The Billings Gazette Billings, Montana Thursday, July 22, 1971 - Page 17
Restless Chess Champ by Richard J. Schneider
Denver (UPI) — U.S. chess champion Robert J. “Bobby” Fischer said Wednesday that if he becomes world chess champion he would be read to defend his title within a year.
Under current international chess rules, the world champion is challenged every three years, and Fischer would like to see that changed.
On Tuesday, Fischer won a semifinal match in the current world challenge series by blanking Danish chess master Bent Larsen 6-0. Fischer now plays the winner of another semifinal match in Moscow between Tigran Petrosian and Victor Korchnoi to earn the right to challenge world champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union.
“The championship match should be every two years,” Fischer said, and perhaps even more often.
He said he thought the champion also should play more often between championship matches, “either for the title or maybe without the title at stake.”
He said the current system was “like having a baseball World Series every three years. It's stupid.”
Fischer said he also would like to see the matches longer and the addition of rules to eliminate long strings of draws for which each player gets half a point.
The semifinal match in Moscow has resulted in eight straight draws neither man winning a game. The score stands at 4-4.
Fischer said he thought the Russian match might even be prearranged.
“I'm not surprised if their match is prearranged. I'm not saying it is, but it could be,” he said.
Larsen, however, disagreed, saying the Russians are “too individual” and “do not do these things.”
The Danish player, who lives in Copenhagen, said international chess rules should be changed, but not the way Fischer has suggested.
He said that matches up to the quarterfinals in the challenge series should be won after a player wins three games, not six as Fischer suggests.
“There can be many draws and the games can get very long,” he said.
