2025 Speed Tournament This Week! - Boris Spassky Passes Away

GM Boris Spassky

The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between 

4pm and 10pm 

at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'. 

Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

LCCC would also like to announce that our 2025 Speed Tournament will kick off on March 10th. There is no cost to enter. The entire tournament will be played on this one evening! We normally start the first round about 6:30 pm, so be there for the fun!

Now some really sad news

Former World Chess Champion GM Boris Spassky died on February 28th, 2025 at the age of 88. 

One of the finest chess players to ever live and a true sportsman in every sense of the word. Even Bobby Fischer, who hated the Russians, praised Spassky as a true champion and great man. I have personally played over many of Spassky’s games and am amazed at his talent.

I have played over Paul Morphy’s games, Mikhail Tal’s games and Bobby Fischer’s games and do eventually see the path to victory. They simply over-powered their opponent with brutal tactics. 

But when I play over Boris Spassky’s games, I cannot find the thread of his genius until much, MUCH later in the game! He seems to sneak up on you, hitting a weakness you had that no one else could detect. His opponent would lose not knowing he was ever in danger.

Bobby Fischer lost to Boris Spassky in the first game of the biggest World Chess Championship the world had ever seen. This match occurred during the height of the Cold War. USA vs USSR. Capitalism vs Communism. Which system was better?

Fischer being Fischer, did not show up for game two.  He claimed there was too much noise in the playing hall from the television cameras, and did not show up for Round 2. This results in a forfeit and now Spassky leads 2 – 0.

Fischer demanded that from now on, the games be played in what was basically a closet off the main stage for privacy and silence. This of course was out of the question to the sponsors, the organizers and of course the Russian government! It looked like Spassky would go up 3 – 0 and probably win the match on forfeit. All Spassky had to do to remain world champion was show up at the chessboard on the stage as scheduled, and the match would be over.

But Spassky told them all, and the world, that he would not win that way. He would play Fischer in that back room! Not only making everyone in the communist Soviet Union mad at him but defying the KGB! The Russian secret police! 

The Soviet Union wanted and needed this victory over the West as proof that communism was a better system than capitalism. Spassky was actually putting his life on the line, in order to beat Fischer over the board!

Fischer won that game in that tiny back room. Now it was Spassky who demanded they return to the stage for the rest of the match.

Fischer now agreed. 

Fischer went on to dominate the rest of the match against a now frazzled opponent. How different the world, and the chess world would be if Spassky was not a true gentleman and sportsman? We will never know.

Walter Dobrich (Vlad to his friends), is no stranger to Canadian chess. Vlad is a master level player. But more important, Vlad was an excellent chess promoter and organizer.  He disappeared into the world of backgammon in the late 1970’s and became a great player there also! In recent times But today Vlad has opened a club in Toronto and he organizes blitz tournaments every week and writes this tribute to Boris Spassky:

I’ve had some personal interaction with him when he was World Champion. He played in the Canadian Open in Vancouver in 1971. I was there as well, and we both arrived at round six with 5-0 scores and consequently were paired for round six. Showing no respect, I played what I later learned was his pet line in the Nimzo-Indian against him.. After some 30 or so moves I was ready to resign but I saw a chance for a futile attack where I would get to check him once or twice – I could one day tell my grandchildren “I checked the world champion Boris Spassky! I saw I would have to resign after four moves.

For some reason he appeared to be lost in concentration before making his next move which was forced. I looked up, “Why is he looking? This is trivial.” At which point I saw his eyes were bright red! I thought, ”I am insulting him when he is clearly tired from last night.” His next two moves were slightly different from what I expected, and I was forced to resign in three moves instead of four!

Some ten minutes later, in the post mortem room, we played out the opening where he told me that I had misplaced my bishop at which point I looked up to see his eyes were bright white. I said, ”Boris, your eyes were red like a rabbit’s 10 minutes ago, now they’re white again! His answer was “Caruso was a great singer, he sang beautifully, effortlessly. But in between performances he always had to change his shirt!” What a compliment to me! Especially when I recall that he played sitting sideways to the board as if he had only a passing interest in the position.

A day or two later we were walking the UBC campus and entered the student’s common room where there was a group of some dozen or so crowded around a chess board going over the days game from the tournament. Boris casually squeezed into the group and suggested some play. At that point, whoever was the chief expounder on the game swatted him away as if he were some annoying fly. Smiling broadly, Boris retreated. The students never knew who it was that tried to make a suggestion!

After the tournament, we happened to be strolling a main avenue in Vancouver. I said “We have a major tournament in Toronto this weekend (the Labour Day Open at the CNE) perhaps you would like to play?”

“Unfortunately, my flight goes from here to Ottawa and then to Moskva” said Boris.

”Well, we can always change the ticket at a travel agency” said I, just as we approached a travel agency!

“You can do that?” said Boris.

Ten minutes later we were leaving the travel office with a rerouted ticket by way of Toronto.

