Boris Spassky vs Bent Larsen (1970) The War of the Worlds

Members · Prefs · Laboratory · Collections · Openings · Endgames · Sacrifices · History · Search Kibitzing · Kibitzer's Café · Chessforums · Tournament Index · Players ·

Kibitzing

Boris Spassky vs Bent Larsen
"The War of the Worlds" (game of the day Dec-16-2017)
USSR vs. Rest of the World (1970), Belgrade SRB, rd 3, Apr-02
Queen's Indian Defense: Kasparov Variation (E12) · 0-1

ANALYSIS [x]

FEN COPIED

Annotations by Stockfish (Computer). [35437 more games annotated by Stockfish]

explore this opening	find similar games	41 more Spassky/B Larsen games
	PGN: download \| view \| print	Help: general \| java-troubleshooting

TIP: You can get computer analysis by clicking the "ENGINE" button below the game.

For help with this chess viewer, please see the Olga Chess Viewer Quickstart Guide.

PREMIUM MEMBERS CAN REQUEST COMPUTER ANALYSIS [more info]

THIS IS A COMPUTER ANNOTATED SCORE. [CLICK HERE] FOR ORIGINAL.

< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 2 OF 2 · Later Kibitzing>
Dec-26-07		underdoggum: wait, why not 14.Bxd8? there be a bishop fork

Dec-26-07		Phony Benoni: <underdoggum> That's right, and it's always good to keep your eyes open for such stuff. But I imagine it was a sacrifice on Black's part. Let's look at the position after <14.Bxd8 Nxd6 15.Be7 Nxc4 16.Bxf8 Rxf8>: click for larger view Black already has one pawn for the exchange, and is threatening to gain another if he wishes by either ...Nxb2 or ...Nd2. His pawn position is more solid, his knights aggressive, and there's no obvious place for the White rooks to do any damage. Of coruse, things are far more complicated than this summary might indicate, but you can be sure that both players looked at positions like this and judged them perfectly good for Black.

Dec-05-08		PolishPentium: Would 31 Nxg7+ be an improvement for White? It certainly appears to be from this duffer's perspective...

Dec-05-08		danielpi: <Polish> Well, if 31. Nxg7+ Ke5 32. Rd7 fxe3 33. fxe3 Rg8... To my eyes looks better for Black... but probably far more of a patzer than you.

Feb-21-09		WhiteRook48: was this Larseny?

Sep-13-10		HeMateMe: The data base here has Spassky beating Larsen 19-6 with 17 draws. Not quite as decisive as Fischer's 12-2, and one draw. This game is pretty wild, and doesn't really feel like a Spassky game.

Sep-13-10		perfidious: I suspect Spassky evaluated the positions arising after 13.gxf3 as clearly better for him in his preliminary analysis, overlooking the consequences of the elegant rejoinder 13....Ne8. As noted by <Phony Benoni>, if White should accept the exchange sacrifice, it's difficult to utilise his slight material advantage, and the game continuation is by no means bad for him.

Nov-14-10		Tigranny: Isn't Kf1 a blunder because Spassky loses both a rook and knight?

Dec-30-10		BLarsen1967: http://www.chesscafe.com/video/vide...

Dec-30-10		BLarsen1967: <danielpi> Yes,and also 33..Rd8 34.Rgd1 Rxd7 35.Rxd7 a4 - that too looks real fine for Black

Apr-18-14		Eduardo Bermudez: The only chess player, no russian, who won against three reigning world champions with black pieces !

Apr-18-14		Petrosianic: Keres did, and he was Estonian.

Apr-18-14		Petrosianic: So did Reshevsky. I'm pretty sure he beat at least Alekhine, Botvinnik and Smyslov with Black.

Apr-18-14		Petrosianic: Come to think of it, Reshevsky beat Lasker with Black. So, that's at least 4, which beats Larsen's 3.

Apr-18-14		perfidious: <Eduardo>'s statement was <reigning> titleholders. Reshevsky never played Smyslov while the latter was champion, defeated Botvinnik with Black while the Patriarch was on the way to winning the match tournament (but had not yet won) and won against Alekhine only while Euwe was champion.

