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Boris Spassky
overcame the devastating loss of his world championship
title the previous year to win the 41st USSR
Championship in 1973. The event took place at the
Central Culture House of the Railways in Moscow, Russia from October 2nd to October 26th
and arguably boasted the most talented collection of
players in the history of Soviet championship
tournaments.
Four former world champions (Spassky,
Tigran Petrosian,
Mikhail Tal,
Vasily
Smyslov) and one future world champion (Anatoly
Karpov) competed in the tournament.
Additionally, there were two players who were world
title runner-ups (Victor Korchnoi, Paul Keres)
and three players who were perennial candidates for the
world title (Lev Polugaevsky, Efim Geller,
Mark Taimonov). The last place finisher (Alexander
Beliavsky) would go on to be one of the top ten
players in the world and win two Soviet championships.
Coming on the heels of Bobby Fischer taking the world
championship title from them, the Soviet government
demanded that all of it's strongest players participate
in the tournament and that no draws under 30 moves would
be allowed. Any player to break this rule would
not be allowed to travel outside of the country for the next two years. All
of this seemed to be an attempt to strengthen a system
that many viewed as getting weaker due to the loss of
the championship to the American player.
Spassky's victory was all the more impressive because he
had not been allowed to participate in tournaments for
several months after losing the title and was thought to
have lost his mastery over the board. His victory
sparked belief that he would again come through the
championship cycle to challenge Fischer and re-take his
title. |
