This article lists the times taken by Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky for their moves in Game 4 of their World Championship Chess Match in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1972.

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Game 4, July 18th, 1972

    Fischer        Spassky
    White          Black
 1. e4    (0:07)   c5    (0:00)
 2. Nf3   (0:07)   d6    (0:00)
 3. d4    (0:07)   cxd4  (0:00)
 4. Nxd4  (0:07)   Nf6   (0:00)
 5. Nc3   (0:07)   Nc6   (0:00)
 6. Bc4   (0:08)   e6    (0:01)
 7. Bb3   (0:08)   Be7   (0:01)
 8. Be3   (0:16)   0-0   (0:02)
 9. 0-0   (0:16)   a6    (0:02)
10. f4    (0:18)   Nxd4  (0:03)
11. Bxd4  (0:18)   b5    (0:03)
12. a3    (0:25)   Bb7   (0:04)
13. Qd3   (0:25)   a5    (0:07)
14. e5    (0:33)   dxe5  (0:08)
15. fxe5  (0:33)   Nd7   (0:09)
16. Nxb5  (0:41)   Nc5   (0:11)
17. Bxc5  (0:44)   Bxc5+ (0:12)
18. Kh1   (0:44)   Qg5   (0:26)
19. Qe2   (0:54)   Rad8  (1:03)
20. Rad1  (0:59)   Rxd1  (1:10)
21. Rxd1  (0:59)   h5    (1:19)
22. Nd6   (1:02)   Ba8   (1:19)
23. Bc4   (1:06)   h4    (1:33)
24. h3    (1:15)   Be3   (1:40)
25. Qg4   (1:23)   Qxe5  (1:50)
26. Qxh4  (1:28)   g5    (2:00)
27. Qg4   (1:37)   Bc5   (2:05)
28. Nb5   (1:48)   Kg7   (2:05)
29. Nd4   (1:48)   Rh8   (2:12)
30. Nf3   (1:49)   Bxf3  (2:15)
31. Qxf3  (1:49)   Bd6   (2:15)
32. Qc3   (1:51)   Qxc3  (2:15)
33. bxc3  (1:51)   Be5   (2:16)
34. Rd7   (1:56)   Kf6   (2:19)
35. Kg1   (1:59)   Bxc3  (2:20)
36. Be2   (2:02)   Be5   (2:22)
37. Kf1   (2:05)   Rc8   (2:22)
38. Bh5   (2:05)   Rc7   (2:23)
39. Rxc7  (2:06)   Bxc7  (2:24)
40. a4    (2:06)   Ke7   (2:25)
41. Ke2   (2:08)   f5    (2:28)
42. Kd3   (2:14)   Be5   (2:29)
43. c4    (2:15)   Kd6   (2:30)
44. Bf7   (2:16)   Bg3   (2:32)
45. c5+   (2:18)   1/2-1/2

As can be seen, Fischer was 7 minutes late, and moved quickly until move 8. It looks like Spassky was quite familiar with the variation and did not start working hard until moves 19 and 20, at which point he was actually behind Fischer on time.  Fischer used just over two hours for his first 40 moves, which, as we will see, was somewhat typical for him in this match.

How I recorded the moves:

When a move was made, I observed the time on my watch, made the appropriate computation, and wrote down the total time taken by that player up to that point in the game.

Every few moves, the black and white closed circuit TV in the playing hall and cafeteria switched to a camera view in which it was possible to see the times on the chess clock. When this happened, I could correct, if necessary, the total time used by the player who was not on the move. For this reason, these times are probably accurate to plus or minus one minute.

The time control was 40 minutes in 2 1/2 hours.

The Garde chess clock was used in this match. 

The clock was set to 3:27 1/2 at the start of each game. Before the days of digital quartz clocks, a player was given an extra minute for each hour at the start of the game, presumably an acknowledgment that the wind-up clocks were not completely accurate, to be sure that no one received less than the correct amount of time.

However, I recorded the total time used by a player as 0:00 until the time on his clock passed 3:30.  (So I can correct my note above, and state that Bobby Fischer was about 9 1/2 minutes late to this game.)

I recorded the times taken for games 3 through 21; this is the first posting.

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