AThe Oshkosh Northwestern Oshkosh, Wisconsin Friday, September 03, 1971 - Page 6
Cold War Chess Opponents
Beginning about the middle of September, and possibly to be staged in Yugoslavia, an American will engage a Russian in the semi-finals of the world chess challenger tournament. The winner will challenge world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union for the title in March, 1972.
The American is Bobby Fischer, now 28, who has been playing chess in big-time competition for 14 years.
The Brooklyn, N.Y., resident was once the “enfant terrible” of chess, but is now said to have his temper under tighter control and should continue to give a good account of himself as a representative of his country.
He will meet Tigran Petrosian, a former world champion who has lost only twice in his last 61 games. Both of those losses were to Fischer in the Russia vs. World match in 1970.
In pursuit of the world championship that has been a Soviet monopoly since 1948. Fischer has won his last 19 games in matches against grandmasters. Chess experts groping for a parallel to make Fischer's feat intelligible to non-players speak of hitting 19 home runs in 19 times at bat. In a typical demonstration, Fischer on Aug. 9 demolished 11 grandmasters and masters in a rapid-fire tournament at the Manhattan Chess Club where he started playing at the age of 10.
While there is little attention to the Petrosian-Fischer match in the United States, it is reported to be the talk of Moscow. Let's hope the talk in America will be good after the match and that Fischer will gain in ability enough to wrest the world title from Spassky next March. To devotees, it isn't just a game.
