AChippewa Herald-Telegram Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin Friday, July 14, 1972 - Page 2
Off the Beat by Holly Meier
Idols die hard, whether you are 5 or 50!
And that's why I can't believe that Bobby Fischer — who is the greatest chess talent in the world — will deliberately let the championship go down the drain because of the advertised petty differences between him and the people staging the match in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Even after reading of Bobby's shenanigans in Iceland which threaten to scuttle the world championship chess match ([which is being hidden there behind the pleats of the Iron Curtain, and Soviet propaganda churned into mainstream media, documented Soviet shenanigans not given their due emphasis]), I'm telling myself and anyone else who will listen that the American's open-end ultimatums concerning seating, cameras ([and the very disruptive men who were hired to operate the cameras, disruptively, and blow Fischer's concentration]), noise and probably the price of peanuts in the Icelandic capital are just part of his game plan.
Hooked as I am on Fischer's tremendous abilities at the chessboard, his machine-like mind, and his hard-nosed, egocentric attitude toward the lesser lights in his field, I believe that Bobby is deliberately allowing the Russian to build up a lead in the championship series.
Then, after Spassky has built a seemingly insurmountable lead in the championship match, Fischer will flamboyantly flag the world champion, annihilating him with contemptuous, ridiculous ease.
And the American has plenty of time to do just this—if that, indeed, is his plan.
Spassky, who has never been beaten by Fischer, is leading the series 2 to 0.
The Russians saw Fischer lose a Bishop at a critical stage of the first game and salvaged a victory from a certain draw, and then picked up another point when Bobby refused to play yesterday and forfeited.
Under the rules of the International Chess Federation, each victory in the series—which could go to 24 games—is worth one point, which each draw counts one-half point. To unseat the Russian as world champion, Fischer must win more points than Spassky—if they tie at 12-12, Boris will retain the title.
AND IN MY ESTIMATION, winning that title with a closing flourish is exactly what Bobby Fischer has in mind — otherwise I can't see how he could have made the move described by Ian Westergren, writing for the UPI out of Reykjavik, as a “beginner's error” in losing that first game to Spassky on Wednesday.
Bobby Fischer just doesn't have the capability of making a “beginner's error,” so it had to be a move deliberately bad.
Having learned my chess under the tutelage of Don Gehring in the back room of a Bloomer grocery store a long time ago,and having played it only sporadically since, I hardly qualify as an expert — but last night, John (he's among the smarter two-thirds of the Meier triumvirate living on Paint Creek) set up the chess board and we worked our way through the first 40 moves of the opening game.
The UPI carried the progression of moves in that first game up to the adjournment, and it was fascinating to see the game unfold.
Readers are warned, however, to make some rather obvious changes in the progression if they want to conform with the moves made by Fischer and Spassky in Iceland. The UPI fouled up move number 7 when it had Spassky appearing to move one of his pawns.
The move was symbolized as “P-P,” and this was entirely incorrect as Spassky castled with his King's Rook. The move should have been carried as 0-0.
Then, in move number 9, the UPI had Fischer capturing with two non-existent symbols — “0x0”.
The correct move was Fischer's Pawn capturing Spassky's Pawn at Queen's Bishop 5 and should have been symbolized as “PxP”.
AFTER JOHN STRAIGHTENED out these two mix-ups, the progression moved along smoothly — although I couldn't really keep up with the strategy.
Fischer and Spassky think perhaps a dozen or so moves ahead, while my projection stops at two or three at the most, so I was just going through the motions.
We worked our way up to the 33rd move when Fischer captured one of Spassky's Pawns with one of his own, and on to the 34th when the Russian countered by taking the American's Pawn and Bobby used his Bishop to capture still another black Pawn.
And it was this move that killed him, as Spassky captured Fischer's Bishop with his King.
After five more moves by Fischer and Spassky, (and after four and one-half hours of play) the Russian asked for an adjournment.
At that time, Spassky had his white Bishop and three Pawns left on the board, while Fischer was left with his five black Pawns.
The next day, at the 56th move Fischer threw up his hands in what was described as a “helpless gesture” and conceded.
He had no choice, since it was obvious that the Russian could not be kept from promoting a Pawn to a Queen and making an eventual checkmate a certainty.
NOBODY WATCHING THAT first game could come up with an explanation why the American chess genius fell into that obvious Russian trap, except Danish grandmaster Jens Enevolsen, who somewhat ambiguously theorized that Bobby “took a chance to win a chance.” ([Or, a better source, Fischer himself, agonized over the disruptive men, operating cameras, some as close as 5 meters/15 feet from Fischer, in a crew of three men, or perhaps Spiderman crawling on the roof with a camera disruptively trained on Fischer; such a degree of being a circus, that Fischer reported to his legal team he “couldn't think,” thanks to the Soviet plots and schemes to create distractions, which is, of course, ILLEGAL according to the contract Fischer never signed])
My theory is, however, that Fischer let himself be bamboozled out of the almost certain draw to help set the series up for a spectacular — and victorious — finish.
Caption: John Meier Playing world championship chess—second-handed.
Off the Beat by Holly Meier 14 Jul 1972, Fri Chippewa Herald-Telegram (Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com
Off the Beat by Holly Meier 14 Jul 1972, Fri Chippewa Herald-Telegram (Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com
