AThe Honolulu Advertiser Honolulu, Hawaii Saturday, July 22, 1972 - Page 25
Kuhio Beach Chess Nuts Say Fischer Will Roast Spassky by Bob Krauss
A Krauss Survey of the chess nuts on Kuhio Beach yesterday revealed that Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky can go home. Their World Chess Championship has been decided.
It'll be Fischer 15 games to nine.
WHEN SPASSKY returns to Russia from Iceland, the Commissar in Charge of Chess may checkmate him. At the same time, Fischer will become a millionaire giving lectures on how to play chess.
You can depend on this information because it comes straight from the Chess Capital of Hawaii, the second arbor going Diamond Head on Kuhio Beach.
A GATHERING of international experts laid it on the line for me yesterday.
Guam, Tahiti, California, Kaimuki and the University of Hawaii all voted for Fischer. Only Bulgaria and the United States Marines favored Spassky.
“FISCHER WILL skunk him now. See how fast the last game went?” said Robert Sandahl of San Diego, Calif., who comes to Hawaii to play chess. “That's because he's memorized 355 of Spassky's moves. He'll win the championship 15 to 9.”
Sandahl was playing chess with Velicko Cvetkov of Bulgaria. Young Cvetkov said he worked for an airline until he broke his leg. Now he plays chess.
“Spassky has more experience,” said Cvetkov, but not very loud. “He will win.”
Lui Piliwale, an importer-exporter from Guam, said he believes Fischer has already won.
SINCE THE contest started, he's played a businessman's chess game,” said Piliwale. “He's already won most of it. He got the cameras out. He got an extra $100,000.
“Fischer has been playing this match for the past two years, building up the pot, creating interest. His confidence is so supreme that he can't help but take it.”
Clyde Nakamura, an accounting major at the University of Hawaii, had a chess board under his arm and a timer's clock in his hand.
“Fischer already has a psychological advantage,” he explained. “Although the match is even it's as if Fischer won an extra game because he forfeited one to Spassky.
“His style has changed. Before, he played a much riskier game. Now he plays more solid and makes fewer errors.”
A RETIRED businessman predicted that Fischer would become an overnight millionaire after the match ends.
“He'll go down in history as the greatest one-man promotion team ever,” said the businessman. ‘If he wins, he'll be a millionaire on tours and speeches alone. I think somebody's behind him thinking up these things.”
Real estate broker Homer Winnagle, who was replaying the last Fischer-Spassky match with physics student Bob Glover, said Fischer will win.
Marine Cpl. Douglas Carlson, who comes to town from Kaneohe Marine Air Base on his days off to play chess, said he's for Spassky.
“FISCHER MAY win but I don't want him to,” said Carlson. “The Russian is a more refined player. He's been competing in world championships a lot longer and he knows what he's doing.”
The most positive expert was Albert Kalsbeek of Tahiti who said he's an etymologist researching the origin of the Polynesians through language. He was wearing a bathing suit and he carried a business card in his cap.
“Spassky has to win, otherwise they will shoot him when he goes back to Russia,” said Kalsbeek. “Incidentally, do you know how the term checkmate originated? It comes from ‘sheik match’ which means the king is dead in Persian.”
I asked Kalsbeek, “Do you play a lot of chess?”
He said he doesn't know how.
Kuhio Beach Chess Nuts Say Fischer Will Roast Spassky 22 Jul 1972, Sat The Honolulu Advertiser (Honolulu, Hawaii) Newspapers.com
