ATimes Colonist Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Thursday, June 03, 1971 - Page 3
Soviet Grandmaster Resigns - Fischer Eyes World Chess Title
Vancouver (CP) — Bobby Fischer, fresh from a one-sided victory here over Soviet grandmaster Mark Taimanov, said Wednesday 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 road blocks 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 win here while Taimanov got $750.
Fischer, a grandmaster since he was 15, next meets Bent Larsen of Denmark in a semi-finals 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 semi-final starts July 4 in Moscow between Tigran Petrosian and Viktor Korchnoi, both of the U.S.S.R. Petrosian defeated Robert Huebner of West Germany 4-3 and Korchnoi beat fellow Russian Yefim Geller 5½-2½.
The winner of the challenger will meet Spassky in 1972.
Taimanov, 46, said Wednesday that 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 doctors orders, blamed his poor showing against Fischer on ill health. He said he also had violent headache attacks during several games here.
“If it had not been for these circumstances, I would have won games one and three and changed the complexion of the match,” he said through an interpreter. “But as it was, I made mistakes that I never made before, even as a small boy.”
