AThe Town Talk Alexandria, Louisiana Monday, July 17, 1972 - Page 15
Fischer Takes Lead In 3rd Chess Game
by Jim Ward, Reykjavik, Iceland (UPI) — For a final 30 seconds Bobby Fischer towered over the chess board. Then he allowed himself a rare smile, collected his pencils and walked out of the room Sunday after one of the most dramatic days in world championship chess.
Minutes earlier world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union had completed his 41st move and left the room, pensive and worried.
The third game in the 24-match world championship was adjourned with the 29-year-old American challenger in a commanding position. The match resumes at 5 p.m. (1 a.m. EDT) today.
U.S. grandmaster Robert Byrne looked up from a pocket chess board and said: “He (Spassky) is almost finished. I cannot see Bobby letting him slip out of the rope. He (Fischer) has the advantage of a pawn and is in a very strong attacking position.”
Most experts on hand gave Fischer a 70-30 chance of winning and reducing the 35-year-old Russian's 2-0 lead.
Immediately after the game Spassky jumped into a car with one of his seconds, grandmaster Nikolai Krogius, and left for their hotel to analyze the situation.
Until 90 minutes before the start of Sunday's third game Fischer kept the chess world guessing whether he would appear or continue his boycott in protest against television cameras, or “the evil eyes,” as he called them.
Only after the Icelandic organizers broke a $120,000 contract with Chester Fox Inc., a New York firm which had acquired all film and television rights, and moved the board into an adjoining table tennis room, did Fischer given in.
Hilmar Viggoson, treasurer of the Icelandic Chess Federation, said he did not know the implications of the breech of contract. ([The most important, and only “implication” that should have ever mattered to organizers was Fischer's boycott. “Under agreed rules of the match, [Fischer] had the right to object and to demand removal of the cameras if they disturbed him.” -Edmondson, USCF])
“We had to cancel a meeting with Mr. Fox but the matter will be straightened out later,” he said. “We heard a nasty rumor he will sue us for millions but let's see what happens.”
Fred Cramer, a U.S. Chess Federation vice president, said Fischer had been persuaded to appear because of the great number of cables he received from all over the world “begging him to sit down opposite Spassky.”
But if Fischer was emotionally upset he put it behind him the moment he sat down at the board. For a couple of minutes after Spassky had pushed forward his queen pawn, Fischer argued with Schmid over the presence of a hidden camera relaying moves to the world outside the room. Then he shrugged, cupped his hands under his chin and got on with the game.
In the big hall outside the secluded room a crowd of 1,500 followed the match on a vast screen. Other fans munched hot dogs and ice cream in the cafeteria with their eyes on the closed-circuit screen.
Fischer, appearing in his first world championship playoff, was the first to leave the middle of the road. His 11th move, moving a knight instead of a pawn, brought comments like “suicide” from grand and international masters in the audience who had not expected this variation of the Benoni opening.
Spassky, apparently caught by surprise, spent almost 15 minutes in deep meditation. Fischer kept pressing forward and after a rapid exchange of pieces starting with the 31st move, he came out on top with six pawns to Spassky's five.
Spassky could have sealed his 41st move but spent almost 20 minutes before he moved his queen. Fischer grabbed his pencil, after another tense pause, scribbled his move and handed it to Schmid, who sealed it. Then Fischer rose, stood over the board for a while and strolled from the room.
