World Chess Championship 1969 World Chess Championship 1969 The 1969 World Chess Championship was played between Tigran Petrosian and Boris Spassky in Moscow from April 14 to June 17, 1969. Spassky won. The 1967 Interzonal Tournament was played in Sousse, Tunisia in October and November. The first six placegetters qualified for the Candidates, along with Boris Spassky and Mikhail Tal who were seeded into the Candidates matches as finalists of the previous tournament. A major controversy occurred when Bobby Fischer, who was leading the tournament with seven wins and three draws in ten rounds, abandoned the event over a dispute with the organisers. Because
World Chess Championship 1963 as Geller was a candidate at Zurich in 1953 and Filip at Amsterdam in 1956. The favourites were Tal (the recently dethroned World Champion) and Fischer, based on his powerful Interzonal showing. Botvinnik also picked Tal, as did a poll of Russian readers, narrowly ahead of Fischer. Former world champion Max Euwe picked Petrosian. Keres said Fischer deserved to be favourite but had faith that a Soviet player would win; and similarly Alexander Kotov and Svetozar Gligorić thought one of the Soviets would win ahead of Fischer. American magazine Chess Life picked Fischer ahead of Tal. Of the others it