In 1989 former World Champion Boris Spassky came to Australia for a series of simultaneous displays and lectures. At the time he was still competing at the top level (including the short lived PCA Grand Prix series) and still 3 years away from his infamous re-match with Bobby Fischer.
The tour was organised by Jaques Englander, who was a well known chess sponsor and importer of Novag Chess Computers. While Englander handled most of the tour, he asked me to handle the Canberra leg of the trip. I enlisted the help of Alan Hartstein to coordinate local transport, as he had one important attribute, the keys to his fathers Mercedes.
Picking up the former World Champion at the airport, we immediately took him for a round of interviews with local radio and television. He was particularly taken with the variety of plants in Canberra, sampling some of berries and seeds he spotted, despite our concerns of their health effects.
The main purpose of his visit was a 20 board simul at the Belconnen Mall. Organised with the help of the Games Cupboard, it attracted both a strong field of players, and a huge group of spectators. Before the simul began, Spassky announced that he would play 1.e4 on every board, and if his opponent chose to play 1. ... e5, then 2.f4 would be his next move. A number of players took up this challenge and the simul got underway.
As an old hand at these kind of events, Spassky soon spotted who the main threats were and strategically offered some early draws. One player who accepted the offer was former ACT Champion Milan Gricic. One player who definitely played on was Michael Mescher, who chose to meet the Kings Gambit with Be7 (1.e4 e5 2.f4 ef 3.Nf3 Be7) While I believe the game score has been lost to history, Mescher stayed a pawn ahead before converting the ending into a win. This was only one of 2 losses by Spassky during the entire tour, and was a cause of great celebration for the spectators.
Apart from the loss, and 3 or 4 draws, Spassky of course won the remaining games. At one point words were exchanged between one of the player who took an early draw, and a participant who had reason to resign, but chose not to. The suggestion that he was not being 'respectful' to the former world champion was met with the reply 'But who has got the most value for money tonight'
After the simul had finished, Spassky, Mescher, myself, Alan Hartstein and former ACF President Nathan Stirling (plus others) returned to city and had late night coffee at Gus's Cafe. Spassky and Mescher spent most of the time analysing the game just played, trying to find improvements for the ex World Champion!
The next day, we took Spassky out to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, to see the local flora and fauna. He took great delight in seeing the kangaroos and koalas, and exploring the Australian bush. He mentioned that as a younger man he worked as a forest ranger, and so such adventures were very enjoyable.
His last full day in Canberra was spent playing tennis, and relaxing. At one point he needed assistance in ringing his wife from the hotel ( in those pre-mobile phone days) and when told he needed to start with 0 (to dial out) followed by 00 to start an international call he remarked 'So we start by castling long.'
After that he continued his journey around Australia, entertaining hundreds of local players with his charm, kindness and brilliant chess play.
