Spassky, Boris V vs Fischer, Robert James, World Championship 28th

Game 13 of the 1972 Reykjavík match, played on August 10, was one of Fischer’s most-analyzed wins of the championship. The score was 7-5 in Fischer’s favour entering the game. Spassky needed to win to keep the match contested; Fischer needed only to avoid catastrophe to extend his lead and approach the 12.5-point target.

The opening was an Alekhine’s Defense, an unusual choice at world- championship level. Fischer as Black accepted the central space concession that the defense entails and looked for counterplay against the white pawn centre. By move 25 the position was approximately level. Spassky’s position deteriorated through a series of subtly inaccurate decisions in the middlegame, and by move 50 Fischer had a clearly winning endgame.

The conversion took 74 moves total — an extraordinary length for a game already past control point. Fischer’s technique through the long endgame was praised by Soviet commentators as the most accomplished display of his career to that point. The win brought the score to 8-5; the title was effectively decided.

Spassky resigned without ceremony. He had been fighting from a defensive position for the previous six games; Game 13 confirmed that the defensive strategy could not bring the match back. He won only one more game in the remaining eight, with five draws and two further losses to Fischer.

The Alekhine’s Defense gained brief popularity in club chess after Reykjavik 1972, and Fischer’s handling of the structure became reference material for anyone studying that opening at master level. The Alekhine had previously been considered slightly suspect at the highest level; Fischer’s choice of it for Game 13 — and his win in it — restored its reputation for a generation.