AThe Miami Herald Miami, Florida Friday, July 07, 1972 - Page 114
Scratch Chess As A 'Game'
THESE days, not even so cerebral and sedentary a game as chess can be played without a thunderclap or two.
Chess had seemed so noble a pastime, suited to long periods of staring and thinking, conducive to grand strategies and great wars within but a nutshell of space. Armies could be sacrificed even while a yawn was savored and extended to its satisfying limit.
Now the trumpets must sound across the checkered board too. The money-changers and politicians want the proper proportions of coin and propaganda.
For Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, the register must ring and national pride must unfurl. Like the other games, chess as they now will play it becomes something less than a game; not a delight but another grim part of survival.
We lament the passing of true games, in Iceland and elsewhere, on the checkered board and off, and in particular regret the passing of that sense of noble luxury that came as international chess masters bent with joy to the task of being wastefully and irrelevantly clever.
Scratch Chess As A 'Game' 07 Jul 1972, Fri The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) Newspapers.com
