Of the twenty-one games that were played, Spassky won one other, the 11th., when he produced a novelty, or, as the Russians say, a novinka, winning Fischer’s Queen. But Fischer did not deviate from the task at hand. He had all kinds of surprises in store for Spassky during the match. For one, he did not invariably open with his usual King Pawn. The Russians had prepared well for him in that area. Rather, he mixed his openings thereby throwing Spassky completely off-balance. Fischer had departed from his normal routine of regular moves for the match. Chessplayers, perhaps like boxers, are trained to accept and absorb punishment without showing signs of strain or stress. But as the match went on and Fischer drew inexorably ahead, Spassky seemed to crack under the strain, according to Grandmasters who witnessed the encounter. He had begun to make blunders almost of an elementary nature. Spassky, apparently, was suffering from Fischer-fear.
Some people are of the view that Fischer had set the stage for a Spassky crash during the match with his hysterics and long list of demands. These included a demand for a new Mercedes-Benz automatic to be placed at his disposal for the duration of the match; a demand that the chessboard and pieces be changed–the Icelandic Chess Federation had engaged an artisan to make a heavy table with inlaid marble squares between 2
