AThe Vancouver Sun Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Friday, October 29, 1971 - Page 10
Boris 'Not Impressed' by Fischer Victory
Belgrade (AP) — Boris Spassky, the Soviet Union's world chess champion, says he was neither impressed nor surprised by the victory of U.S. grandmaster Bobby Fischer over Tigran Petrosian in Buenos Aires.
In an interview in Sochi, Crimea, Spassky said Petrosian “defeated himself alone, with his own hands.”
Spassky is preparing for a meeting with Fischer next spring. He praised Fischer as “a chess genius of the 20th century, along with Mikhail Tal,” Soviet former world champion who had a meteoric career.
Fischer defeated Petrosian, a Soviet former world champion, in the ninth game of a scheduled 12-game match.
He won the right to challenge Spassky for the world championship, the first time an American has ever been in that position.
Meanwhile, in Buenos Aires, Fischer devour huge beef steaks and played tennis Thursday between marathon sleeping sessions as he recovered from the tension of the match.
“I wouldn't mind playing again in Buenos Aires,” he told reporters. “But the final decision on the site will have to wait for some time.”
The Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Chile and Greece already have made firm offers to hold the final, and 16 other countries have expressed interest in it.
Under an unofficial agreement reached in Vancouver in September during the World Chess Federation congress, the Soviet Union has the right to pick the site.
The 34-year-old Spassky is known to prefer to play outside the Soviet Union where bigger prizes are at stake. The minimum prize for the winner of the world final will be about $3,750 but this could go much higher. The loser will take home a minimum of $2,250.
