Boris Spassky, world champion from 1969 to 1972, celebrates his 87th birthday on 30 January. Spassky is regarded as a universal player and played numerous fantastic attacking games during his career. One of his favourite openings with White was the King's Gambit, which he used to beat players such as David Bronstein, Bobby Fischer, Yasser Seirawan and Anatoly Karpov. | Photo: Boris Spassky, Chess Olympiad Saloniki 1984 | Photo: Gerhard Hund
1993 was a particularly memorable year in chess history. Short and Kasparov had decided to leave FIDE and organise their World Championship match on their own, and FIDE, with its then President Campomanes, then organised an alternative World Championship match with Karpov and Timman. But this was not under a good star. During the opening ceremony pyrotechnics set fire to a banner on the stage.
20 years ago today, on September 8, 2002, the match Russia vs. The Rest of the World began in Moscow. It was a rapid match with the world's best players at that time. The Russians wanted to follow up on the USSR vs. the World matches from 1970 and 1984, but things did not go as desired. Dagobert Kohlmeyer was in Moscow in 2002 and now shares memories of a better time. | Photo: Evgeny Bareev, Vladimir Kramnik and Garry Kasparow wonder what's going. | Photo: Boris Dolmatovsky | All other photos: D. Kohlmeyer
When Boris Spassky, World Champion from 1969 to 1972, had to play the Sicilian with the white pieces, he seemed to get particularly inspired. Today, the living legend from Leningrad turns 85, and to celebrate him we share a selection of brilliant games he played with 1.e4 c5 during his illustrious career. | Photo: Gerhard Hund
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