The Courier-Journal Louisville, Kentucky Friday, June 04, 1971 - Page 28
Fischer - A Headache For Foes
Yank zeroes in on world chess title —‘I know I'm the best,’ he says.
Vancouver, B.C. (AP) Bobby Fischer, fresh from a one-sided victory here over Soviet grandmaster Mark Taimanov, says he is confident he will go on to win the world chess title.
The Russian resigned Wednesday without further play in the adjourned sixth game of their quarter-final elimination match to seek a challenger for the world crown, giving Fischer a 6-0 sweep of the best-of-10-match.
“The Soviets have been putting up roadblocks for me for years, but I know I'm the best,” said the 28-year-old Fischer, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. “I should have been world champion 10 years ago.”
He said he stands to make “easily $100,000 a year as a professional” if he wins the world title, now held by Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.
He received $1,250 in prize money for his victory here while Taimanov got $750.
Fischer, a grandmaster since he was 15, next meets Bent Larsen of Denmark in a semifinal scheduled to start July 4 at a site yet to be determined. The Danish grandmaster defeated grandmaster Wolfgang Uhlmann of East Germany 5½-3½.
The other semifinal starts July 4 in Moscow between Tigran Petrosian and Viktor Korchnoi both of the U.S.S.R.
The winner of the challenge round will meet Spassky in 1972.
Taimanov, 46, said Fischer undoubtedly is the best non-Soviet player he has met in his 19 years of international competition as a grandmaster.
Taimanov, who had a high blood pressure condition that caused one game in the series here to be postponed on doctor's orders, blamed his poor showing against Fischer on ill health. He said he also had violent headache attacks during several games here.
