L i b e r t y
P u b l i s h i n g N e w
Y o r k
H o u s e
How and why the kings lost their battles -
Games the World Champions Lost BORIS SPASSKY ISRAEL GELFER
L i b e r t y
P u b l i s h i n g N e w
Y o r k
2 0 1 4
H o u s e
BORIS SPASSKY & ISRAEL GELFER Games the World Champions Lost How and why the kings lost their battles
Ilya Levkov – Publisher Liberty Publishing House Planetarium Station POB 1058 New York, NY 10024 Tel: (212) 679-4620 Fax: (917) 456-3237 Email: LibertyPublishingHouse@gmail.com www.LibertyPublishingHouse.com Editor: Moshe Slav Proofreader: Yuri Garrett Professional Consultant: Ram Soffer Design by studioer.com Copyright© by SlavChess Ltd Cover Design and Foreword Copyright© by Liberty Publishing House All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN 978-1-628040-34-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2014954416 Printed in the USA
Thisbook bookisisdedicated dedicatedto tothe the memory memory of our This our mutual mutualfriend, friend, Israel Gelfer’s Gelfer's chess chess mentor mentor Israel Raaphy Persitz Persitz Raaphi
Dear Mr. Levkov! Many thanks for your lovely letter from April 29, 1985, as well as for your kind offer to assist me in writing my memoirs. However, as a professional player, I have to remain fully attentive to my cause. It is possible that in the future I will try to write my memoirs about my life in chess. When such moment might occur, I do not know. With best wishes (B. Spassky) July 1985 Allemont, France
Publisher’s Foreword The story behind this book, the first ever from renowned World Chess Champion Boris Spassky, deserves a short foreword. This book is the result of a convergence of several unpredictable circumstances and has its root decades ago. The idea of this book was conceived by Mr. Moshe Slav, President of the Israeli Chess Federation, who tirelessly pursued Mr. Spassky to share his knowledge and experience with chess lovers. I first encountered Mr. Spassky as an observer at an exhibition game he played some 37 years ago in New York City. When I established Liberty Publishing House in 1984, I tried multiple times, and always unsuccessfully, to solicit Mr. Spassky to write his memoirs. His courteous reply has always been that he preferred to allocate his time and energy to playing chess, rather than ruminating about it, even for the sake of writing a book. In 1990, prior to the championship played between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, I received a manuscript from Karpov entitled My Sister Kaissa. Though never a fan of Karpov’s personally, I still read his memoirs with surprising interest. This manuscript was the first memoir from a Soviet player written during the Glasnost period and remains to this day his most revealing autobiography. The publication of this book is the result of a happy accident: a random encounter with Mr. Moshe Slav, during my search for a chess set to gift to young relative in Israel. When Mr. Slav described to me his idea for a book written by Boris Spassky that would analyze famous chess games that champions have lost, I was intrigued by this unique and interdisciplinary perspective, and suggested that we co-publish the work simultaneously in Jerusalem and New York. Though I myself never became a ranked player, playing chess had a great impact upon my maturation and personal development. No other game requires such intricate and intense workings of the brain, and it became a bright source of intellectual stimulation during the last dark and threatening days under Stalin. To my surprise, I discovered that I had a “twin”. As I poured myself into the game in the USSR, another young man on the other side of the world (with whom I rather
serendipitously shared the same birthday and year), was also using his skill behind the chess board as an outlet for his personal turbulences. This young man would grow up to become the great Bobby Fischer, and after years of ferociously fighting against much older players, he would challenge the reigning world champion Boris Spassky for the world’s chess crown. This historic encounter was at the July of 1972 World Chess Championship, a match which quickly came to symbolize the larger competitive environment that existed then between the Soviet Union and the United States. That championship took place in Reykjavik, Iceland, and captivated my attention in Berlin, where I was working on my doctoral dissertation about the Cold War. Though that 1972 championship might have been played in Reykjavik’s arctic climate, it generated a heated fervor that reverberated throughout the competing political factions of Berlin’s students. They (and I) became so engrossed in the games to the extent that an unofficial political standstill was declared on Berlin’s campuses so that everyone could await the details of each game together and analyze every move. To me this seemed almost tantamount to the “Christmas truce” enacted between the British and German armies fighting World War I in December of 1914. Finally, 42 years later, Mr. Spassky presents us with a book that culminates in the essence and lessons that can be learned from exploring how the greats of the game lost their battles. I can only hope that one day, a future chess strategist may be able to use this book and apply these lessons to further their knowledge and understanding of the game itself and the players.
