Douglas Griffin

They didn't have any last year!

Well, I went to Wijk aan Zee in January because I thought I had to be present at this tournament at least once in my life.
But I had so much fun that I'm going back next year as well - for the final 3 rounds, like this year.

I use semi-colons in text messages...

1972: BOBBY FISCHER - This Little Thing with Me and Spassky | Classic BBC Documentary | BBC Archive YouTube video by BBC Archive

Gold: from the BBC Archives - the 1972 documentary 'Bobby Fischer - This Little Thing with Me and Spassky'.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzlO...
Apart from Fischer interviews, the film features archive footage from the 1959 Candidates, plus footage of the Teesside International of spring 1972.

Yes, Botvinnik was notoriously paranoid. I think he seriously hurt Flohr's feelings too on one occasion, by implying that he didn't consider him trustworthy.

Not only this.
In his book 'Match Botvinnik-Smyslov na pervenstvo mira' Botvinnik mentions two other examples, in the openings of games 12 & 19, that he says gave him cause for suspicion.

Though Botvinnik parted company with him after the 1954 contest.
In his book on the match he implies that Smyslov must had have advance knowledge of some of the World Champion's opening choices. It does seem that he suspected Kan (though this may have been paranoia...).

Just wait till he becomes a fully-fledged Popescu.

Thanks for that link.

It really does feel at times like it's the 1930s all over again...

Petition for the clocks to go forward at 4pm on a Friday afternoon instead of in the middle of Saturday night...

"Some people have regarded the north as being impoverished compared to the iron age of the south of Britain. This shows that individuals there had the same quality of materials and wealth and status and networks as people in the south."

I'm sorry, but this find is not in the north of Britain.

Three World Champions.
Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky, pictured at the 41st USSR Championship final in Moscow, October 1973. With his back to the camera - Mikhail Tal.
(📷: V. Savostianov, TASS.) #chess

56 years old today - Ukrainian GM and former World #2, Vasyl Ivanchuk.
Pictured here in 1991.
(📷: V. Rodionov, Novosti Press.) #chess

It was a grand day out.

Beinn Tulaichean (left; 946m), seen from near the summit of Cruach Àrdrain (1046m).
Southern Highlands of Scotland.
We climbed both mountains today. Some much-needed time away from the computer screen.

'The Master Game'.
Robert Byrne (USA) v. Viktor Korchnoi (Switzerland)
Top-class grandmasters on the BBC, and a classic game by Korchnoi.
This episode was broadcast on BBC2 on Wednesday, 27th February 1980. #chess

He would have turned 82 today. #chess

The 41st USSR Championship in 1973 was very strong, maybe the strongest ever, but it wasn't a selection tournament for the World Championship qualifiers.

В Москве прошла церемония прощания с Борисом Спасским Церемония прощания с 10-м чемпионом мира по шахматам Борисом Васильевичем Спасским (1937-2025) прошла в Москве в Преображенской церкви, которая входит в комплекс Храма Христа Спасителя. Проститься со ...

Some photos of Boris Spassky’s memorial service in Moscow are available via the link below.
The tenth World Champion was buried in the Troyekurovo cemetery earlier today. 🕯️

ruchess.ru/news/all/v_m...

Anatoly Karpov at the 41st USSR Championship (Moscow, 1973). A blog post dedicated to four key games by Anatoly Karpov played at the 41st USSR Championship – one of the strongest championships of them all – plus some brief background to the event…

The game v. Karpov is featured on this blog post:
dgriffinchess.wordpress.com/2020/10/03/a...

Pictured, according to the archive, in 1986 - grandmaster & Women's World Champion* Maia Chiburdanidze (b. Kutaisi, USSR, 1961).
*She held the title from 1978-1991.
(📷: B. Kaufman, Novosti Press.) #chess

A photo of Tal, after his make-over for the film!

Iraida Spasskaya - sister of Boris - also passed away this year, on 23rd January.
A 4-time Soviet champion at Russian draughts (shashki), she was born in wartime evacuation in Sverdlovsk (modern Yekaterinburg) on 6th November 1944.
Pictured here (right) in 1965.
(📷: M. Berger, Novosti Press.)

I saw him at the Lloyds’ Bank Masters in London in 1984. Was a thrill just to be playing in the same room as him.

Photo: D. Donskoi, Novosti Press.

Very sad news. Boris Spassky 1937-2025.
RIP.

Well done!

"It is staggering what chess journalists were allowed to do in their newspaper columns then - treating a difficult endgame in great detail & quoting long sections from Chéron's handbook on the sports page of a big national newspaper" (re. coverage of Timman-Velimirović, Rio de Janeiro 1979).

Hans Ree ('My Chess', 2013) again - on the level of chess content that at one time used to be printed by the national press (at least, in the Netherlands).

A journalist who once saw [Kasparov & Karpov] chatting together amiably enough asked one of the two - I forget which one - how he should square this with the reports about their supposed enmity. The answer he got was: "Who else can I talk about chess with?"
- Hans Ree, ‘My Chess’ (2013).

Pictured at the Lloyds Bank Masters, London, August 1982 (L to R): Vlastimil Hort, Tony Miles, Jeremy Morse (chairman of Lloyds Bank), János Flesch, Viktor Korchnoi, Ljubomir Ftáčnik. (Photo via http://britishchessnews.com.)

I learned today that the main character was named after Sir Jeremy Morse (1928-2016), banker, chess problemist, crossword devotee & friend of Colin Dexter.
Morse was chairman of Lloyds' Bank, who were an extremely important sponsor of chess here in the '80s & 90s.
(See Alt tab for details.)