The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 8

SNA THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER Sunday, June 25, 1972 Innovative, Traditional Clash In Chess Match Of Century 1 71 HENRY LvJi fester IDA AL KITCHEN TILE PRESENTS OUR TEAM OF EXPERTS TO SERVE YOU IN 1972 STARTING OUR 27th YEAR- 4 St. BEN 5PF mm Jbtmi VJU Jj 0 ED STAN Kitchen Cabinets CUSTOM MADE FORMICA KITCHEN SAM BY ROBERT EBERT (c) Chicago Sun-Times Nobody knows very much about him, and the few facts have been repeated time and again: He was born in Chicago, raised in several places but mostly in Brooklyn, learned chess from his sls-' ter when he was six. He lives alone in hotel rooms, relentlessly study-' lng the literature of chess. He has no close friends, he is 29 years old and for a long time now he has been considered the best chess player of all time. one WEEK from today, in Reykjavik, Iceland, Bob-' by Fischer will find himself Seated across a chess board from a stocky, tierce-looking Armenian iieamed Boris a y.

Armenian (he is almost always described as a 'wily Armenian" in the newspapers, because sports-page adjectives are in short supply for chess) is the chess champion of the "world, and it will be Bobby -Fischer's mission to reduce ihe number of Armenian chess champions to zero while raising the number in the United States to 'one. Bobby could have had a crack at the title several during the past dec--ade, but at the last he always drew back. He charged that there was Russian conspiracy to keep the world champlon- 'ship in Soviet hands. The were a nuis- ance, the crowds in the hall would not keep still. But mostly he held back from the series of tournaments leading to the world -championship because he jsaid the system was loaded in favor of the Russians.

'At first his objections were dismissed as petulant and LOU e.r k. i the sole remaining defender of Russian chess supremacy; recently the Soviet government gave him a larger apartment and a car, and if he wins he will win $78,125, but if he loses, in Kotanowsky's words, "he has a great deal more to lose than Fischer." In the meantime, as the world championship approaches, it is amusing to see the American news media gearing up for it. We have never been quite able to figure out how to cover chess. It is a sport, but doesnt go into the sport pages. It is a game that millions of Americans play, and yet American newspapers cannot quite bring themselves to believe that many readers understand chess notation.

Radio and television find it even harder to cover chess, because the printed record of the moves in a game is the only really satisfactory way of presenting it. The concept of a live radio broadcast of a chess match is mind-boggling, and perhaps only Bob and Ray could handle it a lovely day here in Reykjavik, with sunny skies and Cub Scout Pack 14 is in the stands for Bobby Fischer recognition day What will finally happen, I suppose is that Spassky and Fischer will have their rendezvous with destiny and a lot of people will not understand why it was so momentous. Chess is a game of the imagination, and its most exciting moments do not happen on the board but in the minds of its players. When Fischer finally makes his move, that is what we see. But the game's passion is to be found in the secret places of his mind, where he considers all of the possible moves on the board, and rejects them, all but one.

That moment of decision is private, and only a chess player fully understand It. into a hospital at one point. And Bent Larson, whose personal dislike for Fischer is no secret, appar-cally torturing to sit across ently found it psychologi-the board from this arrogant young man who "likes to see 'em squirm." Spassky may feel extra pressure becausre of his deliberate and classically correct playing style. Al-though Fischer's games them Byzantine twists that have the apparent clearness of a stream of fresh running water, they often have concealed within only Bobby foresees. Chess is a game of legerdemain: your opponent can see all of your pieces, and you can see all of his.

So you don't conceal pieces but ideas. A winning chess combination is, at its most basic level, a ruttiless demonstration of the logical superiority of your ideas. And Fischer is able to bury his ideas so deeply into his middle-game positions (or, perhaps, to extract them from their subterranean hiding-places) that a positional player like Spassky, with his tendency to draw games, might find himself exhausted from forever waiting for the other shoe to drop. It is Fischer's willingness to take chances, and his ability to extract deep combinations from seemingly shallow positions, that make him a popular favorite in the Soviet Union. In a country where chess is the national sport, the national passion and, some say, the national soul, there is an impatience with the conservative playing styles of many of the current Russian grandmasters.

While Fischer was mowing down Larson 6-0 with an unending flow of innovative chess, the Russians Petrosian and Korchnoi were bogged down in their quarter-final match with eight drawn games in a $000 Him ty) $495 mnwfi HURRY! Bring your measurements! will gladly arrong imtollction INSTALLATION AVAILABLE: ONE YEAR REPLACEMENT GUARANTEE ON MATERIAL LABOR UNDER NORMAL USAGE. Bawmtnt, callings, Itctrical work, wiring, floor- CUSTOM REMODELING: Boris Spassky classically correct unreasonable, because in the world of chess Bobby Fischer is not well-liked. An American grandmaster once said of him: "We get the greatest chess player in history, and he turns out to be a spoiled boy." But a fair analysis of the tournament system seemed to indicate that Fischer had a point, and the current world championship is the first played under the reformed rules. There are other possibilities. One is that Fischer will find the conditions in Iceland not to his liking, and stage another walkout.

This could happen because of Bobby's recent falling-out with Lt. Col. Edmund Edmundson (USAF, who is business manager of the U. S. Chess Federation and has devoted mush of the last two years to keeping Bobby happy.

During Fischer's spectacular demolishment of his opposition in the preliminary matches (including his 6-0 wipeouts of Denmark's Bent Larson and Russia's Mark Taimonov), it was Colonel Edmund-son who checked out the playing sites, found the quiet hotel rooms, made sure the fans would not be permitted to bring flash cameras into the hall, and hassled room service for the chicken sandwiches and prize sirloin. Now Fischer, who finds it difficult to sustain long personal relationships is back on his own again. A BETTER possibility, I think is that Fischer will stay the distance, and that Spassky will collapse from a combination of psychological and chess reasons. Fischer is a dogged fighter who will defend a lost position to the bitter end, and there is this curious thing about his opponents: they keep caving In to extreme exhaustion. Tigran Petrosian, the former world champion who was Bobby's opponent in the Buenos Aires semifinal match, had to check Winstel says- 1821-28181 3 "ONE CALL DOES IT ALL" Om 2M IM Over lb.

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(AP) Italy coasted to her 13th world bridge championship Saturday, defeating the United States 203 International Match Points to 138 in the 88-deal final of he Fourth World Bridge Team -Olympiad here. U. S. hopes of beating Italy's Blue team had risen after the late session Friday night, when the Aces cut their deficit margin lrom 60 IMPs to 28. However, in the 4 boards played Saturday the Italians were invincible, picking up swing after swing to amass their 65-IMP ead.

In retirement from international competition for the last two years, the Blue team reassembled to defend the Olympiad title -they had won in Deauville in 1968. "Technical" Tom Bobby Fischer diehard, daring row. There is also a record of sorts, but a sterile one. And so the Russians like Fischer, who is the most popular American in the Soviet Union since Van Cli-burn. Maybe they don't like him personally, but they admire his style.

the five games they Of have played previously, Spassky won three and there were two draws. But that doesn't necessarily mean much in terms of their championship match. FISCHER IS in the top of his form, and for the past year has played grandmaster-level chess with more success than any other player in the history of the game. Spassky, however, came in third a year ago in a "Swiss system" tournament in Toronto (where players ranked as equal are played against each other). First and second places were won by Pal Benko and Robert Bryne, two Amer-1 a grandmasters acknowledged to be Fischer's inferiors.

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