In the Spassky Variation White plays 4. e4 to take advantage of the fact that an en passant capture must be made immediately after the enemy pawn advances.

In the event, however, Hort made the sporting gesture of offering Spassky one of his own time-outs so that the ex-champion could complete his recovery.

Polugaevsky had worked with Boris Spassky as the latter was preparing for his successful 1969 world championship match with Tigran Petrosian, and the two had made a searching analysis of the opening used in this game.

During 1975, Spassky played two events, the first being the annual tournament at Tallinn, where he finished equal second with Fridrik Olafsson, scoring 9½ / 15 (+ 5 − 1 = 9 ), one point behind Keres, the last international event won by the latter before his sudden death in June 1975.

Adams first played there at age 10, and by 12 missed an international master result by only half a point in his Lloyds Bank Masters debut where, in line with Barden's policy of matching the best talents against top grandmasters, he also performed well in a blitz game against Spassky.

He won the Lone Pine tournament in 1973, tied for second place behind reigning World Champion Boris Spassky in the international tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1969, and took first place in the first-ever Grand Prix in 1980.

His best international result was first place (+ 10 = 8 − 1 ) at Bucharest 1953, ahead of Petrosian, Smyslov, Boleslavsky, and Spassky.

Spassky missed qualification from the 1982 Toluca Interzonal with 8 / 13, finishing half a point short, in third place behind Portisch and Eugenio Torre ,< ref >< http :// www. 365chess. com / tournaments / Toluca_Interzonal_1982 / 22359 </ ref > both of whom thus qualified.

In the 1956 Championship he came equal first with Taimanov and Boris Spassky in the main event, finishing second after the playoff.

Another disappointment for Spassky came at the qualifier for the next Interzonal, the Soviet final, played in Moscow 1961, where he again lost a crucial last-round game, this to Leonid Stein, who thus qualified, as Spassky finished equal fifth with 11 / 19, while Petrosian won.

In February – March 1973, Spassky finished equal third at Tallinn with 9 / 15, three points behind Tal ; he tied for first at Dortmund on 9½ / 15 (+ 5 − 1 = 9 ) with Hans-Joachim Hecht and Ulf Andersson.

He reached his top rank in the Elo rating system at the start of 1971, equal third in the world ( with Korchnoi, behind Fischer and Spassky ) with a rating of 2660.

Among his best results in other important tournaments were: clear first at Iwonicz Zdroj 1957, equal first with Taimanov at Dresden 1959, equal first with Lajos Portisch at Beverwijk 1965, clear first at Kislovodsk 1966, clear first at Gothenburg 1967, clear first at Kislovodsk 1968, equal first with Mikhail Botvinnik at Wijk aan Zee 1969 ( ahead of Keres ), equal first at Havana 1971 with Vlastimil Hort, equal first at Hilversum 1973 with Laszlo Szabo, clear first at Budapest 1973 ahead of Anatoly Karpov, clear first at Teesside 1975, clear first at Moscow 1975 ( ahead of Boris Spassky, Viktor Korchnoi, and Petrosian ), clear first at Las Palmas 1976, equal first with Gennadi Sosonko at Wijk aan Zee 1977, clear first at Bogotá 1978, equal first at Bern 1987 with Daniel Campora, clear first at Dortmund ' A ' 1989, and equal first at New York Manhattan 1990 with Gregory Kaidanov, at age 65.

He finished fourth in 1952 (+ 8 = 7 − 4, equal with Boleslavsky and behind Botvinnik, Taimanov, and Geller ) and fourth 1957 (+ 10 = 6 − 5 equal with Spassky and behind Tal, Bronstein, and Keres ).

In the 24th Soviet final, played at Moscow in January – February 1957, Spassky shared fourth place with Tolush, as both scored 13 / 21, while Mikhail Tal won the first of his six Soviet titles, which began his ascent to the world title in 1960.

A win would have qualified Spassky for the Interzonal, and a draw would have ensured a share of fourth place with Yuri Averbakh, with qualification possible via a playoff.

Spassky finished in fourth place at the annual IBM tournament held in Amsterdam, one point behind winners Petrosian and Albin Planinc.

Spassky played in the 1990 French Championship at Angers, placing fourth with 10½ / 15, as Marc Santo Roman won.

There, he gained the Grandmaster title by tying for second through fourth places, with Bruno Parma and Arthur Bisguier, behind reigning world champion Boris Spassky.

He scored 4. 5 / 7 in the preliminary round to advance to the final, where he scored 5. 5 / 9, to finish fourth ; the winner was Boris Spassky.

His first top-class round-robin event was Moscow 1959, where he was the youngest contestant, and scored 6 / 11 for a shared fourth / sixth place ; the winners were Spassky, Smyslov, and David Bronstein.

At Santa Monica 1966, with seven of the world's top 16 players in the field, he shared fourth / fifth places on 9. 5 / 18, as Spassky won, ahead of Fischer.

He had been living in seclusion in Yugoslavia due to an arrest warrant issued by the United States for violating the U. N. blockade of Yugoslavia with his 1992 match against Spassky, and for tax evasion.

