AThe San Francisco Examiner San Francisco, California Monday, July 17, 1972 - Page 18
A Daring Move Wins for Fischer
Reykjavik, Iceland — (AP) — Bobby Fischer scored his first victory in the world chess championship against Boris Spassky today with a move he had sealed in an envelope.
Spassky, Russian titleholder, resigned the third game playoff before Fischer showed up.
Fischer had sealed his 41st move in the envelope yesterday after Spassky called for an adjournment. it was bishop to queen six, a move most grand masters here had predicted would be the decisive one for the game.
It left the score in the 24-game match at 2-1 in Spassky's favor. Spassky won the second game by forfeit.
As he has been throughout, Spassky was in the 2500-seat exhibition hall exactly on time for the resumption of the third game.
Promptly at 5 p.m., Referee Lothar Schmid opened the envelope entrusted to him by Fischer and moved Fischer's bishop to the sixth square on the queen side, putting Spassky's king in check.
Spassky waited five minutes before turning his king on its side, signifying that he had conceded the game to the 29 year old grandmaster from Brooklyn.
It was the first time Fischer had ever defeated the Soviet world champion.
Spassky walked off the stage and the spectators sat in silence. Fourteen minutes after Schmid had started the clock for the resumption of play, Fischer strode into the hall. Some of the crowd cheered him but many of the ([hostile, Pro-Soviet, Anti-American agitators and rabble-rousers, along with notorious Icelandic racism]) in the audience booed.
A Daring Move
The fourth game is scheduled for tomorrow.
“Fischer's sealed move was the best move,” said Grandmaster Dragoljub Janosevic of Yugoslavia, who beat Fischer in 1961 in an 11-hour game.
“Spassky had to give in at once. He was rattled for the first time. For Spassky, the whole game was a psychological blow.
“Fischer's 11th move yesterday was abnormal,” Janosevic added.
Fischer's 11th move was knight to rook four, unusual in that it apparently enabled Spassky to smash Fischer's kingside pawn formation.
Private Room
Fischer obviously had prepared the move well in advance, however, for only a few moves later he not only repaired his pawn formation but launched a strong attack.
Fischer and Spassky began the third game in a private room offstage yesterday because of Fischer's complaints that television and movie cameras had disturbed his concentration. It was because of the cameras that Fischer did not show up on Thursday for the second game and lost it by forfeit.
Fischer lost the first game by moving his bishop on the 29th move into the midst of Spassky's pawns. He took a Spassky pawn but lost a valuable bishop. Grand masters called it a blunder, but others said Fischer was trying desperately for a win instead of a draw.
In this third game, Spassky played the white pieces, as he did in the first, which allows him the slight advantage of the first move. ★
