Great Players of the Past: Boris Spassky

Check out Ben's Chessable courses here! www.chessable.com/author/BenF... GM Ben Finegold discusses three games of Boris Spassky's as part of the Great Players of the Past series. This lecture was recorded February 17, 2021, at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Atlanta (CCSCATL) in Roswell, Georgia.
This lecture was originally posted to the CCSCATL Channel on March 01, 2021. Yes, you've probably seen it before. We're reposting it here now for channel consolidation.
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5:33
Spassky - Bronstein
USSR Championship (1960)
20:36
Spassky - Evans
Varna Olympiad (1962)
31:51
Spassky - Timman
Match (1977)
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Intro and concluding music: “Da Jazz Blues,” by Doug Maxwell; • Da Jazz Blues - Doug M... Thank you Doug!
#chess #benfinegold #borisspassky

[@douglasquaid7550]

The Nakamura sportsmanship award, LMAO.

[@KancerKowboy]

That alone makes this one of my favorite videos of all time. I liked it without that too. I'm gonna have some fries.

[@douglasquaid7550]

@@nicbentulan 20:15

[@zachhaywood1564]

It's things like that that makes him one of my favorite instructors.

[@zachhaywood1564]

That "Nakamura Sportsmanship Award" line was GOLD.

[@donsimons9810]

is naka not a good sport?

[@zachhaywood1564]

@@donsimons9810 Terrible. You can easily find entire compilations on here of his horrible and toxic behavior.

[@donsimons9810]

@@zachhaywood1564 on Finegold's channel? Huh. He seems like a normal savant to me haha

[@f.d.3289]

23:00 "Yeah Spassky didn't care what opening he played, it was all the Saemisch to him." I'm sure this is a super old chess joke, but I'm still lovin' it :)

[@snoozy04]

To me Spassky is underrated genius.

[@ecarte931]

I think he is genius, too. However, Spassky is one of the world champions, everyone respects him. Why do you think he is underrated?

[@timothyacowin9761]

He was the front runner of the soviets unbeatable chess team. He was so good he was used for russian propaganda Underrated is not the word

[@innosanto]

@@ecarte931because after 1975 or so he continued playing but was bored and didbt play seriously.

[@vibovitold]

@@ecarte931 i guess because he seems to be remembered mostly as the guy who lost to Fischer, and the memory of the 1972 match appears to have sort of overshadowed his achievements. in a somewhat similar way Karpov and Anand are underrated as Kasparov's underdogs.

[@michaelabraham9737]

This lesson is one of the lesson of all time! I don't know what is, but it's one of something....

[@alekhinesgun9997]

it is undeniably one of the lessons of all time!

[@TalsBadKidney]

But who has from not for more to make from to lesson what if

[@Anfield_the_place_to_be]

Damn this thread got deep🤯

[@darkinfo2]

Your right it's definitely something of all time

[@meowlmeowl-gi4925]

Taught by one of the GMs of all time

[@Rspknlikeab0ssxd]

I think Spassky is one of those brilliant players who are just outside of being the absolute greatest, easily a top 20, maybe top 10, I love to see his games

[@a_doggo]

Gosh, thanks so much for sharing these. I wish I could've volunteered for you guys, just to sneak in on these. Your lectures are awesome; so glad you cover some of my favorite players that aren't memes.

[@shawnv123]

you got me when you said “when did i win the world championship?”

[@Anfield_the_place_to_be]

Keep spoiling us with "great players of the past" series 🙂👍🏾

[@marcohafner6502]

The last 2 Games i never seen before. They demonstrate, what a brillant Player Spassky was! Great Lecture! Thanks Ben!

[@frederikmichaelvanpallandt1788]

Great lecture as always!

[@petergeorge2716]

Great lecture, thank you.

[@raskalnekov]

Thank God I watch these lectures stoned, so that I can go back and watch them a month later and it's fresh

[@TheMrBennito]

What a coincidence! Before getting to this great vid, I checked out Mr Finegold's lecture on the King ' s Gambit :)

[@lewisr1353]

Thanks! Here is some fine gelt for you.

[@baoboumusic]

Yes, I love these videos. I generally know the players, I often know the games, but it's always great to hear your analysis.

[@dallisjohnson662]

I'm very thankful for your content. Because of you I'm quite strong, strongest player in my seat. Chess is very popular among my coworkers, but I'm able to play with them and give them the Sugar...sugar me? Whatever it is and so forth.

