A
The Game of Kings 12 Jun 1969, Thu The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) Newspapers.com
Challenger Increases Lead
By winning the 19th game in the world championship match, Boris Spassky now leads champion Tigran Petrosian by 10½-8½ pts. With only five games to go this is almost an insurmountable lead. Following is the 11th game which tied up the match at that point. Five games were then drawn in succession.
Boris Spassky vs Tigran V Petrosian
Petrosian - Spassky World Championship Match (1969), Moscow URS, rd 11, May-12
Queen's Indian Defense. (E12) 0-1
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. a3 Bb7 5. Nc3 d5 6. e3 Nbd7 7. cxd5 exd5 8. Be2 Bd6 9. b4 O-O 10. O-O a6 11. Qb3 Qe7 12. Rb1 Ne4 13. a4 Ndf6 14. b5 Nxc3 15. Qxc3 Ne4 16. Qc2 Rfc8 17. Bb2 c6 18. bxc6 Bxc6 19. Qb3 Qd7 20. Ra1 b5 21. a5 Bb7 22. Ne5 Qd8 23. Rfd1 Qh4 24. g3 Qe7 25. f3 Ng5 26. h4 Ne6 27. f4 f6 28. Nf3 Nd8 29. Kf2 Nf7 30. Nd2 Rc4 31. Qd3(a) Re8 32. Bf3 Bb4 33. Ba3 Bxa3 34. Rxa3 Nd6 35. Re1 f5 36. Raa1 Ne4+ 37. Bxe4 fxe4 38. Qb1 Qd7 39. Ra2 Rec8 40. Nxc4(b) dxc4 41. d5 Bxd5 42. Rd1 c3 43. Rc2 Qh3 44. Rg1(c) Qg4 45. Kg2 Qf3+ 46. Kh2 Qxe3 47. f5 Qc5 48. Rf1 b4 49. f6 b3 50. Rcf2 c2 51. Qc1 e3 52. f7+ Kf8 53. Rf5 b2 54. Qxb2 c1=Q 55. Qxg7+ Kxg7 56. Rg5+(d) Resigns
(a) Taking the R would allow two dangerous passed pawns, but eventually he is forced to.
(b) Otherwise 40. … Q-B3 and 41. … R-B7.
(c) If 44. RxB Q-R7ch and Q-R8ch wins Q.
(d) Not entirely a 'spite check', for if 56. … K-R3; 57. R-B6 mate. Petrosian must have smiled, as Spassky immediately resigned.
Chess Match is Adjourned 12 Jun 1969, Thu The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) Newspapers.com
Chess Match is Adjourned
Moscow — (AP) — Tigran Petrosyan, defending champion, and challenger Boris Spassky adjourned the 21st game in their world championship chess series last night on the 41st move and will complete it today.
Spassky leads 10.5 - 9.5. The series is due to run to 24 games. Spassky needs 2.5 points to win, and Petrosyan 12 points.
Chess experts in the audience said that Spassky, playing white, held a distinct advantage at the adjournment.
Spassky Winning Over Petrosian 13 Jun 1969, Fri The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) Newspapers.com
Spassky Winning Over Petrosian
Moscow — (CP-Reuters) — Challenger Boris Spassky drew within one point of the world chess title by defeating champion Tigran Petrosian yesterday in the 21st game of their 24-game series.
Spassky, a 32-year-old journalist, has 11½ points to Petrosian's 9½, and needs only one more win or two draws to knock Petrosian from the chess throne he has occupied for six years. Spassky needs 12½ points to win the title and Petrosian 12 points to retain it.
Petrosian, 40, resigned at the 53rd move today. He defeated Spassky in the last championship challenge three years ago.
A Spassky victory is considered virtually certain, and it could come Friday, when the two grand masters play in the Moscow Variety Theatre before a capacity audience.
Spassky Quits Crying; Wins World Chess Title 18 Jun 1969, Wed The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) Newspapers.com
Moscow — (AP) — Boris Spassky, who as a boy used to cry when he lost a chess game, yesterday became world chess champion by defeating Tigran Petrosian.
Spassky, a curly-haired, handsome 32-year-old, looks more like a movie star than the master of the most demanding of all mental games. And his easy-going, affable manner is far from the stereotype of the tense and temperamental genius bent over a chess board. ([So it is only a “stereotype” media tends to fuel with exaggerations and mere fables?])
Spassky's victory over fellow Soviet player Petrosian, a dark, heavy-set man from Armenia, reversed the outcome of their first encounter for the world chess championship three years ago.
That year, Petrosian was never behind. This time, the lead see-sawed back and forth. Many experts thought the older Petrosian would bear up better under the strain and keep his title.
But Spassky, showing great calm and resourcefulness, pulled ahead in the 17th match and held on to his lead.
“This young man is always in high spirits,” said Mikhail Botvinnik, former world chess champion. “He cannot be frightened by anything.”
Botvinnik described Spassky as “an optimist with an ironic cast of mind and fine sense of humor.”
Chess has been Spassky's whole life.
Spassky is called a journalist, to give him the appearance of having an outside job and being an amateur. But Spassky the journalist writes only about chess.
The new champion was born Jan. 30, 1937, in Leningrad. When the city came under German siege during the Second World War, he was evacuated to a distant village and there started playing chess.
Back in Leningrad after the war, Spassky joined the chess club at the Pioneer Palace, the main sport and hobby center for young people. He received training from Vladimir Sak, a well-known Soviet player.
Opponents from Spassky's early days reported his tendency to break into tears if he suffered defeat.
By the time he was 11 he was so good he was placed in the first category of Soviet chess players. At 18 he was named an international chess master. Only America's Bobby Fischer was younger — 15 — when accorded this status.
Spassky combined his passion for chess with an otherwise normal life. While at school he read voraciously, enjoyed ice skating and high pumping and was class speaker. He graduated from high school with honors and entered the University of Leningrad in 1954.
His studies were in the history-philology department, but the subject for his diploma thesis was Chess in the Central Press.
Spassky won the youth world championship in Antwerp in 1955. A series of triumphs followed. Then Spassky hit a slump and it was not until 1964 that he qualified again for an international competition.
He came up fast after that, meeting Petrosian for the world title in 1966 and beating all competitors to gain a second chance against him this year.
