Spassky v. Fischer – Game 3 of 1972 Championship Match
In honor of the 40th anniversary of the Fischer-Spassky match for the chess world championship, I am publishing the games of the match on the anniversary date of each of the games.
Fischer is able to gain his first win of the match. And a very important win it was, as he was behind 0-2 in the match because of a disastrous first-round loss and a controversial second-round forfeit!
Here are the moves of this important and historic game.
Round 3
Spassky-Fischer
Date: July 16, 1972*
- 1. d4 Nf6
- 2. c4 e6
- 3. Nf3 c5
- 4. d5 exd5
- 5. cxd5 d6
- 6. Nc3 g6
- 7. Nd2 Nbd7
- 8. e4 Bg7
- 9. Be2 O-O
- 10. O-O Re8
- 11. Qc2 Nh5
- 12. Bxh5 gxh5
- 13. Nc4 Ne5
- 14. Ne3 Qh4
- 15. Bd2 Ng4
- 16. Nxg4 hxg4
- 17. Bf4 Qf6
- 18. g3 Bd7
- 19. a4 b6
- 20. Rfe1 a6
- 21. Re2 b5
- 22. Rae1 Qg6
- 23. b3 Re7
- 24. Qd3 Rb8
- 25. axb5 axb5
- 26. b4 c4
- 27. Qd2 Rbe8
- 28. Re3 h5
- 29. R3e2 Kh7
- 30. Re3 Kg8
- 31. R3e2 Bxc3
- 32. Qxc3 Rxe4
- 33. Rxe4 Rxe4
- 34. Rxe4 Qxe4
- 35. Bh6 Qg6
- 36. Bc1 Qb1
- 37. Kf1 Bf5
- 38. Ke2 Qe4+
- 39. Qe3 Qc2+
- 40. Qd2 Qb3
- 41. Qd4 Bd3+
- 0-1
Match score: Fischer 1, Spassky 2.
If you want to download the pgn file for the game, here’s a link.
See my post of game 1 for a note about the dates of the games in this match.