The Games of Boris Spassky – Part VII – Spassky’s Immortal Game

Known as the Match Of The Century two years prior to Spassky’s defense of his title against Fischer, the USSR v The Rest of the World match held in Belgrade during the spring of 1970 was a truly unique event featuring four rounds of play on ten boards involving two dozen of the best grandmasters of the time.

The World Championship was firmly in Soviet hands since 1948, so half of the Soviet team held the title: Spassky, Tigran Petrosian, Mikhail Tal, Vasily Smyslov and Mikhail Botvinnik. As reigning champion, Spassky played on the top board facing Bent Larsen whose string of recent successes elevated him to first board over the until recently inactive Fischer.

Larsen was fond of offbeat openings, so in the first round he fianchettoed his dark-squared bishop immediately in the fashion of the Hypermoderns.  In a clash of styles, Spassky claimed the center and developed classically. With White’s pieces split by Black’s advanced central pawn Spassky launched his outside pawn to wreak havoc on the opposing king, forcing resignation in the face of mate in three after a mere seventeen moves.