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

Your Move -- Watch a Zugzwang

Press and Sun-Bulletin Binghamton, New York Sunday, August 27, 1972 - Page 3

Your Move -- Watch a Zugzwang
By William L. Ryan, AP Special Correspondent
Washington and Moscow have stopped glaring at one another, but the East-West cold war goes on in microcosm across an Italian marble chessboard in Iceland. And if you don't know “fingerfehler” from “fianchetto,” how are you going to understand it?
The match of the century for the world championship has had about everything from a cliffhanger beginning to a touch of cloak and dagger, what with Russian charges of sinister American shenanigans.
What Ely Culbertson did to popularize contract bridge 40 years ago, what Arnold Palmer did for gold in terms of big-money purses, Bobby Fischer is doing for chess with his flair for making bizarre headlines.
Suddenly what once was the exotic pastime of the intellectual elite has seized the imagination of the man-in-the-street in America and around the world. People who once wouldn't have dreamed of doing so hunch over boards and try to follow the mysteries of the struggle in Reykjavik between the American challenger, Fischer, and the world champion, Russia's Boris Spassky.
Not long ago the winner of a world chess championship went away with a $2,500 purse. Now the two contestants will share a $300,000 pot. For Fischer, at least, it's only the beginning. Books about his games can be expected to go like hotcakes, and there will be other fringe benefits.
Chess has been perplexing people for some eight centuries.
The Russians call it shakhmat, or checkmate. And that's the essence of the game—it means the king can't move without being captured, so the jig is up.
The rules for this hobby of eggheads, once called “the royal game,” are both old and relatively new. These days FIDE, French initials for International Chess Federation, supervises the game around the world. FIDE organized the first world championship in London in 1927.
The common checkerboard will do for chess. The board is considered to have eight horizontal “ranks” and eight vertical “files”. Masters refer to the rank of squares by letters “a” through “h” and the file squares by numbers 1 through 8, but ordinary mortals had better forget that and stick to designation by the pieces that command each file.
Once the neophyte masters the moves of the individual pieces, a new world opens up to him. The fascination is in the game's virtually infinite variety of possible moves and combinations of moves and in the military-like strategy and tactics.
From puzzled tyros these days, questions pour into newspaper offices. Some examples:
Q. If White, with first move, has the advantage, who decides which is White?
A. Lots are drawn for the first game. Thereafter, White is alternated.
Q. Fischer and Spassky have seconds. Can they help either player?
A. Only after adjournment. Once the players are at the board, they are on their own.
They can consult all they want on the next moves after adjournment.
Q. Analysts said Fischer erred by taking a “poisoned pawn.” What's that?
A. In essence, a baited trap.
Q. What about touching or picking up pieces?
A. When a piece is askew you can fix it but you must announce your intention. It's good form to do it in French, “j'adoube,” meaning “I adjust.” If a player puts a hand on a piece, he must move it unless he's announced adjusting. A move is complete when the piece goes to another square and the hand is removed.
Q. Now that we've been through this drill, what about “fingerfehler” and “fianchetto,” as mentioned above?
A. If you accidentally knock over a piece, that's a “fingerfehler,” a slip of the finger, but it's good form to say it in German. “Fianchetto” is Italian. It means your bishop is placed in Kt-2 to command the whole diagonal file. But if you get too much of this as a beginner, you'll wind up in a “zugzwang.”
Q. What in blazes is a “zugzwang?”
A. In plain chess language, it means “you're in a jam, bub.”

Your Move -- Watch a Zugzwang

'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