AThe Brandon Sun Brandon, Manitoba, Canada Wednesday, June 21, 1972 - Page 4
The Big Guns
The next big confrontation between American and Soviet forces, it seems, will take place not in the air, not around the bargaining table and not at sea. It will be at a chess table in Iceland.
That's where world chess champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union and the irascible American Bobby Fischer are scheduled to do battle next month.
Will it be a good match? That of course, depends to a certain extent on how much stock you place in chess. But not entirely. You can also follow the politics of the thing. For as usual the simple contest between two very good competitors is beginning to take on political overtones. The clear implication being if you keep mind open to such nonsense—that this, like the Olympics, is an indication of which system is better, communism or democracy.
There is no reason why it should be seen in such terms. But as long as the cold war goes on, and as long as the bitterness remains, it is inevitable that there will be distorted perceptions to drum individual contests of skill into international proportions.
