The Age Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Friday, July 14, 1972 - Page 12
Spassky Moves Into The Lead Commentary by the Melbourne Chess Club
World chess champion, Boris Spassky, finished off the first game of the 24-game match in flawless fashion.
He took a 1-0 lead over American challenger Bobby Fischer when he won the adjourned first game of the world chess title series on the 56th move.
His team of three analysts had confirmed earlier he had a technically won position at the adjournment and at the resumption of play the Soviet champion took full advantage of it.
But Spassky's win was a result of Fischer's uncharacteristic blunder on his 29th move which stunned chess players all over the world.
Fischer's miscalculation may be explained by the tension and drama that has surrounded the match. ([Amen])
Here are the final moves from the adjourned position.
41. PxP KxP
42. K-R5 K-B4
[Fischer cannot save his game with 42. … P-N4 either, e.g., 43. K-N6 P-N5; 44. K-B6 P-K4; 45. B-Q6 and Black must lose a pawn. OR 43. — P-K4; 44. B-Q6, P-N5; 45. K-B6 with the same result.
43. B-K3 K-K5
44. B-B2 K-B4
45. B-R4 P-K4
46. B-N5 P-K5
47. B-K3
Now it is clear Black has lost. Spassky's Bishop dominates the black squares and prevents the advance of Fischer's pawns.
47. … K-B3
48. K-N4 K-K4
49. K-N5 K-Q4
50. K-B5 P-R4
51. B-B2 P-N4
52. KxP K-B5
53. K-B5 K-N5
54. KxP KxP
55. K-Q5 K-N4
56. K-Q6 and Black resigns.
Fischer is now powerless to prevent the fall of his Knight pawn and the promotion of Spassky's last pawn, e.g.;
56. … P-R5
57. K-B7 K-R3
58. B-B5 K-N4
59. B-B8 K-R3
60. B-R3 K-N4
61. KxP
It is interesting to note that if Spassky's QRP had been on QR5 instead of QR4 in the adjourned position Fischer would have forced a draw by retreating his King to QR1 and forcing stalemate.
The second match in the series was due to begin at 3 a.m. this morning, Melbourne time. This time Fischer will commence play with the white pieces.
CAPTION: The fatal move. In striving to avoid the boredom of a draw, Fischer rashly took Spassky's King Rook pawn only to find his Bishop trapped and captured six moves later.