During his youth, from the age of ten, Spassky often worked on chess for several hours a day with master-level coaches.

In his first attempt at the Soviet Championship final, the 22nd in the series, held in Moscow 1955, Spassky tied for third place with 11½ / 19, after Smyslov and Efim Geller, which was sufficient to qualify him for the Gothenburg Interzonal later that year.

By sharing seventh place with 11 / 20 at Gothenburg, Spassky qualified for the 1956 Candidates ' Tournament, held in Amsterdam, automatically gaining the grandmaster title, and was then the youngest to hold the title.

At the 23rd Soviet final, held in Leningrad in January – February 1956, Spassky shared first place on 11½ / 19, with Mark Taimanov and Yuri Averbakh, but Taimanov won the subsequent playoff to become champion, defeating Spassky in both their games.

Spassky tied for first place at Moscow 1959 on 7 / 11, with Smyslov and David Bronstein.

Soon after Spassky notched a victory at Riga 1959, with 11½ / 13, one-half point in front of Vladas Mikenas.

Spassky finished in a tie for ninth at the 27th Soviet final in Leningrad, with 10 / 19, as fellow Leningrader Viktor Korchnoi scored his first of four Soviet titles.

Spassky travelled to Argentina, where he shared first place with Bobby Fischer, two points ahead of Bronstein, at Mar del Plata 1960 on 13½ / 15, defeating Fischer in their first career meeting.

Spassky shared second with Polugaevsky at Havana 1962 with 16 / 21, behind winner Miguel Najdorf.

At Leningrad 1963, the site of the 31st Soviet final, Spassky tied for first with Stein and Ratmir Kholmov, with Stein winning the playoff, which was held in 1964.

Spassky won at Belgrade 1964 with an undefeated 13 / 17, as Korchnoi and Borislav Ivkov shared second place with 11½.

In the 1964 Soviet Zonal at Moscow, a seven-player double round-robin event, Spassky won with 7 / 12, overcoming a start of one draw and two losses, to advance to the Amsterdam Interzonal the same year.

Spassky lost a keenly fought match to Petrosian in Moscow, with three wins against Petrosian's four, with seventeen draws, though the last of his three victories came only in the twenty-third game, after Petrosian had ensured his retention of the title, the first outright match victory for a reigning champion since the latter of Alekhine's successful defences against Bogoljubov in 1934.

Karpov was on record saying that he believed Spassky would easily beat him and win the Candidates ' cycle to face Fischer, and that he ( Karpov ) would win the following Candidates ' cycle in 1977.

Spassky was considered an all-rounder on the chess board, and his adaptable " universal style " was a distinct advantage in beating many top grandmasters.

Spassky also won at Beverwijk 1967 with 11 / 15, one-half point ahead of Anatoly Lutikov, and shared first place at Sochi 1967 on 10 / 15 with Krogius, Alexander Zaitsev, Leonid Shamkovich, and Vladimir Simagin.

Spassky shared first at the annual IBM event held in Amsterdam 1970 with Polugaevsky on 11½ / 15.

Spassky then represented France in three Olympiads, on board one in each case.

At the time, Spassky was rated 106th in the FIDE rankings, and Fischer did not appear on the list at all, owing to his inactivity.

On September 23, 2010, ChessBase reported that Spassky had suffered a more serious stroke that had left him paralyzed on his left side.

The chess game between " Kronsteen " and " McAdams " in the early part of the James Bond movie From Russia With Love is based on a game in that opening played between Spassky and David Bronstein in 1960 in which Spassky (" Kronsteen ") was victorious.

His contributions to opening theory extend to reviving the Marshall Attack for Black in the Ruy Lopez ( 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. 0-0 Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 0-0 8. c3 d5 ), developing the Leningrad Variation for White in the Nimzo-Indian Defence ( 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Bg5 ), the Spassky Variation on the Black side of the Nimzo – Indian, and the Closed Variation of the Sicilian Defence for White ( 1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 ).

Spassky is respected as a universal player, a great storyteller, a bon vivant on occasion, and someone who is rarely afraid to speak his mind on controversial chess issues, and who usually has something important to relate.

Three square gates existed on this side of the wall, which in the 17th century, were known as: Konstantino-Eleninsky, Spassky, Nikolsky ( owing their names to the icons of Constantine and Helen, the Savior and St. Nicholas which hung over them ).

The opening has never been popular at the top level, though a number of prominent players have employed it on occasion ( for example, Richard Réti against Abraham Speijer in Scheveningen 1923 and Boris Spassky against Vasily Smyslov in the 1960 Moscow – Leningrad match ).

Four winners-Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, and Viswanathan Anand-have gone on to win the World Chess Championship.

Larsen's unusual openings were on full display at the 1964 Amsterdam Interzonal, where he shared the 1st – 4th places on 17 / 23 with Boris Spassky, Mikhail Tal, and Vasily Smyslov, advancing as a Candidate.

In Malmö, however, he lost the semi-final by 2½ – 5½ to Boris Spassky, who went on to win the title.