The Kansas City Star Kansas City, Missouri Saturday, July 08, 1972 - Page 26
The Moves Began Before the Match
After much fancy international footwork and three postponements, the great world chess championship between America's Bobby Fischer and Russia's Boris Spassky is finally (or should one say tentatively?) to begin Tuesday. The inclination of the average onlooker is to conclude that both principals, to differing degrees have forfeited some of the public respect heretofore accorded them for their supremacy in this sport of mental acuity.
Yet this may not be the case at all. It could be that Messrs. Fischer and Spassky have been indulging in a device becoming increasingly familiar even in much-more-physical sports such as shot putting—anywhere that a head-to-head confrontation is involved. It is called “psyching” your opponent: Any gimmick or change of ordinary routine designed to upset a foe's confidence or concentration. It may range from advance comments to the press to abrupt displays of prowess before the competition is scheduled to be joined.
Spassky, already pouting at photographers who attempted to monitor the exercise workouts which were part of his countdown to match time, was ripe for psyching when Fischer, at the last moment, held out for a larger purse. Yet so eager are world chess buffs to get these two to the checkered board that an English financier tossed another $130,000 into the pot and Fischer finally boarded a plane for Iceland.
But now Spassky, possibly feeling a need for some face-saving at having been kept waiting or perhaps trying a little reverse psyching, balked and demanded an apology. His Soviet backers, lacing a little Slavic practicality into the face-saving, proposed that Fischer forfeit the first game of the 24-game set, but did not press the demand.
Fischer, then came back with his change-of-pace pitch, being unexpectedly gracious, almost abject, in his written confession of bad form and declarations of admiration for Spassky. But the atmosphere was strained rather than cordial as the two met to drawn pawns for the white pieces and first move.
Upsetting as all this may have been to lovers of chess (if few others), the net effect is that the two men now will play for $300,000 instead of $170,000. The match has attracted world-wide attention and one American network now plans to carry it on television. The though occurs, then, that Fischer and Spassky may have known what they were doing all along—show biz calls it “building the house.” While the two may be starting even against each other Tuesday they are already several moves ahead of the rest of us.
([Fails to emphasize Belgrade organizers refuse to communicate with Fischer to iron out prematch details. Or, tell about Belgrade's illegal 35,000 USD demand for a guarantee the USCF refused to shell up. Or, that Soviets picked Anti-American, racist, Iceland who forbid black personnel on Icelandic soil, to achieve censoring coverage. Plots to disqualify Fischer based on Soviet rumor mill, replacing with a Soviet… so much more, remained untold by author.])
The Moves Began Before the Match 08 Jul 1972, Sat The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri) Newspapers.com
