The Sacramento Bee Sacramento, California Wednesday, November 03, 1971 - Page 22
Fischer Does His Country Proud
America's Bobby Fischer, the whiz-kid of chess and one of the most exciting players the game has produced in years, has scored a resounding triumph in preliminary matches with earned him the right to challenge the Soviet world champion, Boris Spassky, for the title next Spring.
Admittedly chess is not widely popular in the United States. Most Americans have little idea of Fischer's high esteem in other parts of the world where chess is more common than checkers. It is the national pastime of the Soviet Union, for example, which is why Russians have held the world title since 1948.
Yet Fischer has come to be regarded, even in the Soviet Union, as perhaps the most imaginative, powerful player of this century. If he wins the title from Spassky, it would be a U.S. coup of immense psychological import.
His most recent victory was the match against the former world titleholder, Tigran Petrosian of the Soviet Union, known as a tough, stubborn defensive player able to salvage at least a draw from nearly any opponent.
Fischer trounced him by a score of 6½ to 2½. The 28-year-old wonder from Brooklyn won five games from Petrosian, the last four of them in succession.
Before that he had achieved the unprecedented feat of winning six straight games in each of two matches against players considered among the top five or six in the world — Mark Taimanov of Russia and Bent Larsen of Denmark. Chess experts have likened this to a baseball pitcher running up a string of 12 successive no-hit games.
Whatever the outcome of the Spassky match — and even many a Russian feels Fischer will win it — the young genius has captured the admiration of the entire chess world and deserves the warm congratulations of his own countrymen.
