Fischer v. Spassky – Game 1 of 1972 Championship Match
Bobby Fischer vs. Boris Spassky championship match. July 11, 1972 – August 31, 1972. Round 1
In honor of the 40th anniversary of the Fischer-Spassky match, perhaps — for the spectacle if not for the chess — the greatest chess match ever held, I would like to present the games of the match on the dates that mark the 40th anniversary of the corresponding games themselves.
The match is worthy of note, and though there is a plethora of material available about the match, there is one very good reason for publishing these games. Though the games themselves are readily available online, most of the material that I could find do not have the correct dates for the match games. Apparently one of the sites that has the games started with January 1, 1972, and many of sites online have simply copied the games and dates from that site.
I don’t know who the offending source might be, but I thought there ought to be at least one place where you could find the games with the correct dates.
Here are the moves:
Round 1.
Spassky-Fischer
Date: July 11, 1972
- 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
Match score: Fischer 0, Spassky 1.
Was 29…Bxh2 a blunder?
Was Fischer’s 29th move a blunder? Well, it certainly led to the loss of the game. It was a bad move. But was it a blunder in the traditional sense?
Fischer certainly did not say, “Oops, I’ve dropped my Bishop” after having made the move. He knew that he would be down material. But the two Pawns for the Bishop obviously appealed to him for some reason.
The New York Times report on the match (which included Al Horowitz and Sammy Reshevsky among the authors) says:
to label the move simply as a blunder is in itself a blunder.
* * *
What followed that 29th move was inaccurate play on Black’s part that made the capture of the king rook pawn, in retrospect, look like a blunder. It was not. Fischer did, however, blunder away his chances in the play that followed, first missing a win and then a draw. His technique failed.
This was written in 1972, before chess writers (including rank amateurs) had access to massive amounts of chess computing resources.
Forty years later, a check of the computer software shows that Fischer never had a win at any point after move 29, and indeed doesn’t seem to have had any real drawing resources available to him. Perhaps a GM or IM would see it differently now, but the computer doesn’t see a win or draw for Fischer.
Regrettably, Reshevsky doesn’t give any line that shows Fischer’s win or draw. Perhaps it is published somewhere. I’d like to see it if one of my readers has access to the analysis.
If you want to download the pgn file for the game, here’s a link.