AJournal and Courier Lafayette, Indiana Tuesday, August 01, 1972 - Page 19
Fischer To Thank For Improved Stakes
Bloomington (AP) — The captain of the 1962 U.S. Olympic Chess Team, on which Bobby Fischer was the top player, said top chess players of the future will have Fischer to thank for improved playing conditions and prize money.
“Bobby feels that players of high caliber should make as much money as great golfers or baseball players, and he fought to increase the available prize money,” said Eliot Hearst, the former team captain and now psychology professor at Indiana University here.
As a result, Hearst said, “the awards in the current match (with world champion Boris Spassky) will be more than 10 times those of any previous world championship match.
“And Bobby has brought much publicity to the game, and helped raise interest in it, so that now more of the better players can make a living teaching and writing about chess,” Hearst said.
“Spassky, who is always the perfect gentleman, complained about the meager prize money when he won the championship, but he wasn't able to improve things — Bobby was.”
Hearst said he was sure “all the other U.S. chess masters would agree with me that Bobby's goals have been desirable, but most of us would have tried different tactics.”
“Bobby's late arrivals for games, as an example, are not, I'm sure, due to a desire to show any disrespect for Spassky,” Hearst said. “Bobby is so shy that he'll sneak in late just to avoid the usual pregame amenities and small talk.
“To understand Bobby's sometimes roughshod tactics, you have to understand him. He's a very private, retiring individual. He's lived alone since he was about 15. He's been without the influence of any other person. He's self-made. All his abilities at chess he owes to his own hard work and study.
“He's not a humorless, sullen person as some observers have described him. He is deadly serious about chess, however, and is very stubborn.”
