APottsville Republican Pottsville, Pennsylvania Wednesday, August 30, 1972 - Page 15
The Thinkers—Chess On Their Minds
World chess champion Boris Spassky, left, and American challenger Bobby Fischer study the chess board during world chess championship match in Reykjavik, Iceland. It was Fischer's move. (AP Wirephoto).
Spassky Has Chance In 20th
Reykjavik, Iceland (AP) — The 20th game in the world chess championship continues today with the kibitzing grandmasters predicting another draw or just possibly a win for Boris Spassky.
Spassky, fighting stubbornly to hold onto the title everyone expects him to lose, blunted an attack by Bobby Fischer Tuesday in the early stages of the game and then slowly squeezed the American challenger in a long endgame that adjourned in the 40th move.
The Russian clearly was trying hard for the win he needed to stay in the match. Fischer, leading 11-8, needs only 1½ more points to take the title, while Spassky needs four points to retain it. With a win counting a point and a draw half a point for each player, Fischer needs only a win and a draw or three draws. But Spassky must win at least three of the remaining games and draw the other two.
Fischer, playing the white pieces, opened with his favorite pawn to king four for the fifth time in the match. Spassky chose the Sicilian Defense, which gives black good counter-attacking chances.
The game was guided into the Rauzer Variation and the players castled on opposite sides. Fischer controlled more space, and Spassky was content with a cramped but solid development.
Instead of pawn storms, piece exchanges followed. Fischer's attack spent itself before the 20th move, although he kept a rook planted deep in Russian territory.
Grandmaster William Lombardy, Fischer's second, said the position appeared even but he would prefer to play the black side.
The words were prophetic. Spassky, easing his feet out of his shoes for comfort between occasional strolls offstage, advanced pawns first on the queen's side of the board and then on the king's side.
Fischer gradually gave ground and Spassky finally liberated a bishop — a powerful fighter at long range in an endgame with few pieces left.
