Talk:Boris Spassky

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I've moved this back here from Boris V. Spassky because his middle initial (or middle name in full) is almost never used. List it in the article, for sure, but the convention is to give the article title its most common form. --Camembert

In a recent book (Bobby Fischer goes to War: How the Soviets Lost the Most Extraordinary Chess Match of All Time by David Edmonds and John Eidinow; Ecco, 2004) on the 1972 match, the authors discuss the report that Spassky had a Jewish mother (his paternal grandfather was an Orthodox priest) - when the authors asked Spassky about this, he denied it, saying he had no idea how this idea might have arisen. In the absence of any evidence I think we should accept this. Also according to Jewish religious law there is no such thing as being half-Jewish. I don't speak German, but the German link on this page seems to imply that he was Jewish. PatGallacher 00:11, 2005 Apr 29 (UTC)

Interesting London Telegraph article cited here: Outrage in Russia as Spassky puts name to rabidly anti-Semitic petition. Billbrock 03:25, 12 September 2006 (UTC) More sources can be found here: the petition-signing was widely reported. Billbrock 03:28, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

I'm not sure why two of my changes were removed. Neither appears to be related to the Jack O'Lantern unsourced changes. Spassky's GM title at age 18 was in fact a record at the time, as documented elsewhere in Wikipedia. Furthermore, I believe that the change of "success" to "career" is valid as losing the 1972 match by 4 points and the 1974 match by 3 points can hardly be defined as successes. - albertod4

I removed the latter dilemma by removing sentence altogether. His pinnacle was clearly around 1969, while he was still a force until 1977. Rocksong 02:53, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Spassky may have a better claim to being a prodigy than Fischer does: Botvinnik, in the introduction to his first games collection, praises the talent of the 12-year-old Spassky. (Fischer at 12 was quite strong for his age, but nothing special--he "got good" at 13.) Was Spassky a pre-teen prodigy as were Capablanca, Reshevsky, or Arturo Pomar? I'm not sure. Billbrock 13:05, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Having added an interesting piece of trivia to the David Bronstein page, it seemed sensible to add the same information to this page Vonhangman 08:01, 7 December 2006 (UTC)vonhangmanVonhangman 08:01, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

I disagree with the sentence "Spassky returned home to the USSR in disgrace, and was never again the same dominant player." Spassky returned home and may have been a persona non grata, but ended up winning the 1973 Soviet Championship, which is undoubtedly the strongest Soviet Championship of all time and I believe is a class-15 tournament according to chessmetrics. (I could be wrong, but it is still the one of the strongest tournaments ever). Spassky was still dominant into the 80s, regularly competing in the Candidates' Cycle and was ranked 6th in the world still in 1979. Losing a WC match doesn't make a player less dominant. I won't change it though because God knows you wouldn't want a 22 year old college student writing a thesis about Soviet chess to mess up what has already been typed here...they aren't old or wise enough... The5thHorseman 08:02, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

A lot of the chess articles were originally written in the early days of Wikipedia. While they are a good starting point, some of them do contain a lot of hyperbole - or downright inaccuracies - such as the example you point out. By all means edit it yourself, otherwise I will when I get the chance. Rocksong 01:37, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Awesome job on the editing Rocksong (I figure you did it). The article, in my opinion anyway, is more appropriate. I would add something about Linares 1983, where Spassky placed 1st ahead of Karpov, and that this was the primary reason Spassky became a French citizen. This was the primary event that permanently ended Spassky's relationship to the Soviet Union. If you need a source, I will refer you to Andrew Soltis' volume "Soviet Chess". It's an excellent book and one that helped me complete my thesis. I'd edit it myself, but I'm not totally familiar with how things are edited on here. It's your decision though, I just want to commend you on the work you've be doing on here. I may come across badly at times...but I really do appreciate it. The5thHorseman 23:07 3 March 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, I fixed up his 80s record after reading your input, but User:FrankEldonDixon has also been busy. Thanks for your thanks, anyway. :) Like I said before, feel free to edit it yourself. If you leave a mess, someone will usually come along and clean up after you :) Regular Wikipedia editors have a "watchlist", so if you edit a chess-related article, the chances are I (and a few others) will see the change and check that it looks sensible (which I'm sure it would be, in your case). Rocksong 11:26, 4 March 2007 (UTC)