Ilya Levkov
Waiting for Bobby Fischer
Contents Preface by Boris Spassky ................................................... 7 Introduction by Israel Gelfer ............................................. 9 Chapter 1 – Paul Keres ...................................................... 11 Chapter 2 – Mikhail Botvinnik ........................................ 41 Chapter 3 – Tigran Petrosian ............................................ 69 Chapter 4 – Efim Geller .................................................... 95 Chapter 5 – Victor Korchnoi ............................................. 123 Chapter 6 – Alexander Beliavsky ..................................... 153 Chapter 7 – Vasily Smyslov ............................................... 177 Chapter 8 – Samuel Reshevsky ........................................ 199 Chapter 9 – Bent Larsen ................................................... 221 Chapter 10 – Anatoly Karpov .......................................... 247 Chapter 11 – Garry Kasparov ......................................... 269 Appendix – Table of Wins against World Champions ..... 295 Index of Players .................................................................. 302 Index of Openings .............................................................. 303
Preface - Champions’ Scalp Hunters The authors of this book have given themselves a task to follow the fights of the chess leaders, the elite, through a certain period of history. Who was the best of the best? It’s a thankful task, for it enriches us with new knowledge, new facts. The chess masterpieces forgotten long ago emerge from non-existence, the leading chess players are depicted in colors. This task deserves to be fulfilled. The authors focus on the classical twentieth century, when the title of World Chess Champion was already established. The games of eleven leading chess players were observed. As a result, the luckiest scalp hunter turned out to be the Estonian chess player Paul Keres, and not by chance. As a young grandmaster, Paul Keres performed brilliantly in the AVRO tournament in the Netherlands in 1938 and won the right to challenge the reigning World Champion Alexander Alekhine in a World Championship Match. However, this match was never played due to the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Keres was not destined to become a world champion. He remained number two in the history of chess. Was he worthy of the champion’s title? Doubtlessly he was. In 1939/40 Paul Keres won a match against ex-World Champion Max Euwe. This match also took place in the Netherlands and ended with the score of +8-5=10 in favor of the Estonian player. Once when we were driving across Europe from West to East together I told Keres: “Paul Petrovich, you are lucky not to become World Champion”. Grave silence was his answer. I said so because the three years in which I held the title of World Champion from 1969 to 1972 were the unhappiest years of my life. I was bearing enormous responsibility, but received no support. When I lost my title, I shed an enormous weight from my shoulders. Paul Petrovich was a true knight of the chess goddess Caissa. After having won a tournament, he used to invite his friends to a restaurant to celebrate his victory. It happened often at the national championships. As a rule, the toast that he proposed was the same: “My dear friends, let’s drink for chess!”
Games theWorld World Champions Lost Games the Champions Lost Winning Record against World Champions
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In this book I am commenting about the game which I lost to Keres in the Interzonal tournament in Göteborg. At the critical moment I allowed Paul Petrovich to sacrifice his queen. Paul Petrovich glimpsed at me and took the dare – he sacrificed the queen. I made a quick analysis and realized that my affairs were looking bleak. I resigned. Paul Pertovich punished me for my carelessness and he was glad. Ten years later I managed to win a tough quarter-final Candidates match against Paul Keres, and the green light to the Chess Olympus turned on for me. One of us had to obtain the champion’s title, and the lot has fallen upon me. In 1969 I dethroned Petrosian. *** The mystic V.V. Smyslov, the 7th World Chess Champion, was convinced that the strongest chess player received the earthly World Champion’s title with blessings from chess goddess Caissa. But Caissa was sometimes capricious. The above list of eleven great chess players could easily be extended. It could include as well Alexander Alekhine, David Bronstein, Mikhail Tal, Bobby Fischer, the author of these lines – Boris Spassky, Vladimir Kramnik… But let it be the task for those who will take up this research in the future. Boris Spassky 10th World Chess Champion Moscow, September 2014
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Games the World Lost Boris Spassky &Champions Israel Winning Record against World Gelfer Champions
