On the death of chess world champion Boris Spasski: Happiness found in failure

In 1972 Boris Spasski competed against Bobby Fischer in the so -called century match – and lost. Of the media, especially from the political tours in East and West, this match was highly stylized around the world’s chess championship to the ultimate struggle of the systems. Individuality against collective, USA against the Soviet Union, but primarily: capitalism against communism. The cold war is long over, and the systems that compete with each other are now others. But this exaggeration shapes collective thinking about chess to this day.

The great respect that Boris Spasski is now, after his death, is once again presented from all sides of the chess world, it is also due to the fact that he never left a doubt about being able to do little with this propaganda.

Spasski was an elegant player on the board, and until today he is worshiped in the chess world for its diversity. As the first “truly universal player”, the chess association recognized him on Thursday evening. Spasski was particularly in his element in complex and dynamic positions in the middle game. Apart from the board, he was enthusiastic about many things in life, by no means just chess. Spasski liked Greek mythology, liked to play tennis, drove fast cars. He bought a Volga M-21 from his fee for the World Cup match against Bobby Fischer. He couldn’t do anything with politics.

Spasski played well in 1972 in the production of the Soviet Union and behaved flawlessly around the World Cup match. But he could never have hate his opponent. “I liked him from the first moment,” said Spasski once about Bobby Fischer. The two combined a lifelong friendship. As one of the few, Spasski always stayed in touch with his former opponent, even campaigned for his release in 2004 when Fischer was held in Japan for months.

The fact that he lost his title against a crazy American did not forgive him at home

When Fischer died in Reykjavík in 2008, lonely and driven by conspiracy theories, Spasski was one of only three chess players who were invited to his funeral. Later he lay down flowers on the grave and asked the journalists: “Do you think the neighboring place is still free?”

Boris Spasski was born in Leningrad in 1937, today’s St. Petersburg. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in World War II, he was sent to a children’s home. His great talent noticed there early, he was strongly encouraged. In 1955, the World Association appointed him the youngest chess wholesaler in history. The match against Fischer, which everyone remembers today, was actually the third World Cup fight of his career. In 1966 Spasski was just lost to his Soviet competitor Tigran Petrosjan, three years later he defeated him. As good as in 1969, he never played again before and afterwards, funnied later.

The fact that he then lost his title against a American, and a supposedly crazy one like the eccentric Bobby Fischer, did not forgive him at home. Spasski was shortened, he was hardly allowed to take part in international competitions. So the Lebemann, who had been strangers with his home state for a long time, emigrated to Paris in 1976. He married an employee of the French consulate in Moscow.

Spasski then liked to sit on the board, played for the Bundesliga Association SG Solingen, among others, but he no longer reached the top of the world. In 1992 Fischer and he provoked with a “reservoir” in Yugoslavia at the time. 13 years ago Spasski went back to Moscow. Until the end, he stayed with the politics to leave politics to others.

What interested him were the people he met. And so it never seemed to disturb him that he always remained connected to his cone on the chess board. Spasski never defended the sometimes confused views of Fischer. But he became a kind of explanatory of his friend: “The World Cup victory destroyed Bobby’s life,” Spasski told the SZ magazine in 2016. “He stopped with the tournament chess after his victory and became very unhappy privately.” Perhaps that is why he also described his own defeat as a great relief. The three years as the world champion were the most unfortunate time of his life, he said, “the happiest began after the defeat”.

Boris Spasski died in Moscow on Thursday at the age of 88.