For the sport of chess, which country in the world has the highest level of chess?
Undoubtedly, it is Russia (including the former Soviet Union), the southern part of the Russian Federation, and Elista, the capital of the Republic of Kalmykia, is also the city of chess today. You can imagine how important chess is in this country, like table tennis in our country.
The Russians' enthusiasm for chess is unparalleled in the world, especially in the former Soviet Union, when the level of Soviet chess players reached its peak, overlooking the mountains, monopolizing almost all world championships, and chess was also regarded as a national pride by Russians.
To give you an example of the period when chess was "ruled" by the former Soviet Union (including the Russian period)
From 1948 to 1963, Mikhail Batvink dominated the world chess scene for nearly 15 years;
Vasily Smeslov and Mikhail Thar also won the world championship, both Soviets))
1963-1972 was the reign of Tigran Petrosio and Boris Spaski, for nearly 10 years;
10 years of supremacy of Anatoly Karpov from 1975 to 1985;
20 years of supremacy of Gary Kasparov from 1985 to 2005;
Vladimir Kramnik in Russia from 2005 to 2007 also dominated the chess world.
From the data, it can be seen how terrible the dominance of the former Soviets (including Russians) in the chess program was, and the hegemony of nearly 60 years before 2007. However, it is not difficult to find that there was a time gap in the period of 1972-1975.
Legends appear
A skinny Young American who did a miracle: single-handedly snatched the world championship from the former Soviets!
If the person who argues the most about chess and the most controversy, if he is called second, no one dares to call him first.
He is Bobby Fischer, the first and only world chess champion in American history.
Fischer's life is full of legends and controversies, from a world champion, an American "national hero", and then to an American "wanted man". For the second half of his life, he lived a life of exile and displacement. He died of kidney failure in a hospital in Iceland on 18 January 2008 at the age of 64.
The pinnacle begins – the Battle of the Century in 1972
1972 was a sensitive year, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union was in the climax stage, when the Soviet Union can be said to be able to compete with the United States in all aspects, in terms of sports, the Americans are naturally unwilling to lose to the Soviet Union, before 1972, the world chess world has been ruled by the Soviets for 24 years, suppressed in the hearts of Americans, the desire for world championships was finally released in Fischer.
Fischer has hardly encountered much resistance in the Chess King Challenger Candidate Tournament, and his chess path has not yet been matched by the world's top chess players. In 1971, he successfully defeated some of the world's top masters and qualified to challenge boris Spaski. (The latter has dominated the chess game for three consecutive years)
From July to September 1972, Fischer and Spasquitche's Tournament of Chess Championships was played in Reykjavik, Iceland. In 21 innings, Fischer challenged with an overall score of 12.5 to 8.5. This victory set two milestones in his chess career, one was to achieve the championship ideal, and the other was to become the highest scoring player.
Fischer single-handedly defeated the Soviets, the dominant figure in chess history, and became famous in the first battle. As a result, he became a national hero in the eyes of Americans. Americans hailed him as a popular idol of genius. He became a magazine cover character and made frequent television appearances. The number of registered members of the American Chess Federation has tripled, a phenomenon known as the "Fischer Sensation effect." The film "The Way of kings", which was related to Fischer's name, came into being; for a time, various articles, works, and novels about him came out.
But is that really the case? Spascher is 6 years older than Fisher, a talented chess player, the tenth world champion in chess history, one of the greatest players in the Soviet Union, very powerful, before 1972, Späsky and Fischer played a total of 6 sets, Späsky won 3 and remained unbeaten. Why did it fail so badly this time?
The unknown things of the Battle of the Century
Bonus issues
Fischer was a very picky man, and in the run-up to the tournament with Boris Spaski, he offered to say that the prize money was too small. A Banker in London immediately donated an additional $125,000, raising the total prize to $250,000.
The issue of site selection
Spaski liked Iceland when it came to choosing a venue; but Fischer was going to Yugoslavia, and the two did not give in to each other, for which Fischer announced his withdrawal from the game. Later, U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called to encourage him, hoping that he would participate in the competition and win glory for the country. He eventually agreed to go to Iceland to decide the winner.
These two things have made Sparsky feel that this opponent is really "troublesome" and "troublesome", but this is only the beginning.
