Taljechin,
That's a great story about Spassky and Kasparov. I have heard something like that before, but I have no idea if it's true.
Woofwoof, you made some very interesting comments.
Regarding Tigran Petrosian: He was the best blitz player in the Soviet Union
yes, even better than my favorite player of the time, Mikhail Tal. Petrosian grew up during WWII and saw his homeland destroyed. He was the consummate fighter, but hated losing more than he loved winning. He believed that the World Champion was little more than the first among equals, and treated his opponents with perhaps too much respect. This was definitely
not weakness.
Regarding Smyslov: I hadn't heard the story about his crisis of faith, but that he was able to play such amazing chess and be (a rarity among chessplayers) a well-rounded person even after losing the championship speaks volumes for his strength of character. In fact, any Soviet player who survived both "The Great Patriotic War" and Stalin and Khruschev and Brezhnev is not weak in my book.
Tal's illnesses are legendary, but so are his performances despite his illness. If strength can be said to be overcoming adversity, then Tal is one of the strongest players of all time.
Lasker was a great fighter when he was at the chess board, and his match against Capablanca should never have happened. But if you want to see how strong he was, you need look no farther than the St. Petersburg tournament when by all rights he should already have retired.
If you are looking for moral cowardice, Alekhin (whose chess remains one of my favorites) takes the title. I don't begrudge him not facing Capablanca in a rematch (which I think he would have won). I do hold his pro-fascist statements against him. As a world champion chess player and a first-rate thinker, for him to claim ignorance of what the NAZIs were is sickening.
Spassky's lack of fighting spirit is an interesting topic. He was notorious for taking important losses badly. Early in his career, he lost a crucial game to Tal (or was it Bronstein? I don't remember now) that he was winning and took nearly a decade to recover his form.
Petrosian, Lasker, Taimanov and Spassky all lost badly to Fischer and never fully recovered. Perhaps it was time to pass on the generational torch, or perhaps Fischer was so powerful that he demolished his opponents' spirits. If you believe the latter (and Taimanov's
Selected Games supports that thesis), then perhaps Spassky can be forgiven for losing his taste for the kill. I dunno.