The Vancouver Sun Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Monday, July 17, 1972 - Page 6
Fischer's On The Threshold of First Win Over Spassky
Reykjavik, Iceland — U.S. challenger Bobby Fischer was on the threshold today of his first victory in the world chess championship match.
Defending champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, ahead 2-0 in games, was in serious trouble at adjournment on the 41st move of Sunday's game. He was a pawn down and very nearly enmeshed in a mating net.
After adjournment, however, the champion's aides warned match organizers that Spassky would not play again in the small upstairs room of Reykjavik's sports hall, where the first stage of the third game was played.
Chief referee Lothar Schmid moved play back to the main room today.
The game had been moved to the small room because of Fischer's protests over playing conditions in the main hall, particularly the presence of move and television cameras ([and the disruptive men operating said cameras.])
Fischer, changed his mind and agreed to play in the small room. He showed up a few minutes late, as usual.
The room, long and narrow, is used for table tennis. It had only a small closed-circuit TV camera in it, to which Fischer did not object. It was used to relay the scene to the audience in the main hall.
Spassky's aides described the room as a “chess cupboard.”
When the game began, Fischer as black chose the Modern Benoni defense to Spassky's P-Q4. It is a fighting, no-nonsense defence with sharp counter-attacking chances for black.
The game is characterized by an early P-QB4 move by black, giving him attacking chances on the queenside as opposed to white's chances on the kingside.
The Benoni, an old defense, was refined by former world champion Mikhail Tal of the Soviet Union when he was terrorizing the chess world in the 1950s, so Spassky was familiar with it.
Fischer, however, has never lost with the defence and added a refinement of his own on the 11th move Sunday. His N-R4 forced the exchange of one of white's bishops and neutralized Spassky's kingside chances.
After some slashing play, Fischer forced the exchange of the rooks, gained a pawn and had a hammerlock on the queenside.
Although each player had an opposite colored bishop — often an indication of a draw — Spassky was in dire straits when Fischer sealed his 41st move.
Already a pawn down, Spassky was on the verge of losing more material in order to forestall Fischer's mating thrust.
Spassky won the first game when Fischer, who has never beaten Spassky, badly misplayed the endgame. The second game was forfeited to Spassky when Fischer failed to show up in protest over the playing conditions.
Officials ([illegally due to 3 to 4, Soviet bias]) overruled the American's appeal against the forfeit, and until the last minute it was uncertain if Fischer would continue.
To the winner of the 24-game match goes $153,125 of prize money put up by the Icelandic Chess Federation and James Slater, British financier and chess buff.
The loser gets $91,875. In addition, each player will collect 30 per cent of the income from the sale of television and movie rights. Before Fischer's complaints about ([disruptive men operating]) the cameras this had been expected to amount to $27,500 each.
Spassky needs 12 points to win and Fischer 12½. A player gets a point for winning a game and a half point for a draw.
