MARK RUBERY CHESS
Former world champion Boris Spassky gave a long interview to the Russian newspaper ‘Sport Express’ here follow further extracts where he gives a less than glittering portrait of his old rival Viktor Korchnoi:
Q: In Zagainov’s book I read – 1968, Kiev, the match against Korchnoi. A quote by you: “I understood on the very first day that I’d win, because Korchnoi arrived with his wife while I turned up with two blondes. I was choosing, fussing about it, and it had a good influence on me. It’s necessary to have some outside stimulation”.
BS: There were blondes. Perhaps not two, but more. But as for deciding during the match who would inspire me to victory… No. At the time I really did immediately realise that I’d beat Korchnoi. Do you want to know why? I got some friends together, took a car and raced to Yeysk, on the Sea of Azov. There I took a look at Korchnoi’s latest games – all of them with lots of moves! Q: What does that mean?
BS: You really can’t see? Instead of winning a game in 40 moves he spent 140! The quality of each move was low! Discovering that, I calmed down. I stopped preparing. I went fishing in the sea and left. I won the match quite easily. There were no tricks there, but then in Belgrade, in our 1977 match, Korchnoi accused me of “hypnosis”! Q: How did you respond?
BS: From some point onwards I hated him. For the first time Korchnoi was confronted with an opponent who was emanating hatred. Usually it would all be from his side. Q: How did you manage to get so worked up?
BS: It’s very simple – Korchnoi started to interfere with my play! When my clock was going he’d pull faces. Snort. The most disgusting thing was that he took to scraping his nails on the table. Some people can’t stand that sound. When he was going to offer a draw Korchnoi would call over the arbiter and pass on the draw offer through him, though I was sitting opposite – say whatever you want. Q: His behaviour really upset Tigran Petrosian.
BS: Petrosian and him loved to kick each other’s legs under the table, they say. Vasiukov also said that Korchnoi kicked him. After the match I asked Tigran what had gone on with Korchnoi. He responded: “Korchnoi? Kindergarten! But Karpov – wow!” Anatoly wasn’t yet World Champion. Q: Botvinnik didn’t rate Karpov at first, but when did you realise the scale of his talent?
BS: It was crying out at you! You just can’t compare him to Korchnoi. Above all, there’s a colossal difference in chess talent. Q: Korchnoi’s not becoming World Champion was merited?
BS: 100 percent. He never had any individuality at all. Q: In his memoirs Korchnoi wrote about you: “We started the match as friends and ended it as enemies”.
BS: That’s how it was in Belgrade. After that we never kept in touch. In 2009 these two old lions drew a Rapid Match 4-4 WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN