AThe Town Talk Alexandria, Louisiana Friday, July 07, 1972 - Page 6
The Readers Write: World Chess Non-Championship
Editor, Town Talk:
It's true, the U.S. Chess Federation didn't ask me when they were looking for someone to refuse to play Boris Spassky, the Russian who is world chess champion. But then, Bobby Fischer was already hiding out in New York City, or California, or somewhere in-between. So I guess they decided it was more convenient to let him not-play for the world championship of chess.
But I think a serious mistake was made. I have not-played more games for the world championship than Bobby Fischer or anybody else ever read about. The fact that the news media didn't make headlines out of my not-playing just shows that Bobby is not the U.S. chess non-champion. When he refused to play, it was news. When I refused to play, who cared? I've been not-playing championship chess for years, and it's not even news when I don't show. I feel that I have been cheated out of my right to not-play. They didn't even give me a chance to refuse.
Of course, Bobby is a professional who plays for money. Or is it, Doesn't play for money? He has gotten the prize fund up to a quarter of a million dollars by not-playing. I think he sold out too cheap. I would have not-played for at least two-million. Though I have lost a couple of fifty-cent games to my cousin Fred, I'm not a professional. Therefore, I have not-played for more money than Fischer has any day.
I'm grateful to that British banker who put up the extra $125,000 in prize money. Bobby hopped the next plane to Iceland, and it looks like he's going to disgrace the whole Chess Non-Playing fraternity and probably win the world championship. That will show his true colors. He isn't a non-player, after all.
But maybe the Russians and the U.S. Chess Federation know something we don't know. The cover of the June Issue of Chess Life & Review, the official organ of the U.S. Chess Federation, is a drawing by a New York commercial artist. “The likenesses of Spassky, Kosygin, and Brezhnev have been magnificently captured,” the Magazine says on its masthead. It sure looks to me like Boris Spassky shows a striking resemblance to Richard M. Nixon in the cartoon. Maybe that's a mistaken observation, but Mr. Nixon is already acknowledged as one of the world's greatest non-players of the ancient and mysterious game of chess.
But the key is in the caption to the cover-cartoon. While Brezhnev ponders, Kosygin is asking the Russian champion, “But, Boris, what if he doesn't play 1 P-K5?” Knowing his fearsome reputation as a non-player, the Russians are worried about what Fischer won't play, not about what he will play. Now that the American contender is in Iceland, Spassky is catching on to the game. He says he will not-play, thereby establishing a serious claim for himself to the title of world champion chess non-player.
It looks like we who have been faithful non-players for years are being upstaged by these upstarts like Spassky and Fischer. Something has got to be done. Chess non-players of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your games.
Tom Heston, Alexandria, La.
