Something I liked about Spassky is that when Fischer got arrested, he demanded his release.   Finally he stated, "If you won't release him, put me in his cell with a chess board."

Spassky was an ultimate gamesman.

Fischer's performance rating from this match was 2660, which would have put him at #10 in the world on the January 1993 fide rating list. He did this after not playing chess for TWENTY YEARS at the age of 50. Simply incredible.

“Chess doesn't drive people mad, it keeps mad people sane” - Bill Hartston

I feel like the thumbnails never get enough attention, they are really well made!

Imagine.... Bobby Fischer was the only US-born world chess champion during 50+ years of complete Soviet chess domination. Yet, the Soviets were kinder to the US champion than the US government itself.

It's worth nothing that Bobby's proposal reportedly lost by a single vote. It's also worth noting that the conditions Fischer demanded for a return match with Karpov we're no different and even more fair than previous conditions set by Botvinnik who demanded an instant rematch.

Bobby Fischer was a genius, he invented increment and Fischer random chess.

Fischer is an all time great regardless and a genius who was simply ahead of his time on the chess board. His story and that of Morphy and Sultan Khan are simply unbelievable and also sad in that they weren't able to do justice to their talents. Perhaps if chess had sports psychologists like they have in different sports now then maybe such talents could have been fostered better. Fischer should have been better handled by the US admin despite his outbursts. He gave the US a strong ideological bragging right at an intellectual sport and at the height of the cold war rivalry. Regardless of his stances later he deserved better. A lot better.

I think Fischer was the most talented player of all time. To do what he did pre computer age is hard to fathom. Having to get all his education from books and a board on front of him is incredible. No engine to check his lines, no giant databases to prep for opponents, just incredible.

I personally went to those matches several times.

Let me give you a bit of context. Serbia was a living hellhole at the time, like Venezuela today, except with a war happening right next door and even more of a pariah status. The average salaries were a couple of euros a MONTH and hyperinflation was rampant. Nothing worked, nothing functioned, crime and violence were everywhere and people were just desperate to survive somehow. You were essentially considered upper-middle-class if you weren't starving. The entire country was completely sealed off and travel out of it was next to impossible, perhaps the worst sanctions in human history. Today, no country would ever face such sanctions since the world is no longer unipolar and you could never get a vote for it in the UN.

In this context, imagine a 10 year old kid in this situation, entering the Sava Center with one of my grandparents, a glitzy convention center. The entrance was free. It was literally the event of the year so the place was packed. I believe even the drinks were free or purchasable for a very low price. It was the atmosphere of a cocktail party. People wore their best clothes. I didn't understand a single bit of chess theory, but just a chance to watch something this big was absolutely magical. It gave me hope to endure the coming years.

Oh, and on a final note the guy organizing it, Jezdimir Vasiljević, was a major crook who ultimately stole hundreds of millions of dollars from desperate people looking to invest into his bank. I mean, the state took most of it, but he eloped with quite a bit.

please cover the history of the soviet chess school, would be fascinating to learn about the styles and approach to the game that saw that succession of champions from botvinnik up to kasparov and kramnik.

Levy, your historical chess game videos are amongst your best videos! Your talent for storytelling equals your talent for commentating games, and that makes these videos so much fun!

Just a note from someone who lived in Yugoslavia '92 - Organiser (Jezdimir Vasiljevic) was not an entrepreneur/businessman, but a scammer (and convicted criminal) that was close to the ruling party of president Slobodan Milosevic (died in Hague in 2006, while being tried for war crimes).

He was arrested after his Bank was found to be a Ponzi/pyramid scheme - his bank was giving >10% monthly for savings in hard currency (USD/EUR), by paying it with new customers' savings. Needless to say, the government knew what he was doing, but did nothing, course he bought a few months of "social peace" in war thorned country, and he was helping the country (smuggling) the oil, whose import was banned by the Internationally imposed sanctions. Of course, they "tried" to arrest him, when he started to fail to give back people their money, but he "somehow" got over the border in March of 1993.
He did return a decade or so later, and was even convicted to a relatively small sentence (5 years), but he was released just after the trial ended (he spent 5 years in jail during the trial).
In 2013. he even participated in a reality show on government propaganda TV - Yep, not much political/judicial progress happened in Serbia since the 90s.


By the way, a US law (not the Internation) is the one that sanctioned the play of Fischer in Yugoslavia (or to be paid by Yugoslav entity, to be precise), Spassky, a French citizen at the time (from '70s), didn't have that problem.

Edit: I was writing this comment, while the video played in the background, so I just saw that Levy did mention the whole Vasiljevic thing. Kudos to Levy for not missing those kinds of details!

Don't get me wrong, I love all your recaps. But this one in particular was one of the best. Incredible commentary, explaining everything in detail very well, just a blast. Story time was also sick. Great video.

Also, Fischer was a SAVAGE

My dad was watching this game live for free and pretty much the whole of Belgrade became circled around chess for the few days that they were there, which was truly brilliant, he also told me that he was standing and commentating on the game alongside jezda, the criminal that funded the match

Bobby Fischer was not only banned but also persecuted by US administration for this match. Ironically, he fell from a hero in 1972 to a traitor in 1992 for playing the same guy.

i love when gotham makes videos of old games

the US Department of the Treasury warned Fischer before the start of the match that his participation was illegal, that it would violate President George H. W. Bush's Executive Order 12810 imposing United Nations Security Council Resolution 757 sanctions against engaging in economic activities in Yugoslavia In response, during the first scheduled press conference on September 1, 1992, in front of the international press, Fischer spat on the US order, saying "this is my reply"

The US government was also insane to go after somebody who had been their hero during the Cold War. Kudos to tiny Iceland for standing up against them.

Passed away at the age of 64, for every square of the board.