ADes Moines Tribune Des Moines, Iowa Thursday, July 20, 1972 - Page 21
Forenote: Reports like these are surfacing early in the match noting some upsurge in sales on chess books, and chess boards with some retailers, whilst others claim no noticeable increase. Soviet Propaganda, as all propaganda works like this: Put the false news stories in circulation, and the pay off is when “…people hearing something enough times from enough different places, people repeating it to each other that you reach a point where you have solidified your position. If we can solidify the position we have achieved something the other side cannot overcome because it's very tough to break common knowledge…” thus far, in 1972, we have the Soviet sources and their liaisons issuing falsified accounts. Numerous times I have pointed out blatant contradicting stories, which all have one thing in common: Portray Fischer in a negative light. Whether the “cameras” in question were:— “Small, Automatic Closed Circuit Video Cameras” or were they “Large Bulky Television Cameras operated by television crews of men” is just one isolated example of the rubbish pouring out in the press. This confusion was used to convince the American public that Fischer was supposedly, a “greedy capitalist” and conveniently, the media brushed the fact that Mexico and Australia issued HIGH BIDS, under the rug for when the Soviet scoffed at Australian $225,000… throwing temperament to the wind, and in a juvenile fit, threatened to forbid Spassky to play *crickets* went the media. Fischer has been portrayed as outright, “Un-American” a “poor role model”, “lacking in respect” “lazy” “disrespectful”, so forth and so on, the baseless Ad Hominems. The result is all that matters: The Soviet Propaganda turned off a major support base of millions of people for Fischer and drove a wedge between that public and their participation in chess. That, was the agenda the Soviet, carefully calculated months before the match, via allies in western media. None need attempt to convince me the Soviet were interested in ever “promoting” the game. The title was nothing more than a means to an end for political prestige and influence, to bolster their lie of Imperial Soviet Supremacy. Just as Fischer said, so many times, “Chess is a major propaganda vehicle with the Soviets.” and the Soviets would rather destroy the game out of petty jealousy, than hand over the crown to a foreign power. Meanwhile, Americans who blindly believed the Soviet Propaganda pouring out of Reykjavik into their daily newspapers, are a disgraceful example to other Americans and do not represent how the majority of mainstream Americans, the silent majority, genuinely regarded, and respected our champion!
Des Moines Chess Players Excited About Publicity - They're Watching Spassky-Fischer Match Closely by Stephen Gross
DEDICATED Des Moines chess players are excited about all the publicity the game has been getting lately, but the general public seems to be greeting the whole thing calmly.
Members of the Des Moines Chess Club, headquartered at the YMCA, and local high schools teams that compete around the state and sometimes the nation are following the international championship between Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union and American Bobby Fischer enthusiastically.
“Everybody is really happy to have an American in the tournament,” said Mark Bellnap, of 1240 Fifth Avenue, president of the Des Moines Chess Club. “There hasn't been an American world champions since about 1860.”
But there has been no noticeable increase in chess club members in recent weeks, Bellnap said.
The only other index of public interest, the sales of chess sets in Des Moines stores, has not indicated a wave of enthusiasm.
When contacted by The Tribune, several department stores said they stocked chess sets only for Christmas sales or not at all.
Some stores reported having chess sets left over from Christmas and only one noted “very unusual” sales of chess sets since the international tournament began publicizing the game.
MEANWHILE Des Moines chess buffs, mostly young people with a sprinkling of veterans who have attended many chess tournaments in the city over the years, take the whole thing seriously. Most of them don't expect to become “grand masters” like Fischer, but they aren't exactly slouches at the game either.
Bellnap, at 25 a Class A chess player (rankings run from lowest Class E up through Class A and on to the honored ratings of expert, master and grand master), estimates that most players in Iowa tournaments are in Class C and Class D.
He classified himself and his friends in the Des Moines Chess Club—about 20 people— as “not really serious” about the game.
That means they only spend two weeks before a tournament studying strategy books that outline the hundreds of attacks and defenses possible in chess.
And that is far from what it takes to become a master, said Bellnap, who said he became “seriously” involved with chess in high school tournaments and now plays only about once a week at Friday night club meetings.
During the year he also plays in the smaller Drake University Chess CLub, which this year qualified to compete in the North American Intercollegiate Tournament at Toronto, Ontario.
A Roosevelt High School player, 16-year-old Douglas Eckley of 529 Waterbury Circle, said he is at the best age to learn chess and intends to keep devoting one hour a day to chess after he finishes high school and college.
Sometimes Eckley spends his daily practice hour just reading books and magazines about chess maneuvers, and he admits he has his eye on achieving a high rating.
“I don't know if I'll ever be a grand master, but it will be fun,” said Eckley, who in April accompanied six other Roosevelt players to the annual National High School Championship in New York City.
Right now, Eckley is happy about playing for Roosevelt, which he said has been a “big chess school” for about four years.
JOHN PENQUITE, 2935 Cottage Grove Road, a 37-year-old expert-rated chess player finds himself one of the elder members of the Des Moines Chess Club and says he no longer worries about his rating.
But he's taking advantage of his early retirement (he is a mathematician who occasionally does consulting work for research projects at major universities across the country) to resume the two hours a day of practice and study that made him a tournament winner when he was a Des Moines high school student in the early 1950s.
But at 37 he said he is over the hill as a chess player.
“By the time you are 35 you begin to lose your ability for prolonged concentration,” Penquite said. “Extensive tests run during chess tournaments have shown that chess is one of the most fatiguing games there is,” he said.
As much as he enjoys chess, Penquite doesn't advise trying to learn the game at his age.
“It's hard for an older person to learn the game,” he said.
Des Moines Chess Players Excited About Publicity 20 Jul 1972, Thu Des Moines Tribune (Des Moines, Iowa) Newspapers.com