INTRODUCTION Since I started to play chess, I have always been interested in the historical aspect of our noble game. This book touches a specific question: who beat the greatest number of world champions? Garry Kasparov has beaten more world champions than others (See Table A in the appendix), but when I showed my research to him, he told me that in his opinion the list should not include wins against those who won the title under the knockout system, otherwise it would be unfair towards the old champions. The current collection follows Garry Kasparov’s approach, and its results are shown in Table B in the appendix, which also picks one win against each world champion, usually the best or the most interesting game, for each of those players who managed to win against seven (or more) world champions. In this book we have chosen three wins against world champions by each of these eleven players to be analyzed in detail. Some of those games have already appeared in numerous sources. We have updated the analysis with the help of the best currently available engines, while at the same time adding verbal explanations in order to help our readers understand the ideas of the great masters of the past. I am deeply grateful to World Champion Boris Spassky for agreeing to take part in this historical research. Many thanks go to Israeli grandmaster Ram Soffer for his significant contribution to the chess analysis and chapter introductions. Despite not having invented anything new, I believe that this is an important historical document. Enjoy! Israel Gelfer ISRAEL, September 2014 Games theWorld World Champions Lost Games the Champions Lost Winning Record against World Champions
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Chapter 1
PAUL KERES
Paul Keres was born on January 7, 1916 in Narva, Estonia. His international breakthrough came at the 1935 chess Olympiad in Warsaw. There followed a string of successes, culminating in the all-star AVRO tournament 1938, where he shared first place with Reuben Fine ahead of three world champions and other chess legends. AVRO was supposed to be a Candidates Tournament, but the match with Alekhine never materialized due to the outbreak of World War II. Instead, Keres played in four Nazi-organized tournaments. As a result, he was suspended from international play after Estonia was once again occupied by the Soviets. He was reinstated in 1946 and played in the 1948 World Championship matchtournament, finishing joint third with 10.5/20. Afterwards he played in five successive Candidates Tournaments, finishing second four times, thus never challenging Botvinnik’s title. Despite playing brilliant chess, there was always someone who managed to finish ahead of him, be it Bronstein, Smyslov, Tal or Petrosian. His final Candidates appearance was against Boris Spassky in the 1965 quarterfinal match. Keres gave the future champion a tough fight but lost 4:6. During the post-war years Keres won the Soviet championship three times, as well as netting numerous international successes in individual and team events. Paul Keres was a cult figure in his native Estonia. In 1975, Over 100,000 people attended his funeral in Tallinn. Later his portrait appeared on the Estonian banknote
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Boris Spassky & Israel Winning Record against World Gelfer Champions
Game 1
Keres, Paul - Capablanca, Jose R AVRO, 1938 (C09)
This is the only win by Keres against Capablanca. The other ďŹ ve games between them (all in 1937–1939) were drawn. The third world champion used to rely on his fantastic positional intuition and did not bother too much studying the intricacies of the opening. In this game, his opening play was not up to par. The 22-year-old Keres achieved strong pressure right after the opening. In converting his structural advantage he employed timely tactics to destroy Black’s position.
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3. d2 c5 4.exd5 exd5 5. gf3 c6 6. b5 e7+ This move has become obsolete, even though it’s not clear that it’s worse than the common 6... d6.
10...a6 (10... e7 11. b5 d8 12. f4) 11. e1 e7 12. xc6 bxc6 13. d4 0–0 14. f4 d6 15. xd6 xd6 16. c5 and White is slightly better. 10. bxd4 a6
7. e2 After 7. e2 xe2+ 8. xe2 cxd4 9. xd4 d7 the White king would not be very comfortable at the center. 7...cxd4 An inaccuracy leading to a loss of time. “The exchange on d4 only aids White’s developmentâ€?. (Keres) The right order of moves is 7... c7 - Black has to play this anyway. Moving the queen twice is justiďŹ ed as the white bishop has retreated. 8.0–0 f6 9. e1 (9.dxc5 xc5 10. b3 d6) and only now 9...cxd4 10. b3 b4. 8.0–0 c7 9. b3 d6
11.b3?! Keres obeys the classical principles, completing his development. It would have been more advantageous to strike immediately at the center.
9... f6 10. fxd4! (10. bxd4 c5)
GamesRecord the World Champions Lost Winning against World Champions
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