AThe Evening Sun Baltimore, Maryland Wednesday, July 05, 1972 - Page 28
The Chess War
It's hard to avoid the impression that Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky have learned something from Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. What they've learned is how to behave in a way to rivet international attention on their imminent contest for the world chess championship. Spassky is being Frazier—taciturn, confident, the champion. Fischer is Ali: petulant, elusive, provocative. The site of their clash is to be Reykjavik, Iceland, a gloomy, cloud-covered city, perfectly suited to the cloudy temperament of these two chess titans. At last report, the match has been postponed again, for two days this time, until Mr. Spassky recovers from the pain of insult inflicted upon him by Mr. Fischer, who has been responsible for most of the delays until this one.
And yet there is little doubt the contest will be held. Neither Spassky nor Fischer could leave Reykjavik without having met the other across the chess board and be able to live peacefully with himself. Mr. Fischer's entire life is chess. There is nothing he wants more than to be recognized as the world's greatest chess player. Mr. Spassky already enjoys that recognition. He's in Reykjavik to hold on to it.
Chess is a game that requires inexhaustible patience, by the watcher as well as the watched. Those now impatiently urging Spassky and Fischer to get on with it are missing the point. They should perceive that the game has already begun, for what else are all these delays, insults and counter delays but ploys in a war of nerves.
The Chess War 05 Jul 1972, Wed The Evening Sun (Baltimore, Maryland) Newspapers.com
