AThe Morning News Wilmington, Delaware Thursday, August 31, 1972 - Page 65
Moves of Drawn 20th Chess Game
Reykjavik (UPI) — The moves in the 20th game of the Boris Spassky-Bobby Fischer chess championship.
Fischer Nears Title as 20th Chess Game is Another Draw
Reykjavik—Bobby Fischer drew the 20th game of his match with Boris Spassky yesterday and was one point from becoming the first American chess champion of the world.
Fischer was delighted with the draw reached after more than 6½ hours of play over two days. He walked off grinning. Spassky sat staring glumly at the board for several minutes after referee Lothar Schmid had cleared away the pieces.
Fischer has 11½ points in the match, one short of the 12½ he needs to take the crown the Russian has held for three years. The American challenger can wind it up with a win today or two half-point draws today and Sunday.
SPASSKY with 8½ points has to win three and draw one of the maximum of four remaining games to continue as champion.
The draw came after 54 moves of a Sicilian defense adjourned Tuesday in a position considered level or slightly favoring Spassky. At the end, the Russian controlled more space on the board than Fischer and had a strong center pawn.
But the material was even—two pieces and five pawns on each side—and Spassky failed to find a way to break into Fischer's defense.
FINALLY Fischer, apparently believing the position on the board had been repeated three times, beckoned to referee Lothar Schmid. Under chess rules, a triple repetition of the position means a draw may be claimed, and Fischer appeared eager to claim it. Schmid announced the draw and said it resulted from the repetition. But later he said the final position was still being discussed when the players just agreed to halve the point.
“They were only going around the mulberry bush anyway,” he said.
Spassky was obviously going for a win and expected a short game. When the Russian champion arrived he brought only one Thermos bottle and one chess expert said it was evident Spassky did not expect to stay a long time.
But—close to the world title—the American chess genius was not in a mood to take chances.
IT was the seventh draw in a row in a series that began with fireworks—a Spassky win and a Fischer forfeit giving the Russian a two-point lead. Fischer gained the lead in the sixth game and has held a three-point edge since the 13th game.
Considerable interest is being given to today's game, in which Fischer will have the black pieces. He has the reputation of doing anything to avoid draws, though the last seven games have tarnished that reputation. Many feel, however, that Fischer would not wish to sidle into the championship, draw by draw, half point by half point. Perhaps, then, he will expand some extra effort today in an attempt to win the match by a knockout. Of the six games he has won, three have been with the black pieces.
Icelandic scientists delayed their final report on an examination of Spassky's chair, prompted by a Soviet complaint that the Americans might have tampered with it. Icelandic chess officials said it was a foregone conclusion that the report would show nothing to back up the Russian claim.