Dec-16-17		offramp: When it comes to beating World Champions during their stint as World Champion the biggest hurdles are Smyslov, Tal and Fischer. Tal lost this famous game, at the Olympics, J Penrose vs Tal, 1960, and I think he also lost Stein vs Tal, 1961. I am not counting looses during WC matches, because as Tim Krabbé says, the title is held in abeyance during the match itself. Smyslov can't have lost many during his one year, and Fischer had given up chess altogether.

Dec-16-17		goodevans: <WMD: 37.Kf1 is as bad as any blunder Spassky made against Fischer. 'Benya' was reportedly down to his last couple of minutes, and Boris was trying to hurry him. 37.Nb6 Nxb6 38.Rxb6 g3 39.Rf1 should hold.> A clever alternative is <37.Rg1>. Now if <37...Rxd5> white can regain the piece with <38.e4+ Kxe4 39.Rxg4+>.

Dec-16-17		morfishine: This was payback for Larsen's catastrophic loss to Spassky in round 2: Larsen vs Spassky, 1970 *****

Dec-16-17		cormier: 1) +0.77 (37 ply) 9.d5 exd5 10.cxd5 Nxd5 11.Bxh7+ Kxh7 12.Qxd5 Kg8 13.Rfd1 d6 14.Bxe7 Qxe7 15.Qxd6 Rad8 16.Qxe7 Nxe7 17.Rxd8 Rxd8 18.Rd1 Rxd1+ 19.Nxd1 f6 20.Nd2 Kf8 21.f3 Nc6 22.Nc3 Ne5 23.b3 Ke7 24.a4 Bc6 25.Kf2 Bd7 26.Nb5 a5 27.Kg3 Nd3 28.e4 Be8 29.Na7 Bd7 30.Nc4 Be6 31.Nc6+ Kd7 10.0 minute analysis by Stockfish 8

Dec-16-17		Cheapo by the Dozen: Perhaps I'm making too much of geographical proximity, but Larsen seems to be as much of an antecedent to Carlsen as anybody. I think of him as playing "theoryless" chess, priding himself on evaluating positions differently than conventional wisdom might. This game fits that pattern. Spassky attacked in a way that most of us would think was destined to succeed ... but it didn't.

Dec-16-17		WorstPlayerEver: click for larger view Position after 13... Ne8 SF suggests 14. Qxf8 Qxg5+ 15. Kh1 Qh5 16. Rg1 Qxf3+ 17. Rg2 g6 18. Rd1

Oct-11-22		pardesi: Kasparov was only 7 years old at the time and already had an opening named after him. That's impressive!

Oct-11-22		beatgiant: <pardesi> The most impressive example I can quickly find for this joke is Henry Bird , who had an opening named after him more than two centuries before he was born. Greco vs NN, 1620

Oct-11-22		HeMateMe: Benya? Who knew?

Jun-30-24		Albion 1959: Quite an impressive come back by Larsen, when you consider that three days earlier he had been crushed by Spassky in only 17 moves !!

search thread:
< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 2 OF 2 · Later Kibitzing>

NOTE: Create an account today to post replies and access other powerful features which are available only to registered users. Becoming a member is free, anonymous, and takes less than 1 minute! If you already have a username, then simply login login under your username now to join the discussion.

Please observe our posting guidelines:

No obscene, racist, sexist, or profane language.
No spamming, advertising, duplicate, or gibberish posts.
No vitriolic or systematic personal attacks against other members.
Nothing in violation of United States law.
No cyberstalking or malicious posting of negative or private information (doxing/doxxing) of members.
No trolling.
The use of "sock puppet" accounts to circumvent disciplinary action taken by moderators, create a false impression of consensus or support, or stage conversations, is prohibited.
Do not degrade Chessgames or any of it's staff/volunteers.

Please try to maintain a semblance of civility at all times.

See something that violates our rules? Blow the whistle and inform a moderator.

NOTE: Please keep all discussion on-topic. This forum is for this specific game only. To discuss chess or this site in general, visit the Kibitzer's Café.

Messages posted by Chessgames members do not necessarily represent the views of Chessgames.com, its employees, or sponsors.
All moderator actions taken are ultimately at the sole discretion of the administration.

This game is type: CLASSICAL. Please report incorrect or missing information by submitting a correction slip to help us improve the quality of our content.