Discussions on the events leading up to the 1972 World Championship chess match and the personalities of Fischer and Spassky accompany descriptions of the twenty-one games played

This book describes the intense rivalry--and collaboration--of the four players who created the golden era when USSR chess players dominated the world. More than 200 annotated games are included, along with personal details--many for the first time in English. Mikhail Tal, the roguish, doomed Latvian who changed the way chess players think about attack and sacrifice; Tigran Petrosian, the brilliant, henpecked Armenian whose wife drove him to become the world's best player; Boris Spassky, the prodigy who survived near-starvation and later bouts of melancholia to succeed Petrosian--but is best remembered for losing to Bobby Fischer; and "Evil" Viktor Korchnoi, whose mixture of genius and jealousy helped him eventually surpass his three rivals (but fate denied him the title they achieved: world champion).

Boris Spassky is one of the greatest chess players in the history of the game. He was the World Champion for three years, after winning the title by beating Tigran Petrosian. His name is forever linked with his great rival Bobby Fischer and their epic 1972 ‘Match of the Century’, which did so much to popularize the game throughout the world. Over the board, Spassky is renowned for his universal style, as he was equally skilled in all phases on the game. In Spassky’s best games his pieces seemed to combine together in perfect harmony, and he produced a number of memorable masterpieces. In this book, Grandmaster Zenón Franco examines in detail Spassky’s chess style, selects and studies his favourite Spassky games, and demonstrates how we can all improve our chess by learning from Spassky’s play. Move by Move provides an ideal platform to study chess. By continually challenging the reader to answer probing questions throughout the book, the Move by Move format greatly encourages the learning and practising of vital skills just as much as the traditional assimilation of knowledge. Carefully selected questions and answers are designed to keep you actively involved and allow you to monitor your progress as you learn. This is an excellent way to improve your chess skills and knowledge. Learn from the games of a chess legendImportant ideas absorbed by continued practiceUtilizes an ideal approach to chess study

This book tells the story and the drama of the Chess Match of the Century. There have been many books on the 1972 Match between Fischer and Spassky for the World Chess Championship. However, this book is different from the others in that it was written by professional writers who wrote regularly for The New York Times. The quality of the writing is superior. It also does not bore the non-chess players who are likely to be reading this book. It does not contain technical variations that were not played in the actual games. It was only because his results showed that he was clearly the strongest player in the world that Lt. Col. Edmondson, President of the United States Chess Federation, and Max Euwe, President of the World Chess Federation ("FIDE"), went to extraordinary lengths to get him to play. Meanwhile, the rest of us who knew Fischer watched from the sidelines, feeling almost certain that Fischer would not sit down to play, or if he did start the match he would never complete the schedule. We were proven wrong and they were proven right. Included in this reprint is a new introduction and all moves of the twenty games actually played.