AThe Bismarck Tribune Bismarck, North Dakota Tuesday, July 11, 1972 - Page 10
Minnesotan Beat Fischer at Chess
Minneapolis, Minn. (AP) — A suburban Hopkins man who beat Bobby Fischer at chess says it was the first game Fischer lost “that he didn't cry.”
Milton Otteson, a three-time Minnesota champion, recalled Monday that he played Fischer in 1957 in the Western Open in Milwaukee. Fischer was only 14 at the time.
The turning point in the game came when Otteson allowed Fischer to take a pawn, recalled Otteson, now 39 and a stockbroker. It looked like a mistake on Otteson's part at the time, he said, but it really placed Fischer at a disadvantage. The youngster gave up when he had a king and a queen, compared with Otteson's king, queen and three pawns.
“I probably caught him on a bad day,” Ottosen said.
George Tiers, editor of the Minnesota Chess Journal, said it is extremely rare for anyone to have beaten Fischer at any stage in his career. He said he knows of no other Minnesotan even to have played Fischer, the top player in the United States.
Fischer today is to meet Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union in the first of 25 games in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Milton Otteson vs Robert James Fischer
New Western Open (1957), Milwaukee, WI USA, rd 3, Jul-05
King's Indian Attack: Smyslov Variation (A05) 1-0
