Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: ISP
Boris Spassky (1937-2025) was born in St. Petersburg, Russia (then Leningrad, Soviet Union) on January 30, 1937.
In the summer of 1941, during the World War II, Boris and his older brother, George, were evacuated from the besieged Leningrad to an orphanage in the region Kirov. It is said that during the long train ride, Spassky learned the rules of chess.
After the war, their parents took Boris and George to Moscow. And in summer of 1946 they finally returned to Leningrad. Back in the home city, his brother took Boris to Krestovsky Island, and there he saw a chess pavilion. It was there where he fell in love with the game. As Spassky later said: “Looking back, I had a sort of predestination in my life. I understood that through chess I could express myself, and chess became my natural language.”
Spassky always said that he “became a professional at 10”. At that age he started working with his first coach, Vladimir Grigorievich Zak, at the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers. Besides training him, Zak also fed him in times of severe poverty, shortly after the Second World War. Zak also helped him to get a stipend, enough to support his whole family.
At 15, he scored his first major result: second place at the Leningrad Championship, behind GM Mark Taimanov but ahead of GMs Grigory Levenfish and Viktor Korchnoi.
At 18, Spassky showed his huge talent. He finished half a point behind the winners, GM Efim Geller and Smyslov, and shared third with Botvinnik at the 22nd Soviet Championship.
In the 1956 Candidates Tournament held in Amsterdam and Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, Spassky finished third behind Smyslov and Paul Keres.
His education steered him toward journalism. He explained it saying that: “I did not even decide for myself, but it happened in my life. I first enrolled in the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics of Leningrad University. I studied there for about a year, but then I was forced to switch to philological studies because chess required great absences and mathematics does not tolerate this. At the Faculty of Philology, I got permission from the rector to leave for tournaments and training camps.”
In 1968 Spassky qualified for what would be his most successful Candidates cycle. He defeated Efim Geller 5½-2½ and Bent Larsen 5½-2½ and advanced to the finals against Viktor Korchnoi whom he defeated with the score 6½-3½. And so, Spassky earned the right for a match against Petrosian for the World Chess Title in 1969. Spassky won (12.5-10.5), thanks to his universal style and strong psychology and became the 10th official world chess champion.
Boris Spassky was a chess player with a universal playing style, comfortable in any position.
In today’s game we can appreciate his practical treatment of the classic isolated pawn (ISP) theme.
Spassky not only solves the question of his ISP, but reverses the situation leaving his opponent with an ISP.
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