Fischer scents victory as Spassky loses his form

THE CHESSBOARD is trimmed by three millimetres, a glass partition insulates Bobby Fischer from any noise from the audience, his custom-built leather chair rocks and swivels without a squeak, banners around the board proclaim the games four times as 'The World Chess Championship', and Boris Spassky is not allowed to take his place at the table until Bobby has arrived for the game.

When these and countless other conditions are satisfied, Bobby Fischer, despite 20 years' inactivity, can still produce the lethal clarity of thought that took him to the world championship in 1972.

On Sunday night, Fischer won the 11th game of his re-match with Spassky to take a 5-2 lead. With Fischer now half-way to the 10 victories needed to win the match, the whole circus moves from Sveti Stefan in Montenegro to the Serbian capital, Belgrade.

With Spassky in poor health and even worse form, Fischer's true capability is hard to assess. But his chess looked very healthy in the eleventh game. He made an innovative pawn sacrifice at move seven, and his sparklingly brilliant attacking play was wrapped up with a delicately accurate endgame. Here are the moves:

White: Fischer

Black: Spassky

1 e4 c5

2 Nf3 Nc6

3 Bb5 g6

4 Bxc6 bxc6

5 0-0 Bg7

6 Re1 e5

7 b4] cxb4

8 a3 c5

9 axb4 cxb4

10 d4 exd4

11 Bb2 d6

12 Nxd4 Qd7

13 Nd2 Bb7

14 Nc4 Nh6

15 Nf5] Bxb2

16 Ncxd6+ Kf8

17 Nxh6 f6

18 Ndf7] Qxd1

19 Raxd1 Ke7

20 Nxh8 Rxh8

21 Nf5+] gxf5

22 exf5+ Be5

23 f4 Rc8

24 fxe5 Rxc2

25 e6] Bc6

26 Rc1] Rxc1

27 Rxc1 Kd6

28 Rd1+ Ke5

29 e7 a5

30 Rc1 Bd7

31 Rc5+ Kd4

32 Rxa5 b3

33 Ra7 Be8

34 Rb7 Kc3

35 Kf2 b2

36 Ke3 Bf7

37 g4 Kc2

38 Kd4 b1=Q

39 Rxb1 Kxb1

40 Kc5 Kc2

41 Kd6

Black resigned