The Central New Jersey Home News from New Brunswick, New Jersey • 19

19 Fischer Agreed to World Chess THE HOME NEWS NFW BRUNSWICK. N.J., FRIDAY, JUNE 30, 1973 Tourney on Condition By LARRY EVANS Last of Five Prts In 1970 Bobby Fischer was lured out of his self-imposed exile by a major new chess event: Russia vs. The World on 10 boards. After initially declining an invitation to play top board for the World, Fischer, when he arriver in Bel-tions, ranging from a ban on phogoraphers to the intensity of stage lighting, was negotiated to his satisfaction. Complications arose, however, when he ardived in Belgrade.

Bent Larsen of Denmark threatened to withdraw unless he played top board To everyone's surprise, Fischer consented to step down to second board. He led the world to a near-upset over the Russians by smashing Petro-sian 3 to 1 (2 wins, 2 draws). From then on each success became anothed milestone in the growing legend, inspiring The New York Times to speak of a strange malady called "Fischer-fear." "There is some strange magnetic influence in Bobby," the Soviet grandmaster Yuriy Averbakh told the Times. "His opponents (are) spiritually wrecked after the first couple of games." Fischer plays hard at everything. He exhibits the same ferocious will to win in bowling, tennis and ping pong.

In the mid sixties he joined the Church of God, a fundamentalist California-based sect that observes the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Fischer neither travels nor plays chess during this period. He disappears into his room for 24 hours of solitary meditation. He reads the Bible and Playboy. He does not smoke, he does not eat pork and he other guy's ego." As a youngster he once blurted, "I like to see 'em squirm." If Fischer beats Spassky, Russia will feel greater humiliation than American will feel glory, because chess Is no big deal in the United States.

Win or lose, Fischer has already earned immortality with his chess masterpieces. He may go down in history as the most individualistic, intransigent, uncommunicative, uncooperative, solitary, self-contained and independent chessmaster of all times, the loneliest chess champion in the world. Perhaps genius cannot flourish without idosyncrasy. When asked if he's a genius, Fischer says: "It's only a word. What does it really mean? If I win, I'm a genius.

If I don't, I'm not." King Features Syndicate, 1972. drinks only an occasional glass of beer or wine with meals. "Around the world I'm better known than Joe Namath. In America I'm nobody," he once said bitterly, irked at the penny-ante status of chess in his own country. All that is changing now and he is learning the price of fame.

In Buenos Aires his Final Candidates' match with Petro-sian deceived banner headlines and his smallest idiosyncrasy was chronicled in the press. Fischer was besieged by photographers in his hotel lobby and they followed him into the street. Maddened by these paparazzi, he lunged for a camera but missed, then kicked a reporter twice in the leg. "I shouldn't have kicked him," he mused later. "You can't go around kicking people." One of his friends said: "Fischer's a little more mellow But the worst thing of all is that there is no way to telecast the match from Iceland to the United States or even to Europe.

That's why, the Russians picked Iceland. They know they're going to lose the match, so they figured they might as well buy it," Fischer told Life. Chess is a way of life, a tight world of 64 squares, an unreal fascination. Fischer studies the game with monastic devotion. Seldom without a chess book in his hand, and always accompanied by a pocket chess set, he lives in hotels and moves from tournament to tournament the way surfers follow the surf.

The chessmaster must have courage and a killer instinct as well as stamina. When asked on TV about his greatest pleasure in chess, Fischer was brutally frank: "Crushing the nowadays; but the more you give in to him, the worse he gets. He believes he is a great artist regardless of the status of chess in the eyes of the world. And he wants to be treated as such." According to another friend, "All Bobby needs is to get married that will straighten him out." Fischer has been deep in training at Grossinger's resort in the Catskills, where be rises in the afternoon for a vigorous physical workout to build up stamina for the match. All night long he studies Spassky's games, to the accompaniment of a rock radio station.

But after all negotiations for the match had been completed, he found time to fire off telegrams to the organizers demanding half of all the profits in addition to the purse. Mindful of Fischer's reputation, Yugoslavia, originally scheduled to host half of the games, dropped out of the bidding. It looked as if the match was off and Fischer's enemies were gleeful Yugoslav journalists bitterly recalled a time 12 years ago when Fischer, on stage in front of 2,000 chessfans.counted out his prize money in dinars bill by bill. Dr. Max Euwe, a Dutchman who is president of FIDE and a former world champion himself, gave Fischer 72 hours to accept a slightly reduced purse in Iceland or be replaced by short of the deadline Fischer short of the deadline Fisched agreed, under protest, noting he would face Spassky anywhere in the free world.

"Iceland, with all due respect, is just too small and primitive a country to handle an event of this size. Their hall is inadequate and so is their lighting SUNDAY OPEN 9 A.M. TILL 6 P.M. FRIDAY SATURDAY OPEN 9:30 TILL 1 0 P.M. ft (ITEMS PERMITTED BY LAW) lliliillipiiiiiiii BPirfflnfff mm rrWtiAAClFl r2 mm 11 1 YOU BUY AT OUR AND THE nam 1 ALL OUR mm MM i ou LOW VV 0 mm rr.

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