Chess - The Scotsman 20/08/12

By JOHN HENDERSON
Published on 20/08/2012 00:00

When the Soviets dominated chess, Svetozar Gligoric was their biggest threat during the late 1950s/early 1960s.

He defeated world champions Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian more than once. But unlike some Grandmasters, Gligoric didn’t believe in psychological warfare to unsettle his opponents. He had a simple credo, “I play against pieces,” and this went on to be the title of his autobiography.

I Play Against Pieces” is a very insightful book from Gligoric, and he had a Scottish literary link, with two wonderful books published in 1972 that should be in everyone’s chess library.

Scottish champion David Levy wrote Gligoric’s Best Games 1945-1970 for the Glasgow-based publishers William Collins (now HarperCollins) that was followed up by the best-known book coming from the maestro himself, Fischer vs. Spassky: The Chess Match of the Century, which sold more than 400,000 copies worldwide for Collins after the 1972 world championship match in Reykjavik. And on a personal note, Gligoric’s instant book on the match was also my first proper chess book – and I have been re-reading it for research for this column during our 40th anniversary month remembrance of Fischer-Spassky 1972.

For today’s game we go to Levy’s book, where Gligoric’s 14 ...Nd4!! against Tigran Petrosian is hailed as one of the most boldest and brilliant moves ever, which reduced the former world champion into the humiliating queen retreat of h1.

T Petrosian - S Gligoric

Zagreb, 1970

King’s Indian Defence

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 Be2 0–0 6 Nf3 e5 7 0–0 Nc6 8 d5 Ne7 9 b4 Nh5 10 Nd2 Nf4 11 a4 f5 12 Bf3 g5 13 exf5 Nxf5 14 g3 Nd4 15 gxf4 Nxf3+ 16 Qxf3 g4 17 Qh1 exf4 18 Bb2 Bf5 19 Rfe1 f3 20 Nde4 Qh4 21 h3 Be5 22 Re3 gxh3 23 Qxf3 Bg4 24 Qh1 h2+ 25 Kg2 Qh5! 26 Nd2 Bd4 27 Qe1 Rae8 28 Nce4 Bxb2 29 Rg3 Be5 30 Raa3 Kh8 31 Kh1 Rg8 32 Qf1 Bxg3 33 Rxg3 Rxe4 0–1