The State Columbia, South Carolina Tuesday, July 18, 1972 - Page 2
Spassky Concedes On 42nd Move
Reykjavik, Iceland (UPI) — American challenger Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky in the third game of their $250,000 world championship chess match Monday and cut the Russian champion's lead to one point.
Fischer's win, his first ever over Spassky, came when the Russian concede the game on the 42nd move, his position hopeless.
Spassky won the first two games, with Fischer conceding the first after 56 moves and forfeiting the second by refusing to show up in a protest against ([disruptive men operating]) television cameras in the hall.
The fourth game of the match is scheduled for 5 p.m. (1 p.m. EDT) Tuesday with Fischer playing the white pieces and making the first move.
The American was not even in the auditorium when the third game ended. Judge Lothar Schmid of West Germany opened a sealed brown envelope with a move Fischer had written down Sunday night when the game was adjourned, then moved Fischer's bishop to queen six to check Spassky's king.
The Russian took one quick look at the board, then stopped his game clock, signaling that he had given up.
Fischer rushed into the hall 10 minutes later and asked Schmid, “What happened. Has he resigned,” Schmid said Spassky had indeed given up, and Fischer rushed out again to the applause of what was left of the audience in the 3,000-seat hall.
Chess experts predicted Sunday Fischer would win the third game when he took command on the 38th and 39th moves and forced two queen checks in the fifth hour of play in a small backstage room in the same room as the auditorium.
Sunday's session was held in the small room after Fischer threatened to boycott the match because of ([disruptive crews of men operating the]) television cameras in the main hall. A small automatic ([closed-circuit]) camera was installed in the backstage room, but Fischer played anyway. ([Of course Fischer did, because that's the kind of camera equipment he was misled to believe, would be used in the auditorium, as well. Stationary and automatic that didn't make any noise, nor require disruptive three-men crews to operate them.])
The conclusion of the game Monday was played in the main hall when Schmid upheld a protest by Spassky that playing conditions in the backstage room were sub-standard.. There had been speculation Fischer would again balk at playing in the hall, but the Rev. William Lombardy, the 29-year-old challenger's second, said he would show up.
“Why shouldn't he” Lombardy said before the game started. “Bobby is going to win this game.”
Lombardy said Fischer did not object to the cameras themselves, but only to their noisy operating. Earlier, Fischer had referred to the cameras as, “the evil eyes,” and refused to play with them near the stage.
The Icelandic organizers of the match said they broke a $125,000 contract with Chester Fox, Inc., of New York by holding Sunday's session in the backstage room and could be sued.
&lduqo;We hope to get together with Mr. Fox and thrash this out,” said Hilmar Viggoson of the Icelandic Chess Federation. “We had to break the contract to save the match. Perhaps we can install cameras with extra long lenses out of Fischer's sight.” ([So it's admitted here, the cameras were never actually “hidden” and only now contemplating installation of cameras “out of Fischer's sight.”]) ★
Spassky Concedes On 42nd Move 18 Jul 1972, Tue The State (Columbia, South Carolina) Newspapers.com
