AThe Central New Jersey Home News New Brunswick, New Jersey Saturday, August 12, 1972 - Page 5
Bobby Turns 13 Into Lucky Number
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP)—Bobby Fischer boosted his prospects for the world chess championship by winning the 13th game yesterday and leaving the champion Boris Spassky defeated, dejected and alone at the chessboard with a sagging 5-8 deficit.
As Fischer left the stage, Spassky sat down and gingerly reset the pieces to the position at the 69th move, when grand masters said he had made a terrible blunder.
The champion reached out a hand and changed his play.
Referee Lothar Schmid, himself a grand master, lowered himself into the opposite chair. The two sat quite still until Schmid got up, and slowly Spassky followed.
The American challenger forged to a three-point lead over the Soviet titleholder by forcing him to resign after 74 moves and 9½ hours of play over two days. Fischer needs 4½ more points to wrest the title from Spassky, while the Russian must amass 7 points to retain his crown.
Play resumed after Thursday's adjournment with Spassky, playing the white pieces, in a seemingly hopeless position.
He made a poor rook maneuver on the 69th move and experts termed it a “terrible mistake” which lost him the chance for a draw.
Fischer pounced on the mistake pressing the champion relentlessly, until Spassky resigned.
“Bobby poured more into this end game than he ever did in his life,” said his second, William Lombardy. “It was exquisite.”
With a maximum of 11 games remaining in the 24-game chess series, Fischer could win with a run of draws. The Brooklyn, N.Y., chess wizard needs a total of 12½ points to capture the title while the Russian needs 12 points to retain it. A win counts one point and a draw one-half point.
Spassky had somewhat of an advantage in the game because the white pieces allowed him to open. But Fischer's unremitting attacks left him in a bad position at the end of play Thursday and he took half an hour to decide his sealed 42nd move.
When play resumed yesterday Spassky was punctual as usual but Fischer was a record 25 minutes late. He strode to his seat without acknowledging the Russian's presence.
The first 10 moves were lightning fast, but play gradually slowed through a long afternoon. At one point Fischer complained about noise and called for coffee.
Before the fateful 69th move, Yugoslav grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric said of Spassky:
“He sealed the best move and he defended like a genius. He has a draw now.”
Minutes later, however, the champion blundered. On his 68th move, he slid his rook to the queen's bishop square threatening to pick off a black pawn and give check.
But on the 69th move, he shunted the rook along horizontally again, to the queen square.
“This is tragic,” Gligoric said.
Spassky's final moves bore the mark of desperation. He moved his bishop down, letting his pawn fall to Fischer's freed rook, in a bid to stop Fischer from queening a kingside pawn.
Fischer closed in with his rook.
Spassky ran his fingers through his hair, clutching his face. Finally, he switched his clock off, defeated.
After signing his scoresheet and watching Fischer walk away, Spassky sat down for the replay. Instead of moving his rook horizontally to the queen square, he pushed it up, giving check.
That move might have given him a draw.
The next game is scheduled for tomorrow.
