AStar-Phoenix Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada Saturday, August 28, 1971 - Page 5
Spassky Talks About Fischer: Chess King Views Challenger
Vancouver, B.C. (AP) — America's Bobby Fischer has demonstrated his chess skill with 12 straight victories in the world championship challenge series, but now, according to the game's reigning king, he faces a “test of character.”
Boris Spassky, Soviet grandmaster and current world champion, says he believes Fischer will win his challenge match with fellow Soviet Tigran Petrosian, but it will be a rugged game.
“Petrosian keeps his opponents at bay until he wishes to attack,” said Spassky. “Fischer will have to solve many difficult problems. The match will test will be a test of his character.”
Spassky is here for the World Chess Federation Congress and as an entrant in the Canadian Open Chess Championships.
Fischer will meet Petrosian next month in the final match of a series to determine who will challenge Spassky for the world title next March.
Fischer already defeated Soviet grandmaster Mark Taimanov 6-0 here last May, a victory Spassky called “not so much a surprise,” and he beat Danish grandmaster Bent Larsen 6-0 in Denver. That, according to Spassky was “a very big surprise.”
The champion, who once described himself as a “lazy Russian bear,” says he will go into training soon in anticipation of the title challenge.
His greatest weakness, he said, was being too lazy to follow the logical course of a game from opening to end, which he called the mark of a true grandmaster.
And Bobby Fischer?
“I know many sides of Bobby, that is my secret,” he said.
