St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis, Missouri Wednesday, July 12, 1972 - Page 26
Spassky Wins Opener With Poisoned Pawn
Reykjavik, Iceland, July 12 — World champion Boris Spassky won the first game in his world title chess series against American Bobby Fischer.
Fischer, in a hopeless position, resigned. He stood up, folded his score sheet and walked out of the Reykjavik sports palace.
The victory gave Spassky a 1-to-0 lead in the match and an important psychological advantage. Fischer has never beaten Spassky. His winless streak against the Russian now stands at six games.
Fischer's resignation came after he had walked out once, apparently in objection to move cameras in the back of the hall. He stormed offstage and did not return for 30 minutes.
Then a while later, Fischer indicated he had given up by reaching over and stopping the clock. Park bench players usually do it by turning their king on its side.
He shook hands with Spassky and before he left, Fischer turned and waved to the crowd. The spectators applauded Spassky.
Yesterday's play had been adjourned after 40 moves, and chess experts conceded then that Spassky held the edge.
Spassky opened as many had expected, with P-Q4, and Fischer adopted a Nimzo-Indian defense, an Indian or flanking development opening that was perfected by the Late Danish grandmaster, Aaron Nimzovitch. For a while it seemed as though they were heading toward a draw.
Then, on the twenty-ninth move, the game exploded. Spassky offered a pawn that, in the opinion of the experts, could not be taken. It was a so-called poisoned pawn, for if Fischer took it his bishop probably would be trapped.
Fischer took it and gasps of surprise swept through the auditorium.
It will not be determined until Fischer talks whether he had miscalculated or had decided to take Spassky's dare.
The match could last 24 games. Fischer needs 12½ points (at 1 point for a victory and ½ for a draw) to win; Spassky needs only 12 points to retain his title.
Spassky, 35, dressed in a dark business suit that included a vest, arrived promptly at 5. He spoke to the referee, Lothar Schmid, and made his first move. Schmid then started Fischer's clock. Fischer turned up seven minutes later wearing a business suit and a white shirt.
In each day's session, each player has 2½ hours to make 40 moves.
If the interior of the auditorium resembled a place of worship — from time to time a large “silence” sign blinked on — the exteriors were more reminiscent of Yankee Stadium at the seventh-inning stretch. Even hot dogs were on sale.
There is a large cafeteria in Exhibition Hall and hundreds of chess lovers preferred to watch the action over television monitors, pocket chess sets in front of them, drinking beer or eating pastries.
Downstairs there was a lecture room in which experts presided over a demonstration set hung on the wall. This room was crowded with spectators jostling one another and even hear the analyses.
The closed-circuit television standing on chairs to see and was sharp and clear. Every so often the lens shifted to a picture of the players or to a close-up of the board, the marble inlay that artisans had worked so hard to perfect. It had been installed only yesterday and met with the approval of both players.
