World Chess Championship 1969

In the World Chess Championship 1969 World Champion Tigran Petrosian lost his title to his challenger Boris Spassky.

Prehistory

Petrosian had successfully defended his title at the previous World Chess Championship 1966 against Spassky. As a result, Spassky had achieved excellent results in tournaments. He won the tournaments in Beverwijk and Sochi (both 1967). As the most successful chess player of the year 1968, he was awarded Chess Oscar.

Qualification

For the candidate matches the top six finishers were qualified from the Interzonal in Sousse: Bent Larsen, Victor Korchnoi, Efim Geller, Svetozar Gligorić, Lajos Portisch and Samuel Reshevsky. In addition, the finalists from among the candidates competitions came to the Chess World Cup 1966, Boris Spassky and Mikhail Tal. Candidates matches were scheduled on 10 games (quarter - and semifinals ) and 12 games ( finals).

Organization and rules

The competition was held in Moscow. The race was scheduled for 24 games, which would retain his title in a tie Petrosian.

Course

The match began on 14 April and was initially dominated Spasskis: A defeat at the start he made with victories in the 4th, 5th and 8th round more than compensated. In the ninth game of it but he failed to lead the broken game in winning position to win, and it was followed by defeats in 10 games and 11 games in 12 and 14 Spassky got into trouble and had to be happy with the draw. At the end of the match, but he pulled away, and on 17 June he stood firmly as the winner and was the tenth World Champion in chess history.

Follow

Petrosian was no longer able to reclaim his title. In qualifying for the next World Cup in 1972, he was defeated in 1971 at the Candidates final to eventual champion Bobby Fischer; In 1974 he came to the semifinals and in 1977 and 1980, the last eight.