Boris Spassky Quotes

When I played Bobby Fischer, my opponent fought against organizations - the television producers and the match organizers. But he never fought against me personally. I lost to Bobby before the match because he was already stronger than I. He won normally.

Nowadays it would be reasonable to have an annual world championship.

There is only one thing Fischer does in Chess without pleasure: to lose!

After I won the title, I was confronted with the real world. People do not behave naturally anymore - hypocrisy is everywhere.

My forte was the middlegame. I had a good feeling for the critical moments of the play. This undoubtedly compensated for my lack of opening preparation and, possibly, not altogether perfect play in the endgame. In my games things often did not reach the endgame!

I still hope to kill Fischer

Nowadays the dynamic element is more important in chess - players more often sacrifice material to obtain dynamic compensation.

We can compare classical chess and rapid chess with theatre and cinema - some actors don't like the latter and prefer to work in the theatre.

I don't play in tournaments, but I follow some.

The computer age has arrived, and it influences everything: analysis, preparation, information. Now a different talent is required - the ability to synthesize ideas.

I try to help developing junior chess. When I lived in USSR, I got a lot of free help from very good coaches - now I am trying to repay that debt.

Time control directly influences the quality of play.

The shortcoming of hanging pawns is that they present a convenient target for attack. As the exchange of men proceeds, their potential strength lessens and during the endgame they turn out, as a rule, to be weak.

Bobby Fischer has an enormous knowledge of chess and his familiarity with the chess literature of the USSR is immense.

We were like bishops of opposite color.

I think that the World Champion should try to defend the quality of play more than anyone else.

Recently I saw Kasparov and he looked to me as still young and potent champion.

For example, computer defends well, but for humans its is harder to defend than attack, particularly with the modern time control.

When I am in form, my style is a little bit stubborn, almost brutal. Sometimes I feel a great spirit of fight which drives me on.

I don't want ever to be champion again.

Nowadays young people have great choice of occupations, hobbies, etc, so chess is experiencing difficulties because of the high competition. Now it's hard to make living in chess, so our profession does attract young people.