AAlbuquerque Journal Albuquerque, New Mexico Wednesday, August 02, 1972 - Page 20
Draw After 29 Plays Ends Chess Match
Reykjavik, Iceland (UPI)—Boris Spassky accepted challenger Bobby Fischer's offer of a draw after 29 moves in the ninth game of their world championship chess match Tuesday, enabling the American to maintain his two-point advantage in the contest.
The draw gave Fischer 5.5 match points to Spassky's 3.5, and it put the Russian in an increasingly difficult position in the 24-game, $250,000 match.
Fischer, playing black, completed his 29th move and glanced up from the chess board to catch his opponent's eye. The American nodded slightly, and the two players rose simultaneously and shook hands to signify the game had ended in a draw.
Referee Lothar Schmid of West Germany confirmed afterward that it was Fischer who offered the draw and Spassky who accepted it since it was not clear immediately to the observers in the Reykjavik auditorium where the match is being played.
The ninth game had been postponed two days from Sunday because Spassky was suffering from a head cold.
Playing white Tuesday, the Russian used his standard queen's pawn opening and then waited for Fischer to appear.
AS HE HAS done in all of the games played so far, Fischer arrived late. He rushed into the 3000-seat auditorium, which was one-third filled, nodded to Spassky but did not shake hands with him and then sat down in his special swivel chair. He studied the board for 45 seconds and responded with his knight to king's bishop three.
Play quickly developed into a queen's gambit, Tarrasch variation style. But on his ninth move, Fischer made an entirely new play by advancing out his queen's knight pawn. He put Spassky in check on the following two moves.
“This is the first time I have seen the variation,” U.S. grandmaster Luubomir Kavalek, a Czechoslovak refugee said of Fischer's ninth move.
FOLLOWING that move, Spassky took longer for each of his decisions. He sometimes left the table immediately after making his own move, returning to the board only after Fischer had moved.
Spassky put Fischer in check on the 25th and 26th moves, and by the 27th each player was left with only a rook and four pawns. They exchanged pawns on the 29th move, at which point Fischer offered the world champion a draw.
With 5.5 points in the first nine games, Fischer, 29, can win the title simply by drawing 14 more games. He can even afford to lose once. Spassky on the other hand must win at least twice and draw 13 times in the remaining 15 games.
SINCE HIS victory in their first game three weeks ago, Spassky has yet to defeat Fischer again at the chess board. The Russian was awarded another victory by default in the second game when Fischer refused to appear because of the presence of television cameras in the auditorium. Fischer has since won four times and drawn three games.
As champion, Spassky needs only 12 match points to retain his title and Fischer needs 12.5 to take it away from him. One match point is awarded to the winner of a game, one-half point to each player in case of a draw.
Fischer's domination of Spassky through the first eight games produced some criticism of the 35-year old Russian in the Soviet press. Spassky's aides denied reports Tuesday that one of his advisers, grandmaster Eyfrem Geller, had been recalled to Moscow to discuss the champion's flight and devise a plan to stop Fischer.
BUT RUSSIAN sources said the telephone to Moscow had been used as a “hot line” for chess strategy during the seventh game last week. They said Geller conferred with former world champion Tigran Petrosian and another master, Mikhail Tal, in a conference call during the overnight adjournment of the game. The contest ended as a draw in 49 moves the following day.
