The Gift of Chess

Notice to commercial publishers seeking use of images from this collection of chess-related archive blogs. For use of the many large color restorations, two conditions must be met: 1) It is YOUR responsibility to obtain written permissions for use from the current holders of rights over the original b/w photo. Then, 2) make a tax-deductible donation to The Gift of Chess in honor of Robert J. Fischer-Newspaper Archives. A donation in the amount of $250 USD or greater is requested for images above 2000 pixels and other special request items. For small images, such as for fair use on personal blogs, all credits must remain intact and a donation is still requested but negotiable. Please direct any photographs for restoration and special request (for best results, scanned and submitted at their highest possible resolution), including any additional questions to S. Mooney, at bobbynewspaperblogs•gmail. As highlighted in the ABC News feature, chess has numerous benefits for individuals, including enhancing critical thinking and problem-solving skills, improving concentration and memory, and promoting social interaction and community building. Initiatives like The Gift of Chess have the potential to bring these benefits to a wider audience, particularly in areas where access to educational and recreational resources is limited.

Best of Chess Fischer Newspaper Archives
• Robert J. Fischer, 1955 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1956 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1957 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1958 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1959 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1960 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1961 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1962 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1963 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1964 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1965 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1966 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1967 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1968 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1969 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1970 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1971 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1972 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1973 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1974 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1975 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1976 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1977 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1978 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1979 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1980 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1981 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1982 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1983 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1984 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1985 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1986 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1987 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1988 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1989 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1990 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1991 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1992 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1993 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1994 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1995 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1996 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1997 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1998 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 1999 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2000 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2001 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2002 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2003 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2004 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2005 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2006 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2007 bio + additional games
• Robert J. Fischer, 2008 bio + additional games
Chess Columns Additional Archives/Social Media

Fischer Wins Chess Title As Spassky Resigns 21st Game

Back to 1972 News Articles

The Times Shreveport, Louisiana Saturday, September 02, 1972 - Page 9

Fischer Wins Chess Title As Spassky Resigns 21st Game
By Julie Flint
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP)—Bobby Fischer won the world chess championship Friday without moving a pawn. He became America's first world titleholder when Boris Spassky resigned by telephone in the 21st game, his position analyzed as hopeless.
The 29-year-old chess wizard from Brooklyn stands to win $156,000 in prize money and can count on more thousands from book royalties, public appearances and the like.
Fischer's victory in the 21st game, adjourned overnight, gave him 12½ points to the Russian's 8½.
Spassky, 35, will receive about $100,000. He won only three games, one on a forfeit, and Fischer seven. They drew (illegible) times, each draw counting half a point.
When referee Lothar Schmid stepped forward on the stage and announced that Spassky had resigned, the spectators in the jammed hall cheered. Some shouted “Brave Bobby” as Fischer smiled. Fischer then left quickly and fans mobbed his car outside the hall.
Col. E.B. Edmondson, head of the American Chess Federation (illegible) the victory was “entirely what we expected“ and “the score was exactly what I predicted months ago.”
Tass, the Soviet news agency, said Spassky's “decision was taken after an analysis showed that further white resistance was futile.” Spassky has played the opening white pieces, ordinarily an advantage.
Last Minute Fuss
There was a last-minute fuss when the championship changed hands. Schmid had received the telephone call from Spassky at 12:50 pm. The resumed game was to have begun at 3:30 p.m.
Schmid said he had congratulated Spassky on his sportsmanship and asked him to go to the playing hall to inform Fischer officially.
Spassky did not go and the Americans, told of the telephone call, refused to accept the resignation as official.
Max Euwe, president of the International Chess Federation, ruled that Fischer would have to show up on stage to be declared the champion. When Fischer arrived, he still was not sure Spassky had resigned.
The referee said Fischer insisted on seeing if the Russian had signed his score sheet to make the resignation valid. Schmid had signed the score sheet and explained to Fischer that this was valid under federation rules.
Schmid then announced the Soviet champion's resignation to the 2,500 Icelanders assembled in the hall.
Thus the match that had excited the imagination of the world ended in anticlimax, instead of in the killing attack by Fischer that the fans had expected.
Russians had domination the chess world for 35 years, and the dream of Fischer's life had been to end the domination.
The match had been dominated by controversy, first over Fischer's demands for more money and later by his complaints about playing conditions. So relations between the American and the Russian were strained.
Euwe said he wished Spassky had shown up to congratulate Fischer but noted that the Russian “was a little bitter.”
Fred Cramer, Fischer's personal representative, was asked if there would be as much controversy when the American has to defend his title three years hence.
“If you call trying to stop people from sneaking cameras in and getting the proper lighting a fuss—maybe,” he replied. “Fischer is a professional.”
Cramer predicted Fischer could hold the title a long time and so did the Rev. William Lombardy of New York, Fischer's chief chess adviser.
Cramer shared his elation with other Americans in Reykjavik. Grandmaster Robert Byrne laughed and said “It's too early to say” when asked how it felt to be a part of the “new and powerful American school of chess.”
Spassky had sealed his 41st move Thursday as white in a Sicilian defense. The sealed move, never played was bishop to queen seven.
Fischer was threatening to push a king's rook pawn to a queening square, while his rook prevented Spassky from advancing two pawns on the queen's side of the board.
In the United States, chess players and fans were jubilant with the victory though most said they expected it from the beginning. As for Fischer, “he's the greatest” was a typical remark.
“It's a fantastic victory. It's marvelous. It's obviously going to be tremendous for chess in the United States,” said Richard Verber, president of the Chicago Chess Club.
Many grandmasters think Spassky's blunder in the 13th game will go down in chess history as the pivotal point of the 1972 championship.
After nine hours play he had turned a long position into a probable draw with a brilliant defense, only to err on the 69th move and lose.
“Spassky should have drawn and the whole match would have been different,” said Jens Enevoldsen, a chess master from Denmark. “That defeat shook him so much that he lost a win for a draw in the next game.”
Fr. Lombardy, Fischer's chess second, said the 13th game—on Aug. 11—was so tough that “both players played the next one as if they were drunk.”
Euwe, a former world champion, agree that “this match was better than most others.”
Schmid, however, said he thought the match contained fewer than 10 games worthy of championship play and that tension led the players into “four or five terrible blunders.”
Some grandmasters thought the eight game, on July 27, was the worst in Spassky's career. He flubbed with what experts called a beginner's mistake and fell behind 5 points to 3. For the first time the home folks in Moscow thought Spassky might lose his title.
Euwe thought Fischer's best game was his victory in the 10th on Aug. 4.
Yugoslav Grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric said Spassky could have fought on in the game Friday but had made a weak sealed move, instead of his bishop to queen seven, a starting move, the Russian should have played king to king(illegible) three, getting in front of Fischer's advancing pawn, Gligoric added.
“But Spassky lacked the energy to fight.” Gligoric said.
The Russian evidently decided to resign following overnight analysis that disclosed the weakness of his sealed move.
Gligoric said Fisher nearly let Spassky off the hook with his 40th and final move of the match Thursday. That was an advance of his king's rook pawn to the fourth rank. But Spassky did not find the right continuation.
Spassky lost the crown in his first defense, three years after taking it from Tigran Petrosian, another Russian.
It was a heart-breaking match for Spassky, who never before had lost a game to Fischer.
Spassky won the first game on a Fischer blunder and the second when the American forfeited rather than play with movie cameras in the hall.
The American won the third game, played in a back room away from the audience, and this seemed to break Spassky's spirit.
Fischer was in the lead by the sixth game. He built up a three-point lead at the 10th game. Spassky won the 11th game but lost the 13th with a blunder. That was the match.
Seven draws followed, an unusually long string for the aggressive Fischer, before he won the 21st game.
Fischer, who says he plays to crush his opponents' spirits and like to see them squirm, was devastating in the elimination matches leading to the championship.
He defeated Soviet grandmaster Mark Taimanov 6-0 and repeated the score against Bent Larsen of Denmark, generally considered the second-best player in the West.
Then Fischer toppled Petrosian 6½ to 2½ to gain the right to meet Spassky.
Fr. Lombardy said he never doubted that Fischer would defeat Spassky, even when trailing the Russian by two points after two games.
He said he had told Fischer that he expected an American victory even if Fischer had fallen three or four points behind.
Fischer had balked at coming to Iceland because the prized put up by the Icelandic Chess Federation was only $125,000. Yugoslavia had backed out as an original cosponsor because of Fischer's money demands. The winner gets five-eighths of the purse; the loser three-eighths.
He left New York for Reykjavik only after a British financier and chess fan, James D. Slater, doubled the purse to $250,000.
Spassky then refused to open the match until Fischer apologized for his “petty dispute over money.”
With Fischer's apology, the match began July 11, nine days late.
The Icelandic Chess Federation will throw a banquet for the contestants Sunday.