[@givemeyourfish]

You watch Finegold and they don't, the truth hurts

[@predragnikolic3040]

I become fan of Spassky

[@kaiserprad1]

Love his wry, rueful humour

[@cranberogelio]

thanks teacher GM Finegold. (I call you my teacher even if we haven't met, although whenever I say it, I always specify that probably you wouldn't be too proud of knowing I'm your student LOL)

[@jamesngarua6935]

I bought a chess board cause of ur Tips. Thanx GM!

[@ghay2239]

More!!!

[@Al.2]

29:30 There's also Nf6+ with Q:g8 mate next regardless of what black does.

[@poehamilton8731]

Spassky used his right and left hand in chess, one for each of ya…

[@h0wnr681]

14:08 this was pretty nuts and I had to analyze it. In fact, stockfish DOES want you to play bishop takes knight, then after the queen check run the king to e7 and defend mate. This sequence involves several only moves to prevent several mates, it's very gross. Probably only a computer would seriously consider such a move, you can see it's possible but geez. Anyway, what I really wanted to see was why he played bf5 later, giving away the bishop. Stockfish gives Qe5 instead, which also loses to Bb3, setting up a deadly discovered check, but at least you aren't just giving a piece away, the eval for black isn't good in either line.

[@tolkienfan1972]

You don't normally expect the eval to be good in a losing line:-)

[@h0wnr681]

@@tolkienfan1972 I should probably say it's not any better or different either way, lol

[@tyedyeguy69]

Either way is what your looking for lol

[@jimpanzee4063]

Almost choked at the Nakamura Sportsmanship award joke.

[@warrenz597]

With the Gukesh lecture I thought the timeline might be catching up, alas I was mistaken

[@werderlebenslang4576]

I think boer not only means farmer but also pawn. At least in german it s the same word. So maybe you could say de boer should have gotten a promotion then he might have had a chance against ben.

[@Alexander-mw1ek]

I thought Boer was the Dutch version of Bauer

[@werderlebenslang4576]

@@Alexander-mw1ek yes and at least in german the pawns are called bauern

[@Evilanious]

In Dutch pawn is 'pion'

[@werderlebenslang4576]

@@Evilanious oh I didn't know that. Guess my joke is ruined. German and dutch are pretty similar but it seems not similar enough. Anyway thanks for the info.

[@Sevenigma777]

It is really impressive when you go over these old games with an engine and you see how many moves they did are still the top 2 moves engines suggest as well. Besides Bronstein's bishop move to f6 that cost him the game both players played top engine moves by mental calculation alone and without the help of computers.

[@fundhund62]

Who cares about engine moves?? Human ideas (and mistakes) are what makes the game interesting.

[@chessdude184]

When is your new book "Shave Like a Grandmaster" coming out?

[@f.d.3289]

31:39 "Okay. But again, this is a Spassky lecture, in an Evans lecture, he might even win some games... Probably not." I already said before every single Finegold videos has one stupid little off-hand remark that just cracks me. This is the one here.

[@liontx]

Ben: "Spassky wanted to finish his chess games early, so he can play tennis". Me: So, he was basically Eric Rosen.

[@rrock2025]

Me: ok

[@xxAutoFlowxx]

How about reading the wiki on what a recession is. Been adjustment over 40 times this last week

[@Chris.4345]

For the algo

[@pyrielrising4338]

It was water...clear liquid to see the Spectre logo on the coaster.

[@Sevenigma777]

There's a great lesson in that first game to learn as well. On the 17th move after whites rook captured the queened pawn and blacks queen is threatened by the knight on f7 Bronstein gives away his bishop so he can have a chance to exchange queens but just in moving the bishop white is about +3-4. Black should just move the queen to safety preferably d5 and even after the knight takes the h6 pawn checks the king and forces black to capture with the last pawn on g7 totally exposing his king white is only up 1.5 and even after white pins blacks queen and captures it since he won the exchange earlier if he uses his bishops to cover the king the game is even. So you learn that there are times that even if your queen is threatened there are positions where you are better off losing the queen

[@XmanABQ]

At 43:22, why doesn't Nf5+ work?

[@appojkenflap]

Knight blocks Rook so after Kd1 there's no good continuation, at least I don't see it. You can check with the bishop and then you're stuck with several pieces hanging.

