AThe Herald-News Passaic, New Jersey Thursday, August 12, 1971 - Page 14
In The World of Chess
THE emergence of Bobby Fischer, erstwhile bad boy of international chess, as a serious contender for the world title now held by the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky is incredible. Chess has a small fascination for most Americans; it's as if a winning skipper in an America's Cup challenge turned up on a corn field in Kansas.
Fischer must still face Tigran Petrosian, another Soviet star, in a semifinal match next month in Moscow. If he gets by this hazard, he will face Spassky next spring, also in Moscow. It's a daunting prospect; the Russians take chess about as seriously as the Brazilians take soccer. The one man it doesn't daunt is Fischer. Last year someone asked him who he thought was the world's finest chess player.
“It's nice to be modest but it would be stupid if I did not tell the truth,” he said. “It is Fischer.”
