In Boris Spassky’s passing, we have lost a chess pearl. Thankfully for the students of the cerebral game, his pearls can be seen through his games.
I remember as if it were yesterday, when I drew one game with black pieces against him at Lloyd’s Bank way back in 1984. It came in just 19 moves and 90 minutes. Despite me claiming a moral victory of sorts in that game, Spassky himself came across and asked me if I wanted to analyse. He ended up discussing it with me for over two hours. My greatest learning class in chess came free of cost!