In the first game, Bobby Fischer unnecessarily trapped an "elephant" and lost the final game. That puts Spassky's record at the World Championships 1-0. However, at the beginning of the second game, the situation changed, Fischer did not come to participate, and the confused Spasky led Fischer 2:0.
The staff managed to get Fischer to play in the third game, but Fischer asked for it.
Matches will not be played in the designated competition hall, but in a table tennis room without any spectators. Spaski was kind and agreed. But that was still not enough for Fischer. When he was again disturbed by a camera that was supposed to broadcast the game for the audience, he refused to play again. This led to a heated quarrel between Fisher and referee Lothar Schmid, much to Spaski's chagrin. He then prepared to get up and leave the room, but Schmid urged him to stay.
The referee described what happened next as follows: I picked them both up, pressed their shoulders to the chairs, and I said, "Now play chess!" Almost unconsciously uttered, Spassky made the first step, 1.d4, as he did in the first game, but this was the beginning of Spaski's downfall.
For the first time in his life, Späsky was exhausted by a tiring argument and lost a game to Bobby Fischer! Spaski then lost his rhythm completely, with a 0-5, 3 draw being a disastrous result of the last eight games. The score was 2:5, 3 draws. (10 games)
But in reality, the pressure on Spassky was much greater. The former Soviets wanted him to give up the game instead of continuing to play under such conditions (thinking that the Americans were looking for trouble). In this way, he and his delegation also had contradictions.
It took Sparsky a long time to recover from the psychological blow. By the start of the eleventh round he had overcome his trauma and had even saved the game in the 11th-20th match (1-1, 8 draws). But Fischer won in the 21st match, ending up 12.5-8.5.
What did this game lead to? Fischer became a "hero", while Spaski has been unstable, often playing abnormally, and eventually never won the world championship again, and the former world champion had a bad time in the Soviet Union, almost becoming a street rat. Eventually left the Soviet Union and settled in France.
If we don't take into account Fischer's absence in the second game and Spaski's aberrant performance in the third to tenth games, we will notice a balanced performance (2-2, 10 draws).
Thus, 1972 Späske was definitely not a chess player less intelligent than Fischer. If all goes well and there is no heated debate about the TV cameras, the game hall and the audience, we might see a very exciting, very balanced game. Spasky's decisive mistake was to oppose the proposal of the Soviet delegation and agree to play a third game in the table tennis room in the above-mentioned cases.
Therefore, he not only had to succumb to the will of his opponents and the pressure of the referees, but also to the wrath of the Soviet Chess Federation. All of this led to a psychological breakdown, which can be clearly seen in the 3-10 races, but Spasky was a good athlete and gentleman. He wanted to play Fischer, and that's what he did. Without these disturbing distractions, no one knows what the end result will be.
In general, Fischer won the Battle of the Century, mainly thanks to the victory of psychological warfare.
"American Hero" fell
Fischer competed for the chess world, although the scenery was temporary. But his strange personality has led to more and more controversy.
In 1992, Yugoslavia, which was under United Nations sanctions, organized a chess tournament to change its international isolation. The U.S. government warned Fischer: "If you participate, you will be fined $250,000 and imprisoned for 10 years under U.S. law." But at the press conference, Fischer openly spat at the warning letter.
He then violated the ban imposed by the United Nations and the United States on Yugoslavia and traveled to Yugoslavia alone, where he and his old rival Boris Spaski had another championship return match. A grand jury in Washington quickly tried him in absentia on charges of "dealing with the enemy," and Fischer became a wanted man in the United States. To evade the lawsuit, he went into exile.
On September 11, 2001, the United States was attacked by terrorism. Fischer went so far as to claim in an interview: "This is excellent news, I want to applaud this kind of behavior, I want to see the United States erased." The angry American public and public opinion denounced the former "national hero" as a "national enemy."
On July 13, 2004, Fischer was arrested by the Japanese Immigration Bureau while preparing to fly to the Philippines at Tokyo's Narita International Airport. At one point, the Japanese government had said it would extradite him back to the United States. Fischer supporters around the world set up the "Rescue Bobby Fischer" committee to rescue Fischer. After unremitting efforts, Iceland, who had witnessed his glory, reached out and agreed to accept Fischer as an Icelandic citizen.
········
Labels such as self-destruction, arrogance, and strange personality are already an inseparable part of Fischer, but despite this, they will not affect Fischer's influence on the world chess world, and Russian chess player Kasparov called Fischer "successful and heroic charm".