[@nma1992]

Great lecture! Miss the beard though

[@SebastianVazquezFerrero]

Your lack of beard made me Spassky out for a second

[@vibovitold]

Spassky was a very interesting character, and anything but your stereotypical Soviet grandmaster. I didn't particularly like the movie "Pawn Sacrifice" (about the Fischer-Spassky WC match; Toby Maguire was awfully miscast, the movie felt like a bunch of old tropes slapped together, etc.), but the thing I liked is that they avoided the temptation of depicting Spassky as an evil Ivan Drago of chess. they did this part tactfully. he was portrayed by Liev Schreiber, in my opinion a very good role, one of the few highlights in that movie.

[@ghay2239]

More documentation

[@AbdulHannanAbdulMatheen]

👏🙂

[@giovannicorno1247]

I love Boris Spassky, I cannot avoid associating him with Bobby Fischer: I started seriosly chess because of their match. At the time I was confused between Spassky who seemed the "good guy" and Bobby who seemed the brat😂. Actually Fischer was better in 1972 but Spassky didn't play his best in my opinion. According to Karpov he was lazy in preparation and relied to much on his skill to solve issues on the chessboard. I don't know, anyway I think he is an undervalued Champion of the World.

[@TheSavagederek]

Ver underrated player. Boris was a lot better than people gave him credit for. But he wasn't a Karpov or Kasparov, or Carlsen.

[@giovannicorno1247]

Maybe, but when he won in 1973 the USSR championship, Karpov was left behind along with Petrosian Smyslov, Korchnoy, Tal, Keres, Geller, etc....

[@zwebzz9685]

Half your lectures you say never resign and the other half you berate the featured players opponent for not resigning. Thanks for the lecture though it is a nice reminder e6 and g6 are often tactically related.

[@cygnustsp]

The difference between being an amateur and a pro

[@zwebzz9685]

@@cygnustsp he wouldn't resign in all these positions he said himself he resigns maybe 3x a year. He is just incongruent based on the people involved. Tons of these positions he says "resigns is a good move" still has several moves of tactical resolution and you don't see top players resigning unless they see unavoidable mate or after the tactics have resolved and they are down huge material. Its not disrespectful to play a few more moves until they win material it is disrespectful to make them convert a full extra piece for no compensation.

[@zwebzz9685]

@@cygnustsp lol his most recent posted video is literally "down a queen vs a 2400". No one should be berated for not resigning.

[@justchessminiatures1167]

Go Spassky but stay there

[@marianpalko2531]

6:09

[@LukePettit]

I don't wanna play that guy who gives the correct answers. He would even give Archer a game

[@Sevenigma777]

Actually Evans should have resigned on the 21st move Qc7

[@bigfootsburneraccount9160]

Ben "I was never world champion" Finegold. The truth hurts lol

[@Sevenigma777]

Idk you run that first game with an engine you will see Bronstein made 3 real bad moves that allowed Spassky to win even down the exchange.

[@ethangilworth7891]

Has Ben lost weight? He’s looking healthier here

[@Demian_R]

"..and those were the weak players that he beat.." 😂

[@iainsneddon3010]

Thanks for giving Spassky the credit he deserves Ben, albeit he's a bit of a whackjob now. The Timman game was incredible.

[@aaronaragon7838]

And the winner of the Nakamura Sportsman Award is...Ginger GM

[@timothyacowin9761]

Hes still alive and fischer died 18 years ago

[@StopFear]

Spassky always looked so bored and and anxious about things other than chess. If you look at his old photos you just feel sorry for him. I would feel depressed also if I was handled by the Soviet team in those days. Good for him that he defected.

[@f.d.3289]

hahahahaaaa Spassky never beat me

[@kebichlact6677]

first

[@tolkienfan1972]

"some form of checkers" oh... You mean "checkers"

[@NoNamer123456789]

I think he means that there are many variants and there isn't like one standardised version like in chess

[@tolkienfan1972]

@@NoNamer123456789 that's my point. It's a joke you see. "Checkers" by itself implies all that. My jokes amuse me anyway, and that's my target audience. :-)

[@NoNamer123456789]

@@tolkienfan1972OK, I didn't get that it was joke. Makes sense.

[@tolkienfan1972]

@@NoNamer123456789 yeah. I have an odd sense of humor. 😁

[@SahnigReingeloetet]

Something something bottom text

[@kingcarisma]

Simpsons! The answer is no..

[@matthewaxe6647]

And in the end isn't that the real truth? The answer is no.

[@iakahdrake2801]

No like because no beard.

[@franklinturtle9849]

I heard Boris Spassky has a very abusive wife.

[@davidblack2970]

Spassky famously said that he and his wife were like 'bishops of opposite colors'.

[@dmitrysh.5899]

Fine sense of humor 😅

[@prot07ype87]

Yeah, it's gold.