5 ms·

The unnerving, unbalancing effect Fischer had in the 1971 Candidate's tournament was absolutely due to his play. He put up immense resistance against lines prep

by tehnub 4y ago

The unnerving, unbalancing effect Fischer had in the 1971 Candidate's tournament was absolutely due to his play. He put up immense resistance against lines prepared by teams of Soviet GMs (example here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8-90cPf61M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8-90cPf61M), which was the sort of thing that broke their nerve. He was not intimidating or manipulating his opponents outside of the board; if there were any outside-chess forces at play, it was the pressure from Soviet higher-ups embarrassed to lose to a lone American. Also, I don't recall that his opponents played worse than they would have been expected to against an opponent so much stronger than them — maybe after their fifth loss in a six game match, they'd become demoralized. This is nothing like the Carlsen-Niemann case.

Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
> He was not intimidating or manipulating his opponents outside of the board They absolutely were blundering much more than they did vs other opponents, showing a far lower quality off play than usual. Also I believe you didn't read much about his championship match. Remember how the games were moved to a different room, and why?
- tehnub 4y ago
  Arjun blundered against Magnus far more than usual last weekend. That's what stronger players tend to do to you. I thought you were talking about the Candidate's tournament. As for the championship match, it's not generally believed that Spassky severely underperformed anyway. He won several games and put up good fights in the draws and losses. >I believe you didn't read much about his championship match I am quite familiar with the surrounding circumstances, including the pre-match negotiations. I do not see how any of this "mentally unbalanced" or "broke" Spassky, unlike (arguably) Larsen and Taimonov. Furthermore, he's generally been commended for his behavior as a consummate professional and a "gentleman" in the circumstances. I wonder if you are as familiar with chess (the game, professional play, and its history) as you lead on to be, posting all over this thread.
  - Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
    Well, I only visited the chess school for maybe 6 or 7 years in my childhood, and my peak lichess rapid rating was slightly below 2600, so I believe I'm definitely not the best expert on these matters.

by tehnub 4y ago

Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago

> He was not intimidating or manipulating his opponents outside of the board They absolutely were blundering much more than they did vs other opponents, showing a far lower quality off play than usual. Also I believe you didn't read much about his championship match. Remember how the games were moved to a different room, and why?

tehnub 4y ago
Arjun blundered against Magnus far more than usual last weekend. That's what stronger players tend to do to you. I thought you were talking about the Candidate's tournament. As for the championship match, it's not generally believed that Spassky severely underperformed anyway. He won several games and put up good fights in the draws and losses. >I believe you didn't read much about his championship match I am quite familiar with the surrounding circumstances, including the pre-match negotiations. I do not see how any of this "mentally unbalanced" or "broke" Spassky, unlike (arguably) Larsen and Taimonov. Furthermore, he's generally been commended for his behavior as a consummate professional and a "gentleman" in the circumstances. I wonder if you are as familiar with chess (the game, professional play, and its history) as you lead on to be, posting all over this thread.
- Andrew_nenakhov 4y ago
  Well, I only visited the chess school for maybe 6 or 7 years in my childhood, and my peak lichess rapid rating was slightly below 2600, so I believe I'm definitely not the best expert on these matters.