Press-Telegram Long Beach, California Friday, July 07, 1972 - Page 51
Chess May Never Be Quite The Same
Throw away your rooks and your pawns, your bishops, knights, queens and kings. Chess will never be the same, not with television moving into the act.
Television devours a sport, chewing it and shaping it to the limitations of its appetite, then spits it out, lifeless and devoid of soul. There was a time when chess could be used as an excuse to polish off a friendly fifth, all the while appearing to be immersed in a deep thought. No longer.
Chess players will have to learn to make a move every 20 to 30 seconds because television can not cope with dead time. Then, too, there will be a fellow in a red shirt running into the scene to direct the participants to take a timeout while an underarm deodorant is sold on the tube.
You can expect Howard Cosell to become very quickly the grand master of chess. Can't you hear him now, asking the Russian, Boris Spassky, “You realize, of course, that your opponent, Bobby Fischer, hates all your system of government stand for?”
There will be a Dandy Don and a Frank Gifford to serve as props for Cosell. Kids will emulate Fischer, holding out crankily for more money when Grandpa suggests a friendly match.
The first bubble gum cards aren't far away, either. Oh, for the good old days. Anyone for checkers?
AIR WAVES: The first telecast of the Fischer-Spassky duel was scheduled for Wide World of Sports on Saturday. But any live venture of this sort was scrubbed by the postponement of the first confrontation until Tuesday in Reykjavik, Iceland. Channel 28 also plans coverage, but its plans were uncertain at press time …
Chess May Never Be Quite the Same 07 Jul 1972, Fri Press-Telegram (Long Beach, California) Newspapers.com