Fischer Wins Chess Title As Spassky Resigns 21st Game

'til the world understands why Robert J. Fischer criticised the U.S./British and Russian military industry imperial alliance and their own Israeli Apartheid. Sarah Wilkinson explains:

Bobby Fischer, First Amendment, Freedom of Speech
What a sad story Fischer was,” typed a racist, pro-imperialist colonial troll who supports mega-corporation entities over human rights, police state policies & white supremacy.
To which I replied: “Really? I think he [Bob Fischer] stood up to the broken system of corruption and raised awareness! Whether on the Palestinian/Israel-British-U.S. Imperial Apartheid scam, the Bush wars of ‘7 countries in 5 years,’ illegally, unconstitutionally which constituted mass xenocide or his run in with police brutality in Pasadena, California-- right here in the U.S., police run rampant over the Constitution of the U.S., on oath they swore to uphold, but when Americans don't know the law, and the cops either don't know or worse, “don't care” -- then I think that's pretty darn “sad”. I think Mr. Fischer held out and fought the good fight, steadfast til the day he died, and may he Rest In Peace.
Educate yourself about U.S./State Laws --
https://www.youtube.com/@AuditTheAudit/videos
After which the troll posted a string of profanities, confirming there was never any genuine sentiment of “compassion” for Mr. Fischer, rather an intent to inflict further defamatory remarks.

This ongoing work is a tribute to the life and accomplishments of Robert “Bobby” Fischer who passionately loved and studied chess history. May his life continue to inspire many other future generations of chess enthusiasts and kibitzers, alike.

Robert J. Fischer, Kid Chess Wizard 1956March 9, 1943 - January 17, 2008

The photograph of Bobby Fischer (above) from the March 02, 1956 The Tampa Times was discovered by Sharon Mooney (Bobby Fischer Newspaper Archive editor) on February 01, 2018 while gathering research materials for this ongoing newspaper archive project. Along with lost games now being translated into Algebraic notation and extractions from over two centuries of newspapers, it is but one of the many lost treasures to be found in the pages of old newspapers since our social media presence was first established November 11, 2017.

Special Thanks