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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Finally, at Barcelona WC 1989, Spassky scored 7½ / 16 for a tied 8th – 12th place, as Kasparov shared first with Ljubomir Ljubojević.

During this period, there were several triumphs in his city of birth, when he shared first place with Bronstein and Spassky in 1959, was a joint winner in both 1961 ( with Kholmov ) and 1962 ( with Vasiukov ), and won outright in 1963.

He played at Reggio Emilia over the New Year of 1986 / 87 and shared second spot with Hort, Chernin and Spassky, after Ribli.

In the USSR Championship, Baku 1961 ( URS-ch29 ), Keres scored 11 / 20 for a shared 8 – 11th place, as Boris Spassky won.

at Moscow for URS-ch41, scoring 8 / 17 for a shared 9th – 12th place, as Boris Spassky won.

At Belgrade 1964, he shared 5th – 6th places with 10 / 17 ( Boris Spassky won ).

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.

He shared 1st – 2nd at Winnipeg 1967 with 6 / 9, along with Klaus Darga, ahead of Spassky and Keres.

Larsen shared 2nd – 3rd places at Palma de Mallorca 1968 with 13 / 17, along with Spassky ; Viktor Korchnoi won.

At San Juan 1969, he scored 9 / 15 for a shared 6th – 7th place ( Spassky won ).

At Leiden 1970, he shared 3rd – 4th places with 5½ / 12, ( Spassky won ).

His second place was shared with Milko Bobotsov and two World Champions, Vasily Smyslov and Mikhail Tal, ahead of two others, Boris Spassky and Tigran Petrosian, among a host of other strong players.

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.

In 1969, Karpov became the first Soviet player since Spassky ( 1955 ) to win the World Junior Chess Championship, scoring an undefeated 10 / 11 in the finals at Stockholm.

Karpov defeated Lev Polugaevsky by the score of + 3 = 5 in the first Candidates ' match, earning the right to face former champion Boris Spassky in the semifinal round.

Spassky won the first game as Black in good style, but tenacious, aggressive play from Karpov secured him overall victory by + 4 − 1 = 6.

* 1972 – The first game of the World Chess Championship 1972 between challenger Bobby Fischer and defending champion Boris Spassky starts.

Spassky won the Soviet Chess Championship twice outright ( 1961, 1973 ), and twice lost in playoffs ( 1956, 1963 ), after tying for first place during the event proper.

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.

Spassky then tied for first in a semifinal for the 24th Soviet championship, thereby qualifying.

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

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.

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 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.

Spassky then finished ahead of Petrosian and a super-class field at Santa Monica 1966 ( the Piatigorsky Cup ), with 11½ / 18, half a point ahead of Bobby Fischer, as he overcame the American grandmaster's challenge after Fischer had scored 3½ / 9 in the first cycle of the event.

While Spassky was undefeated and handed tournament victor Larsen one of his three losses, his fourteen draws kept him from seriously contending for first prize, as he came two points behind Larsen.

In March – April 1970, Spassky played first board for the Soviet side in the celebrated USSR vs. World event at Belgrade, where he scored + 1 − 1 = 1 in the first three rounds against Larsen before Stein replaced him for the final match, as the Soviets won by the odd point, 20½ – 19½.

In November and December, Spassky finished the year by tying for sixth with Tal, scoring + 4 − 2 = 11, at the Alekhine Memorial in Moscow, which was won by Stein and Anatoly Karpov, the latter's first top-class success.

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.

In the 1974 Candidates ' matches, Spassky first defeated American Robert Byrne in San Juan, Puerto Rico by 4½ – 1½ (+ 3 − 0 = 3 ); he then lost the semifinal match to Anatoly Karpov in Leningrad, despite winning the first game, (+ 1 − 4

Karpov improved so quickly under Botvinnik's tutelage that he became the youngest Soviet National Master in history at fifteen in 1966 ; this tied the record established by Boris Spassky in 1952.

In 1952, at fifteen, Spassky scored 50 percent in the Soviet Championship semifinal at Riga, and placed second in the Leningrad Championship that same year, being highly praised by Botvinnik.

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.

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

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 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.

Then, in his Candidates ' Final match against Mikhail Tal at Tbilisi 1965, Spassky often managed to steer play into quieter positions, either avoiding former champion Tal's tactical strength, or extracting too high a price for complications.

The final was against his Leningrad rival Korchnoi at Kiev, and Spassky triumphed (+ 4 − 1 = 5 ), which earned him another match with Petrosian.