ANew York Times, New York, New York, Sunday, June 18, 1972 - Page 29
Stamps by David Lidman
For the World Chess Championship, starting July 2 at Reykjavik, pitting Bobby Fischer of the United States against Boris Spassky of Russia, Iceland will released a 15-kronner stamp of a chessboard, appropriately inscribed.
The Daily Sentinel Grand Junction, Colorado Sunday, June 18, 1972 - Page 4
Victories of a Genius
Other Editors
(London Times)
Bobby Fischer's victory over Tigran Petrosian in the candidates' tournament in preparation for the world chess championship was a thrilling encounter. Certainly, the result was expected. The American is not a champion who lets his admirers down. He is enjoying a run of breath-taking successes, which has never been paralleled in the annals of chess.
Bent Larsen, the Danish master, who had the temerity to claim that he should rightfully occupy number one board, over Fischer in second place, in the recent match between the Rest of the World and Russia, was trounced 6-0 in the semifinals of the present championship…
Chess, sometimes described as too serious for a game and too slight for an art, has one peculiar advantage over other kinds of contest. All the games of the past hundred years can be played out, move by move, by each new generation of players. Many of Fischer's games, are destined for such immortality…
Though Fischer has no doubt of his own ability he has yet to attain the highest rung in the chess world. This is what makes his matches against Boris Spassky next spring so absorbing a prospect. Spassky is certainly the best chess player in the Soviet Union, which has for so long had a monopoly of the world championship. He, like Fischer, has powers which no opponent for some time has been strong enough to test to the full…
Fischer on this occasion must be-ware of overconfidence. Whatever the outcome, chess stands to be greatly enriched.
New York Times, New York, New York, Sunday, June 18, 1972 - Page 38
Spassky's Training Is a 'Secret' As He Prepares to Play Fischer —
Chess Champion Is Confident — Sees Defense of Title as 'Great Big Holiday' by Theodore Shabad
Moscow, June 17—Boris Spassky, the world chess champion, declined to reveal yesterday how he was training for his match against Bobby Fischer of the United States, which begins July 2 in Iceland.
“Professional secret,” Spassky said, looking fit and tanned at a news conference. He plans to fly to Reykjavik Wednesday.
Composed and confident, the 35-year-old champion appeared to take a tolerant view of the complex maneuverings for a mutually acceptable site for the match, but said “Thank God it's all over.”
He seemed in good spirits as he parried questions in a half-hour session at the Journalists Club and said he looked upon his forthcoming defense of the title as “one great big holiday.”
Sees 'Interesting Match'
“I don't know how it is going to end,” he said. “Maybe he will win, maybe he will lose. But I am sure of one thing—it will be a highly interesting match in terms of the art of chess.”
Although Spassky appeared in no mood to engage in personalities, he made some comments about the American challenger when pressed by newsmen.
“I have a very high opinion of Fischer as a chess player,” Spassky said. “He is a great player. The world of chess would be very boring without him.”
At another point, he said he would have picked Fischer as the challenger if the world champion still had the right to select his opponent, as was once the practice.
Discusses Chess Fees
Asked to comment on the challenger's avowed interest in making money from chess, Spassky said:
“If you want my personal judgment, I think that his interest in money reflects an effort to assert himself as a person. It may also be the importance that is generally attached in the United States to the size of fees.”
Although Spassky refused to be specific about his training methods, he said he had given equal attention to physical fitness and to the study of chess. In another contest, he added that he had become interested in tennis recently.
The champion said he would be accompanied to Reykjavik by Yefim Geller, a Soviet grandmaster, who has replaced Igor Bondarevsky as Spassky's trainer.
“We had professional and personal differences,” Spassky said of his former coach.
Also going along will be two friends — Nikolai Krogius, a grandmaster and professional psychologist, and Ivo Nei, an international master from Estonia.
