ANew York Times, New York, New York, Sunday, July 25, 1971 - Page 150
‘It Is Fischer’
A little more than a year ago, someone asked Bobby Fischer, the 28-year-old American chess master, who he thought was the world's greatest player.
“It is nice to be modest,” Mr. Fischer answered, “but it would be stupid if I did not tell the truth. It is Fischer.”
Last Tuesday, in Denver, he moved a step nearer to proving his boast. In what amounts to the quarter finals of the world chess championship, Mr. Fischer scored the last of six straight victories over the Danish player Bent Larsen, thus earning the right to play whichever of two Russian masters wins the other quarter final.
If Mr. Fischer wins the semifinal, scheduled for September, he will then meet the current world champion, Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. The prospect of a Spassky-Fischer match has provoked great excitement in Russia, where chess is a national pastime. One Soviet expert last week commented: “From a little boy who cried after every loss, Fischer has turned into a real fighter, possessing in perfection an entire arsenal of modern means of chess combat. . . .”