“This will not cause some problem for you?” said I.

“The KGB has 100 files on me, 101 will make no difference.” said Boris.

And so, we ended up having a great Labour Day Open with five other GMs as well as the reigning World Champion. The GMs were (if I recall) Larsen, Benko, Browne, Byrne and Biguire. There was a tie for first with Spassky and several of the GMs. I was the tournament director and can say that I directed the only weekend swiss tournament in the history of chess to boast a reigning world champion as a participant!

Walter (Vlad) Dobrich

2025 Dice Tourney Winner and Speed Tourney Date Announced - Also World Championship History

Mikhail Botvinnik

The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between 

4pm and 10pm 

at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'. 

Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

The first LCCC Dice Chess Championship was crowned as Thomas Valenzuela won it with a perfect 3 – 0 score!

A beautiful shoestring wreath with 3 car mirror dice hanging from it was the trophy. Shocking, but this work of art has not been worn to the club since it was ceremoniously placed around his neck. Hard to believe.

LCCC would also like to announce that our 2025 Speed Tournament will kick off on March 10th. There is no cost to enter. There will be 2 rounds of two games per opponent with a time limit of 5 minutes with no delay or increment. 5 minutes is all there is! We normally start the first round about 6:30 pm, so be there for the fun!

Speaking of Championships, how about a little World Chess Championship history? Sure, not as glamorous as the LCCC bling, but let’s learn something anyway.

Alexander Alekhine’s death in Portugal in 1946 confronted the chess world with an unprecedented situation. Never before had the chess world champion die while holding the crown. The long chain of almost 100 years was broken.

The decision was made by the world chess body FIDE, to hold a 6 person tournament, each playing each other 4 times. The winner of this tournament would be the new world champion.

Dr. Euwe was the last champion still alive as Jose Capablanca had passed on. So Dr. Euwe was an obvious choice.

Equally obvious were Mikhail Botvinnik and Paul Keres from Russia.

Rueben Fine and Sammy Reshevsky from the USA were also obvious.

The last spot was given to a young Russian player Vasily Smyslov due to his impressive 3rd place victory in the Russian Chess Championship, behind Botvinnik and Keres.

It was intended to hold the first half of the tournament in The Hague in Holland and the second half in Moscow. But Fine declined to play stating publicly that he was working on his doctorate degree. But privately he stated that he did “not want to spend 3 months of his life watching Russians throw chess games to each other.”

Bobby Fischer would make a similar declaration in public some 20 years later.

With Fine out, it was decided that the five players would meet each other 5 times; ten rounds at The Hague and 15 rounds in Moscow.

Mikhail Botvinnik won easily with a score of 14 points to Smyslov’s 11. Keres and Reshevsky had 10.5 and Euwe 4.5. 

This proved that Botvinnik was as far ahead of his rivals in 1948 as Alekhine was over his in 1931. 

This tournament proved also to be a coming out party for Smyslov, as he would later win the world championship.

 And it was also the sign off for Dr. Euwe, who never again regained his world class form.

2024 Dice Chess Championship This Monday - And Meet the Man Who Would be Champion

 

Carl Schlechter

The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between 

4pm and 10pm 

at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'. 

Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

The first LCCC Dice Chess Championship will conclude this coming Monday. Tom V will take on your humble scribe. Don’t tell my opponent, but I have been rolling dice all week to get ready for this match.

Meanwhile he is probably doing something silly like having a life and playing chess to get ready. We will see who’s preparation was better.

Now for another installment of: Great Chess Players You Probably Never Heard Of

Carl Schlechter

This man had the World Championship in the palm of his hand. Why he failed to grab the glory we will see in a minute.

He was a shy, timid man, but was lucky enough to be born Viennese. And the Vienna Chess Club was proud of their grandmaster. And another member of this chess club was Baron Rothschild, and he was not the only wealthy member of this club.

Back in those days, not only did you have to win the right to challenge the current champion, but the challenger had to find the sponsors to pay for the match and prize fund. This was no problem for Schlechter.

The length of the match was debated for some time. Carl was know as the “draw wizard”, so a match to a certain number of wins (like 8 wins as was the condition for the last championship) scared the sponsors and the older Champion Lasker.

Finally, it was decided that the 1910 Chess Championship would be a ten-game match. The first five in Vienna and the last five in Berlin. 

Schlechter’s nickname was well founded. To get a draw from Carl was very easy to do, even in a losing position. And he offered draws to opponents who looked out of sorts or sickly. If his opponent was late to the board, he would subtract that amount of time from his own clock. Bu he was also the most resourceful defender the chess world had ever seen.

With this match being of such a short variety, it was expected that a single win could decide the winner.

Game 1 and 2 were both draws but neither were timid games. And it was actually Schlechter taking the risks and putting on the pressure.

Games 3 and 4, were all Lasker. The champion, always a slow starter in matches or tournaments, now seemed to find his form. But Schlechter, as was his reputation, was nearly impossible to defeat. These games too ended in draws.

