Here's a FEN of the famous position from the Spassky-Fischer world championship match where Fischer weirdly played Bxh2 on move 29 and Spassky went on to win the game:
My father-in-law told me he watched that game live when he was a kid, and he just gasped when Fischer played Bxh2. (This is before engines or eval bars). Spassky did well to convert, but this is more about Fischer's mistake than Spassky.
This is the kind of blunder that you'd expect from a strong club player, not from Bobby Fischer. Although I understand that Fischer was brilliant but inconsistent, and to be fair, the last chess championship matches had a share of blunders.
It's almost a certainty Fischer didn't just "not notice" the bishop would be trapped, he just miscalculated further down the line (in fact if you plug it into an engine, it shows an equal evaluation)
It's one of the single biggest misconceptions ever, it gets repeated endlessly
Interesting, I never knew that. Engine does give +0.6 to Spassky, so the move slightly made Fischer's position worse (https://lichess.org/study/Eyl4uwTZ/TUx5RZIk) and the engine thinks f4 (on move 40) was the blunder.
I'm not qualified to analyse this, I read into it a bit more and apparently he was trying to complicate the game, the 1973 tournament book only marks it as ?!.
Love this game. It taught me to look for a move like g4.
Also it was probably not objectively the best move (and definitely not Spassky's best game) but Tim Krabbé made a list of 110 most fantastic moves ever played, and he put Spassky's 16...Nc6 against Averbakh as no. 1 (certainly an unorthodox choice):
Rest in peace, GM Spassky. He made wonderful contributions to the game, and was a gentleman to boot. Applauding your opponent in the middle of a world championship game? Class.
Here's a FEN of the famous position from the Spassky-Fischer world championship match where Fischer weirdly played Bxh2 on move 29 and Spassky went on to win the game:
5k2/pp4pp/4pp2/1P6/8/P2KP3/5PPb/2B5 w - - 0 30
Full PGN here:
[Event "Spassky - Fischer World Championship Match"] [Site "Reykjavik ISL"] [Date "1972.07.11"] [EventDate "?"] [Round "1"] [Result "1-0"] [White "Boris Spassky"] [Black "Robert James Fischer"] [ECO "E56"] [WhiteElo "?"] [BlackElo "?"] [PlyCount "111"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. e3 O-O 6. Bd3 c5 7. O-O Nc6 8. a3 Ba5 9. Ne2 dxc4 10. Bxc4 Bb6 11. dxc5 Qxd1 12. Rxd1 Bxc5 13. b4 Be7 14. Bb2 Bd7 15. Rac1 Rfd8 16. Ned4 Nxd4 17. Nxd4 Ba4 18. Bb3 Bxb3 19. Nxb3 Rxd1+ 20. Rxd1 Rc8 21. Kf1 Kf8 22. Ke2 Ne4 23. Rc1 Rxc1 24. Bxc1 f6 25. Na5 Nd6 26. Kd3 Bd8 27. Nc4 Bc7 28. Nxd6 Bxd6 29. b5 Bxh2 30. g3 h5 31. Ke2 h4 32. Kf3 Ke7 33. Kg2 hxg3 34. fxg3 Bxg3 35. Kxg3 Kd6 36. a4 Kd5 37. Ba3 Ke4 38. Bc5 a6 39. b6 f5 40. Kh4 f4 41. exf4 Kxf4 42. Kh5 Kf5 43. Be3 Ke4 44. Bf2 Kf5 45. Bh4 e5 46. Bg5 e4 47. Be3 Kf6 48. Kg4 Ke5 49. Kg5 Kd5 50. Kf5 a5 51. Bf2 g5 52. Kxg5 Kc4 53. Kf5 Kb4 54. Kxe4 Kxa4 55. Kd5 Kb5 56. Kd6 1-0
My father-in-law told me he watched that game live when he was a kid, and he just gasped when Fischer played Bxh2. (This is before engines or eval bars). Spassky did well to convert, but this is more about Fischer's mistake than Spassky.
This is the kind of blunder that you'd expect from a strong club player, not from Bobby Fischer. Although I understand that Fischer was brilliant but inconsistent, and to be fair, the last chess championship matches had a share of blunders.
It's almost a certainty Fischer didn't just "not notice" the bishop would be trapped, he just miscalculated further down the line (in fact if you plug it into an engine, it shows an equal evaluation)
It's one of the single biggest misconceptions ever, it gets repeated endlessly
> in fact if you plug it into an engine, it shows an equal evaluation
This isn't true - that move takes the game from dead equal, to +0.7 (70 centipawns favor for Boris).
It isn't a total blunder but it's objectively a poor move.
Interesting, I never knew that. Engine does give +0.6 to Spassky, so the move slightly made Fischer's position worse (https://lichess.org/study/Eyl4uwTZ/TUx5RZIk) and the engine thinks f4 (on move 40) was the blunder.
I'm not qualified to analyse this, I read into it a bit more and apparently he was trying to complicate the game, the 1973 tournament book only marks it as ?!.
It still doesn't make any sense, even if he knew that the bishop was trapped. Black is the only side that can lose.
That game at chessgames.com:
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044722
Amazing game, thanks for sharing.
Related:
Boris Spassky has died - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43197956
RIP. My favourite Spassky game is this 24 move win against Petrosian and Petrosian was no patzer: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1106864
Love this game. It taught me to look for a move like g4.
Also it was probably not objectively the best move (and definitely not Spassky's best game) but Tim Krabbé made a list of 110 most fantastic moves ever played, and he put Spassky's 16...Nc6 against Averbakh as no. 1 (certainly an unorthodox choice):
https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/fant100.htm
Ohh, that is lovely. I had not seen it. Black does seemingly nothing wrong and is just in a world of hurt by the 12th move.
Rest in peace, GM Spassky. He made wonderful contributions to the game, and was a gentleman to boot. Applauding your opponent in the middle of a world championship game? Class.
Rest in peace. One of the top GMs of all time. Former world champion. Wonderful player. Thanks for all the amazing games.