Famously Smyslov suggested the following for White: 25 e6!? Nc4 26 Qe2 Nb2 27 Nf5!?

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After 27...Nd1 28 Ng7 Kg7 29 Qe5 f6 30 Qd5

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Here Kasparov in OMGP4 continues with 30...Nb2?? 31 g5 hg5 32 fg5 Qd8 33 Nd7 concluding "and the black king will most probably not survive." However Kasparov misses Black's best defense from the second diagram: 30...a3! 31 Rd1 a2 32 Qd4 Kh7 33 Ra1 Rd8 34 Nd7 c5 35 Qc4 Qc6

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<...Although Kavalek and I knew Bobby's plan of attack, Boris seemed uncomfortable when the game continued. The Russian nervously circled the table while Bobby considered this move, then that. A position was reached which many experts judged drawn. At this stage Bobby decided to go into a huddle. He stewed about 10 minutes over Move 62, another 10 over 63, and then an hour over his 64th turn! Time spent in finding the best try in a drawn position. And suddenly Bobby had won...>>

Lombardy's numbers for the time Fischer spent for his moves does not add up. The following much more plausible account is from http://www.crackteam.org/2008/12/17...

Bondarevski used Smyslov's line to say that an in form Spassky would have won this game, but that is in doubt now.

I agree White can draw but he has to give up any ambition of getting anything more than that.

<Bondarevski used Smyslov's line to say that an in form Spassky would have won this game, but that is in doubt now.>

I find that a bizarre statement, why did everybody experience a dip in form when they played Fischer at that time? I mean if anything Spassky did better in the match than his rating suggested (he gained rating points from the match!).

<Just a question <Hesam7> Which engine did you use, and did it consider 35 Qd5 Qc7 36 Bxf6 in your last line? An early version Houdini considers that line even (the trick is that taking the bishop allows 36...exf6 37 e7 and Queen entry to f7+)>

I use Critter 1.6a, it is free, you can find it here: http://www.vlasak.biz/critter/

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Yes 35 Qd5 Qc7 36 Bf6 leads to a drawn endgame, Critter saw the same idea with 35 Qc4 Qc7 36 Bf6 which I tried to avoid by 35...Qc6. But here 35 Qd5 Qc6? 36 Qc6 bc6 37 Bf2 is not good for Black because both of his Rooks will be tied to defending the pawns on e7 and a2 and he can not make any progress.

Bottom Line: In Smyslov's line White is likely to draw.

The argument is based on Fischer. And Fischer alone.

Chess is just not pure cold mathematics or silicon .. it's a sport too .. over the board sport..

I guess Fischer's failure to play either Karpov or Kasparov forces his admirers to resort to these silly expedients.

No one ever thought or suggested that Petrosian reached new heights against Karpov and Kasparov. Most of his games with Karpov were GM draws. All of his games against Kasparov except the last were played when Kasparov was a teenager. If you compare Fischer's teenage games against Petrosian with Kasparov's, Bobby does not come off well, though of course Petrosian was stronger in '62 than '82.

I would take that seriously if it did not happen to everyone else who played Fischer at the time.

With regard to Fischer, this is what I think happened in those 1970's games. In 1971, he had defeated another dynamic player, Viktor Korchnoi, in a match were he just made one draw after another. Then, there was a game where Korchnoi let his guard down a little, and Petrosian siezed his chance to earn the lone win in that match.