The Atlanta Constitution Atlanta, Georgia Friday, August 11, 1972 - Page 3
13th Chess Game Adjourned
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP)— Bobby Fischer's devastating chess attack shoved champion Boris Spassky into what experts called a hopeless position Thursday night and Spassky adjourned the 13th game in the world title chess series.
“It is finished for Spassky,” said Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric. “He has only crazy chances tomorrow.”
The game resumes Friday with Spassky's 42nd move, already decided and handed to chief referee Lothar Schmid in a sealed envelope. Converting his dominating position into a win would give Fischer a commanding eight points to the Russian champion's five.
Fischer, a chess wizard from Brooklyn, N.Y., needs 12½ points in the 24-game series to wrest the crown from Spassky. The Russian needs 12 points to retain it, with a win worth one point and a draw worth half a point.
Fischer could now take the title with a run of draws. Spassky's wife, en route to Iceland to be with her husband, said in Copenhagen: “Of course Boris will win.”
Spassky took a full half-hour to decide his 42nd move. He left his seat, walked behind the curtains at the back of the stage, and—away from Fischer's eyes—wrote down the move. He sealed it, handed it to Schmid, and left.
Spassky's delay means that he has only 23 minutes for 14 moves Friday.
Under match rules, each player 2½ hours to complete 40 moves, and one hour for the next 16 moves.
Spassky also is under pressure from a Fischer pawn, one square from the last row and being converted into a queen—the most powerful piece. Both players lost their queens in an exchange on the 30th move.
Spassky inspired no confidence in his followers when he spent 20 minutes pondering his seventh move, a lot of time at that early stage.
After six moves, he had used 20 of the 150 minutes allotted for 40 moves. Fischer had used only five minutes, having prepared his line in advance in an attempt to seize the initiative.
Experts doubted that Spassky had played the Alekhine recently.
As Fischer moved out his kingside bishop to attack Spassky's central pawn structure from the flank—the typical Alekhine setup—the champion deviated with a totally new seventh move, bringing his queenside knight in front of his queen.
Spassky sealed his 42nd move and handed it to the referee. It will be played first when the game resumes Friday.
Fischer leads the series 7-5. Spassky, 35, opened the 13th game with the same move he used in winning the 11th game last Sunday—pawn to king four.
Fischer, 29, responded with the Alekhine defense, one he has used only give times in his career, instead of the Sicilian defense that Spassky cracked Sunday.
Spassky charged into the Alekhine defense with a kingside attack, but Fischer broke into the champion's lines and forced a queen exchange that left Spassky in a weak position.
Spassky's pawns continued to advance. Then a mistake on the 29th move drove him further into trouble.
Here are the moves:
The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, August 11, 1972 - Page 3
Touring Master Predicts Chess Boom on Way
It was not a Chess Boom. It was a Fischer Boom. And it was not “on the way”. It was present, happening, current. When Bobby abandoned Chess, the throngs of adoring fans and curiosity spectators, exited as well. Did Kasparov and Acers really believe the “Chess Boom” would survive without the magnetic & charismatic personality of Fischer keeping the flame alive? or that either of them could compete to fill the shoes of the greatest chess player, who ever lived? The majority of Bobby's fans were NON-CHESS players, and Fischer's charisma inspired many to try their ability at chess!
And since when did the chess establishment care how disrespectful and crude it were toward Mr. Boris Spassky? Will Acers complain about the disrespect?
