ANew York Times, New York, New York, Saturday, July 08, 1972 - Page 22
Chess Champions' Aides Fill Many Roles by Harold C. Schonberg
Reykjavik, Iceland, July 7 — After a week of confusion over the championship chess match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, Reykjavik is returning to its normal activities.
When the champion and his challenger met last night to draw for the first game on Tuesday, and the match was declared officially under way, there was a huge collective sigh of relief. No longer is the name of Bobby Fischer — or “Bubby Fissa,” as it is generally pronounced here — on everybody's lips.
Speculation still runs high, however, about the outcome of the match. And, as the champion and challenger settle in for a long siege, attention has also been directed at their entourages — the groups of quiet men who were in the eye of the storm around the match for a week.
Although the storm has abated, it does not mean that no problems remain. The two players still have to give their approval to Exhibition Hall, the site of the match.
Some changes, none of them major, may have to be made at the hall. The marble-inlaid chess board, built into the elaborate table, has created problems. Its squares are a little too large in relation to the pieces, and a regulation wooden board may be substituted.
Virtuoso chess players have a kind of spatial relationship that would be disturbed if the proportion between chess piece and chess square was out of line, just as pianist would be disturbed if the keys on an instrument were a bit wider.
Fischer Moves to Hotel
Fischer moved from the private house reserved for him into a hotel, because there had been a good deal of construction noise in the vicinity and Fischer sleeps most of the day, arising at 3 or 4 p.m. Another house is being sought for him.
Much of the players' time is spent with the delegations that will accompany them through the match. The role of the entourages is to provide companionship, give advice on strategy and release the tension as the first game approaches. Both players spend hours each day at the board with their companions, dreaming of prepared variations and other devices with which to confound each other.
The uncertainty about the match earlier in the week has affected box office sales. Exhibition Hall, which has been provided with about 2,300 seats — more can be added if necessary—is not sold out for the Tuesday opening. Ticket sales dropped to nothing while the negotiations were in progress.
It is hoped by the sponsors that, with the future of the match no longer in doubt, the chess-loving public here and abroad will take the opportunity to see what has been variously billed as “the chess match of the century” and “the chess match of all time.”
A Disparate Group
The entourages that accompany the champion and the challenger are a disparate group, but they have one thing in common—a knowledge of, and love for, chess. Among them are a Roman Catholic priest, a psychologist, an athlete and a gaggle of grandmasters. Their mission is to soothe the antagonists, fight for their man, interpret rules and rulings and, in general, act for him as best they can.
Spassky came here on June 21 with a delegation of three. All are chess players. They are the grandmasters Efim Geller and Nikolai Krogius, and international master Ivo Nei (pronounced “nay”). Geller is Spassky's second. According to the rules of chess, as set forth by the International Chess Federation, a player in a match is entitled to any number of seconds. Iceland invited Spassky and Fischer to bring three along, if they desired. They turned up with one each.
Basically the duties of a second involve analysis of adjourned positions. Very often a game is not finished under the normal time control of 40 moves in two and a half hours and has to be played off the following day. The player and his second, or seconds, may stay up all night, analyzing the adjourned position.
The second also acts as the player's factotum. He shields him, sees to it that he gets rest and eats properly, wakes him up if necessary (there are cases where careless seconds let their man sleep when he was supposed to be in the hall, playing off an adjourned game), entertains him and keeps up his spirits. A good second is also valuable because he knows the peculiarities of the player's opponents.
In Geller, Spassky has a second who knows Fischer's playing habits as well as anybody. Geller has won more games from Bobby Fischer than any other living player; his record is five victories and two draws, as against four victories for Fischer.
A Grandmaster in 1952
Like most Russian chess players, Geller has a college degree. Soviet bureaucrats make a big thing about the general education of their chess masters, and have made the point time and again in connection with Fischer, who left high school in his junior year. Geller has a degree in economics. A grandmaster in 1952 and the champion of the Soviet ([Pseudo/Fiction])Socialist Republics in 1955, Geller is one of the world's strongest players.
Krogius, 42 years old, became a grandmaster in 1964. He is a psychologist and is reputed to be one of Spassky's closest friends. Spassky is said to be subject to fits of depression: he is an emotional man who has been known to weep when he loses a game. If that happens here, Krogius will be present to take care of him.
A Mystery Man
The mystery man of the Russian delegation is Nei, who like Krogius, ever talks in public. He is here as Spassky's trainer, and he jogs and plays tennis with the champion. Tennis is Spassky's favorite sport. To please Spassky, the Icelandic Chess Federation put up the only tennis court in the country.
Chess on the Spassky-Fischer level demands a strong body because of the rigors of three games a week, plus adjourned games, plus sleepless nights fretting over mistakes, plus (in Spassky's case) the psychological pressures imposed by the importance of the match to his country.
2 Aides With Fischer
As a chess player, Nei is ranked No. 2 in his native Estonia. Paul Keres is No. 1, Nei plays in Russian tournaments, but has not made much of a mark in international chess.
Two men will be associated with Fischer, and the closest will be his second, the Rev. William Lombardy, a 35-year-old grandmaster who is rated as the best chess-playing clergyman since Bishop Ruy Lopez in the 16th century.
Father Lombardy has been a personal friend and a chess board foe of Fischer's since childhood. Their paths separated when Father Lombardy entered the Roman Catholic Church some years ago. Father Lombardy had to devote his time to his studies and to curtail his chess activities. But at one point, he was considered the most promising young player in America.
When he became world junior champion in 1957, he won all 11 of his games. He became a grandmaster in 1960, winner of the United States open championship in 1963 and co-winner in 1965. He currently teaches English at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx.
Fred Cramer of Milwaukee, a former businessman who plays a fair game of chess, has been acting as Fischer's assistant. He came here alone on June 25, and found himself embroiled in controversies with the International and Icelandic Chess Federations. Later he was assisted by Fischer's lawyers, Andrew Davis and Paul Marshall.
Acting for Bobby Fischer is rather a thankless job. As Mr. Cramer once blurted out, “I am authorized only to complain and not to approve.”