Then the last game in Vienna, for once Lasker got a solid advantage and held the winning advantage. But on move 54, maybe from fatigue, the World Champion made a rare blunder and Schlechter seized the opportunity. Later deep analysis showed that a crazy queen sacrifice from Lasker would of made a draw, but instead he ended up in a mating net.

So, as they moved to Berlin, most thought the world had a new champion. Surely the King of Draws could conjure up five more.

Games 6, 7 and 8 were draws, but fighting draws as Lasker threw every surprise and attacking idea he has at Schlechter, but Carl held firm as always.

Then came Game 9. And for the second time in the match, Lasker had a real strong advantage. But in a time-crunch for both players, it was Lasker who slipped, and the edge disappeared into another draw.

The tenth and final game lasted through two adjournments, 71 moves and took 3 days to finish. This was the most dramatic chess game in history to that point and may still be.

With only needing a draw, for some reason it was Carl Schlechter going all out to win. He could force draws better than anyone in the world. But instead, it was he that went into very deep waters in the opening with a daring pawn push.

At the first adjournment, Schlechter had the advantage. The next day at move 34 he had a forced draw by choosing a line of play that traded down the material. Carl had to have seen it, but didn’t play it.

Instead, he played the better move. One that would bring him closer to a win. But two moves later, Carl missed the winning line. With that, Lasker wriggled out of mortal danger. Five moves after that, another forced draw line appeared for Schlechter and again he made the more aggressive move right before the 2nd adjournment.

The next day, Schlechter did not play like Schlechter, but Lasker played like Lasker and crushed Carl. The match ended in a tie and the title stayed with Lasker.

A proud and gallant man had the Chess World Championship in his hands and let it slip thru. 

Do you want to know how he died just 8 years later at age 44?

He died of starvation and exhaustion in the last year of World War One. There was very little money to be made by chess players in those times. He was much too proud to ask for help from anyone. One cold winter day he was found dead in his room with no coal in his stove and no food or money anywhere in the room.

LCCC Back! New Club Tournament Announced and Chess Can Be a Problem!

The Livingston County Chess Club meets every Monday night between 

4pm and 10pm 

at the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Green Oak Mall in Brighton, MI. 

Stop in for some friendly chess, good food and 'refreshments'. 

Everyone of all ages and playing strength are welcome to attend. And free lessons to all beginners!

I want to open by thanking everyone for starting the official 2025 LCCC grand opening with a bang! Twenty-six players were here last Monday night. 

Hope to see everyone return again…..and again!

Just for fun, we will be having our first ever LCCC Dice Chess Championship starting next week. Don’t worry if you never played it before. Few of us have. 

The tournament is free to enter, and the simple rules are already posted here. Just type in the blog search box "Dice Chess" and the article will appear. And, of course the rules will be available at the Club for the duration of the actual tournament. 

So, don’t worry. Just play and have fun putting some gambling and “LUCK” into your chess match.

Now, some history about chess;

If you think chess has always been pure….or thought to be pure, your humble scribe has some news for you.

Chess has more skeletons in the closet than Bluebeard, Blackbeard, Machiavelli and Captain Kidd put together!

If you dig into the 6000 years of chess history you will find that the game itself was thought of as a menace to religion, morals, home life and politics.

In 1118, Zonares, Head of Justice for the Emperor wrote from his monastery that all clergymen who departed from virtue by playing chess shall be banned from the church!

His quote was, “"Because there are Bishops and clergy who depart from virtue and play chess, dice or drink to excess, the Rule commands that such shall cease to do so or be excluded; and if a Bishop or elder or deacon or subdeacon or reader or singer do not cease so to do, he shall be cast out: and if laymen be given to chess-playing and drunkenness, they shall be excluded."

He would not be in favor of our upcoming tournament!

French employers in the 1800’s would often require their apprentices to promise in writing that they would not play chess, either on the job or in their off time.

Chess may have gained a bawdy reputation because it was once used as a ruse by a suitor to gain access to his lady’s bedroom. Chess players and minstrels were permitted visit the maiden in her chambers in order to “entertain her” with game or music.

The ladies of the time pondered ways to obtain a knowledge of chess in order to be able to “be courted” more often.

Norsemen took it a step further. Prospective suitors for the hands of their daughters expected them to play chess with the men of the family in order to determine if he was a worthy prospect.

The game also made problems for families. Baldwin IX, Count of Flanders, beat up his wife when she beat him at chess. In revenge, she later refused to pay a fine for him for a small crime and let him stay in a dungeon to cool off…for 13 years!

Chess indirectly helped with the birth of the USA! George Washington it is said, won the Battle at Trenton because the British General Rahl was so deeply absorbed in a chess game, that he put a note warning him of Washington’s approach in his vest pocket and continued playing!

Playing chess can be a problem it seems.