Many including myself would proclaim Bobby Fischer (playing white) to be the greatest and best chess player to have ever lived. Many including myself would proclaim this game played in the 1972 world championship as the greatest single game performance of a chess player of all time. While the loser of this game and of the match, Boris Spassky is often overlooked in history, he was an absolute titan of chess. Easily top 10 chess player of all time, arguably top 5 chess player of all time, and even though in pop culture he is often portrayed as a villain, he was and is and absolute gentleman and hero of the game. After being completely dominated by Fischer in this game, on the 41st move Spassky (playing black) resigned and then stood up and himself gave Fischer a standing ovation.
In the movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer” It is said “Bobby Fischer got underneath it (chess) like no one before him and found at it’s center...art” no line from any film could be any more true than that, Bobby Fischer at his peak was more than a chess player, was more than a genius, was more than a tormented madman, he was and should forever be remembered as an artist. No player before or since his brief reign at the top of the chess world has come close to his brilliance and artistry. There is a reason why even 40 years after he won the world championship, his name is still greater and more well known than the game itself.
Music is “Hand covers bruise” by Trent are not and Atticus Ross from the motion picture “The Social Network”
