Evening Standard London, Greater London, England Thursday, July 13, 1972 - Page 6
That Move—Was There More To It? by Leonard Barden
THE fatal pawn snatch on move 29 which cost Bobby Fischer his first game with Spassky will be a talking point among chess Grand Masters for years to come.
Spassky trapped Fischer's bishop which made the capture simple by a spider's web net operation to be found in any elementary textbook. The human machine showed himself as fallible as a gas board computer sending out a bill for £10,000 instead of £10.
It was one of the worst blunders of Fischer's chess career although Bobby's reputation is such that hours later there were still chess masters who thought he had made a far-sighted sacrifice.
Spassky could hardly believe his luck. The game till then had resembled a meeting of the Woodchoppers Union with most of the pieces swapped off the board in the first 20 moves.
Spassky was probably wondering if Bobby would break his rule of never offering a draw before the end of the first session.
Fischer's blunder was a gift to the squad of Grand Master analysts assembled in Reykjavik and Moscow ready to work all night to keep Russia at the top in chess.
In last night's play, Spassky gobbled up Fischer's pawns with his king, and when Fischer resigned, Spassky was only a few moves away from promoting a pawn into a queen.
The match with 23 games to go is still wide open. Three previous challengers since 1948 lost the first game of the series. Two of them went on to win the championship and the other tied the match.
In tonight's game, Fischer has the white pieces an advantage similar to the serve in tennis.
He will open almost certainly with his favourite move pawn to king four followed by a Ruy Lopez opening.
Spassky had to struggle for a draw against Fischer's Ruy Lopez in two of their previous games.
That Move--Was There More To It? 13 Jul 1972, Thu Evening Standard (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
