APhiladelphia Daily News Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wednesday, June 28, 1972 - Page 2
Taking Pawns Takes Brawn
If Bobby Fischer should beat Russia's Boris Spassky in the world's chess championship tournament next month, Fischer could try checkmating Joe Namath or Joe Frazier next. He'll certainly be in condition for it.
According to an experiment at Temple University, chess is every bit as physically taxing as a rugged session of football or boxing.
THE EXPERIMENT was conducted at Temple in 1970 by Charlotte Leedy, a chess player herself who was then a teaching fellow working on her doctorate. Now she is an assistant professor of recreation at the University of Maryland.
And, the professor insists, one must be in good shape to push those queens, castles and bishops around.
“My tests showed that the heart of a man running hard beats at the rate of 180 a minute,” she said. “That same heartbeat rate showed up in those concentrating on a tough game of chess.”
FISCHER, 29, has trained as physically hard for the match, set to begin Sunday in Reykjavik, Iceland, as any athlete. His daily regimen includes morning calisthenics in front of his television set, followed by swimming, tennis and bowling.
Though Fischer canceled his flight to Iceland last Monday and had the chess world wondering if he would show up for the event, an adviser yesterday promised the star would be there. The adviser, Fred Cramer, said Fischer objected to the umpire, Lothar Schmidt of Germany.
Despite the need for brawn as well as brain, chess gets the ho-hum treatment from most Americans. Russia has about 4 million chess players who compete in tournaments, America about 25,000.
But Fischer is our big hope to win the world championships. He's Muhammad Ali of the chess board.
Taking Pawns Takes Brawn Wed, Jun 28, 1972 – Page 2 · Philadelphia Daily News (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com
