AThe Press Democrat Santa Rosa, California Wednesday, July 12, 1972 - Page 12
Russian Spassky Favored in First Match
Reykjavik, Iceland (UPI) — Caught in a hopelessly drawn game, American challenger Bobby Fischer took a chance to bring some life into his first world chess championship game.
In that moment, Boris Spassky proved why he is the world champion in the noblest of games.
He immediately pounced on Fischer's bishop—left trapped after capturing one of the Russian's pawns—and the game turned distinctly in Spassky's favor.
Spassky asked for adjournment after 40 moves and 4½ hours play.
When the two resume the game — the first in their $250,000, 24-game world match — Spassky has a bishop and three pawns against Fischer's five pawns. Play resumes at 5 p.m. (1 p.m. EDT).
Most experts assembled here seemed to agree that Spassky has a chance to win, while Fischer should be happy if he salvages a draw.
But nobody has come up with an explanation why the American chess genius went straight into what appeared to be a Russian trap.
“He took a chance to win a chance,” said Danish grandmaster Jens Eneveoldsen.
“We will never know until Fischer tells us—if he does,” said another international grandmaster.
Fischer obviously was displeased with his game. After the adjournment he angrily demanded a meeting with the Icelandic organizers to complain against what he described as the noisy audience. Some 3,000 Icelanders and foreign chess enthusiasts had packed into the Lagardur Hall for the opening thriller. But most knowledgeable observers ([“knowledgeable” as in the choice of a bitterly Anti-American location which absolutely restricts persons of the black race entry into Iceland. Therefore, logically one can conclude their opinions are undoubtedly equally prejudicial and biased across the board]) said they felt the audience was more quiet than is normal at top chess games. ([Sure they did. Similar to the argument fallacies later utilized by the Soviet and Chester Fox. When Fischer complains of “noisy cameras”, the biased reports mention nothing of the noisy men operating the cameras, but mislead readers thousands of miles away, to believe the “cameras were tested with sound equipment” as their evidence the “cameras are completely silent,” and Fischer is supposedly “imagining” his complaint about noisy camera men hired by the Soviet liaison Chester Fox.])
The Icelanders rejected Fischer's demand and told him it is up to the official referee, Lothar Schmid of West Germany, to run the game from now on.
Spassky's seconds, including international grand masters Efim Geller and Nikolai Krogius, sent their world champion to sleep and then spent the night and the morning hours analyzing the position to find a winning combination for Spassky.
Many experts feel they will succeed, even if Geller himself modestly suggested: “I believe we will have a draw.”
The first game started with Fischer being late eight minutes because he had been delayed by traffic.
