigning. The friend I was with laughed, and observed, “Everyone’s a critic!” This was Bobby’s first and only loss with the Poison Pawn variation of the Najdorf. One time, I reviewed Fischer’s adventures with the Sicilian Defense by looking at his chronological results. His point percentage against 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 jumped up sharply when he switched to 7...Qb6, starting with his game against Parma at Bled, 1961. |
Game 12, August 8-9, 1972 Fischer Spassky |
Bobby Fischer in Iceland – 45 years ago (1)
In the final week of June 1972 the chess world was in turmoil. The match between World Champion Boris Spassky and his challenger Bobby Fischer was scheduled to begin, in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, on July 1st. But there was no sign of Fischer. The opening ceremony took place without him, and the first game, scheduled for July 2nd, was postponed. Then finally, in the early hours of July 4th, Fischer arrived. Frederic Friedel narrates.
Bobby Fischer in Iceland – 45 years ago (2)
The legendary Match of the Century between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer was staged in the Laugardalshöllin in Reykjavik. This is Iceland’s largest sporting arena, seating 5,500, but also the site for concerts – Led Zeppelin, Leonard Cohen and David Bowie all played there. 45 years after the Spassky-Fischer spectacle Frederic Friedel visited Laugardalshöllin and discovered some treasures there.
Bobby Fischer in Iceland – 45 years ago (3)
On July 11, 1992 the legendary Match of the Century between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer finally began. Fischer arrived late, due to heavy traffic. To everybody's surprise he played a Nimzo instead of his normal Gruenfeld or King's Indian. The game developed along uninspired lines and most experts were predicting a draw. And then, on move twenty-nine, Fischer engaged in one of the most dangerous gambles of his career. "One move, and we hit every front page in the world!" said a blissful organiser.
Bobby Fischer in Iceland – 45 years ago (4)
7/16/2017 – The challenger, tormented by the cameras installed in the playing hall, traumatically lost the first game of his match against World Champion Boris Spassky. He continued his vigorous protest, and when his demands were not met Fischer did not turn up for game two. He was forfeited and the score was 0-2. Bobby booked a flight back to New York, but practically at the very last moment decided to play game three – in an isolated ping-pong room!
Bobby Fischer in Iceland – 45 years ago (5)
7/21/2017 – After three games in the Match of the Century the score was 2:1 for the reigning World Champion. In game four Spassky played a well-prepared Sicilian and obtained a raging attack. Fischer defended tenaciously and the game was drawn. Then came a key game, about which the 1972 US Champion and New York Times and Chess Life correspondent GM Robert Byrne filed reports. In Reykjavik chess fan Lawrence Stevens from California did something extraordinary: he manually recorded the times both players had spent on each move.
Bobby Fischer in Iceland – 45 years ago (6)
7/26/2017 – In the sixth installment of our series we offer readers a glimpse of what had been happening behind the scenes of “The Match of The Century”, especially in the Russian camp. A tense Boris Spassky, cajoled by seconds Efim Geller and Nikolai Krogius, nevertheless failed to perform to the dismay of his friends and admirers. It’s also the story of a gamble that could have hurtled Bobby down the precipice in that fateful Game 6 of the match. A cautionary tale and object lesson for aspiring players.
Bobby Fischer in Iceland – 45 years ago (7)
8/4/2017 – After the first two traumatic games World Champion Boris Spassky was leading 2-0 in the Match of the Century. But then Fischer started to play and struck back: in the next eight games he scored 6½ points, chalking up a 6.5-3.5 lead. Games 8, 9 and 10 were quite spectacular, and are the subject of today's report. Younger players will also learn about "adjournments" and how exactly "sealed moves" were handled. Some were born after these practices were abandoned.
