The Independent-Record Helena, Montana Thursday, November 11, 1971 - Page 4
Victories of a Genius
The Times (London) — Bobby Fischer's victory over Tigran Petrosian in the candidates' tournament in preparation for the world chess championship was a thrilling encounter. Certainly, the result was expected. The American is not a champion who lets his admirers down. He is enjoying a run of breathtaking successes, which has never been paralleled in the annals of chess.
Bent Larsen, the Danish master, who had the temerity to claim that he should rightfully occupy number one board, over Fischer in second place, in the recent match between the Rest of the World and Russia, was trounced 6-0 in the semifinals of the present championship. . .
Chess, sometimes described as too serious for a game and too slight for an art, has one peculiar advantage over other kinds of contest. All the games of the past hundred years can be played out, move by move, by each new generation of players. Many of Fischer's games are destined for such immortality.
Though Fischer has no doubt of his own ability he has yet to attain the highest rung in the chess world. This is what makes his match against Boris Spassky next spring so absorbing a prospect. Spassky is certainly the best chess player in the Soviet Union, which has for so long had a monopoly of the world championship. He, like Fischer, has powers which no opponent for some time has been strong enough to test to the full . . .
Fischer on this occasion must beware of overconfidence. Whatever the outcome, chess stands to be greatly enriched.
