Hartford Courant Hartford, Connecticut Friday, October 29, 1971 - Page 16
A U.S. Chess Master Aims at the Top
There are probably not many more competent chess players in the civilized world than there are Americans who watch professional football or the World Series on television on a Sunday afternoon. And the common or garden chess player who plays a friendly game now and then for relaxation and entertainment, is to be compared with those intense, chess-living grandmasters who rule the world of chess only as a pre-World War I Model T is to be compared with a model Rolls Royce just off the manufacturer's final test stand. There are only a handful of them in the world of modern chess, most of them—and all of the postwar world champions—have been Russians. So the news that Bobby Fischer of the United States has defeated Tigran Petrosian of the Soviet Union 6½ to 2½ in a nine-game match—the last four games being straight wins—is top headline news in the chess world. Petrosian is a former world champion, and Fischer's victory gives him the right to challenge the current champion, Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, next year.
The details of the play, which took place in Buenos Aires, will be eagerly awaited by the students of the game. Fischer has been known internationally for years as a brilliant, if sometimes unpredictable player. He has been playing since he was a small boy—he is now only 28—and has never been noted for his modesty or his personal charm. He has made no bones about claiming to be the best chess player in the world, but until now he has refused to put up or shut up by entering the grueling international elimination tournaments.
For winning the international chess semi-finals, Fischer will take home approximately $7,500 which is about what a topflight professional football player could expect to earn in an afternoon. But in the elegant world of top-flight chess, the rewards are in the exhausting play itself and the classic games are as familiar to every buff as are the various backfield formations to those who follow professional football.
