ATallahassee Democrat Tallahassee, Florida Sunday, February 26, 1984 - Page 63
Chess Computer Scenario
SCENARIO: “In recognition of his contributions to the ‘pre-history’ of chess, Bobby Fischer is hired as a technical consultant.
In the August issue of the International Computer Chess Association Journal, ex-World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik offers a more sanguine speculation;
“There is no cause for panic, almost everything will remain unaltered! Indeed, women go on playing chess although they recognize that men are stronger players. Men players continue playing while realizing that the world champion is much stronger. The only one to suffer will thus be the world champion, or rather his ego, since he will cease to be the strongest chess player on the globe. But he will find solace in knowing that he is a better player than any other human being.”
The San Francisco Examiner San Francisco, California Friday, March 09, 1984 - Page 75
The Less than Chivalrous Nature of Modern Chess
Bobby Fischer (1943) — Fischer, whom some consider the greatest chess player of all time, celebrates his 41st birthday today. A prodigy, he became U.S. champion at age 15 and, in that same year, became the youngest international grandmaster in the history of chess. He defeated Boris Spassky in 1972 for the world championship but resigned his title two years later in a dispute over international match rules. A religious fundamentalist and political conservative, he is also a recluse who has remained incognito for the last decade. Fischer has said that his greatest joy is the moment when he crushes his opponent's ego. Not an endearing remark, but his critics forget that the attitude comes with the territory. In chess, nice guys don't finished last, they get chewed up and spit out.
The Herald-News Passaic, New Jersey Sunday, March 18, 1984 - Page 26
Magazine Features Unpublished Fischer Interview
The piece de resistance, however, is a heretofore unpublished 1971 interview of Bobby Fischer in which the future world champion characteristically shows himself to be a fascinating and original personality.
Most attractive is his apparent objectivity and modesty. For example, Fischer does not hesitate to admit personal doubts before his mind-boggling 6-0 Candidates Matches shutouts that year with Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen:
“I was rusty, I wasn't in shape, I wasn't confident.”
He reveals, speaking of his top rivals:
“The field is stronger than ever before. I'm not a lot better than they are. Just a little, but that's enough.”
And comparing himself to previous chess greats.
Fischer explains:
“I'm not saying I have more talent than they did; it's just that so much more is known about the game now.”
…
In the game below Fischer swindles veteran grandmaster Sammy Reshevsky in the 1970 Palma de Mallorca Interzonal Tournament…
The Herald-Palladium Saint Joseph, Michigan Wednesday, August 01, 1984 - Page 2
The U.S. Chess World Misses Bobby Fischer
A decade ago Bobby Fischer went into seclusion and America's standing in world chess competition plummeted to its former obscurity. The U.S. Chess Federation's championship tournament is being concluded at Berkeley, Calif., and the U.S. Open — also under federation auspices — is due to be determined at Fort Worth, Texas, Aug. 4-12. But the world title is back in Russian hands, as it has been since 1975. That year the world federation, exasperated by Fischer's refusal to defend the title he had won in 1972, took it away from him.
“Fischer has left a chess wasteland,” Fred Waitzkin wrote recently in New York magazine. “The new chess clubs of the '70's have disappeared along with him, and many of the old clubs have withered…” Nevertheless, his “legend and mystique have deepened with the years,” Waitzkin added, recounting Fischer's fame came not just at the chess board. He spurned million-dollar commercial offers and “retired into the protective fold of the Worldwide Church of God” in Pasadena, Calif. Only rarely has he been seen in public.
Psychology Today magazine suggests in its current issue that Fischer's seclusion is not so unusual for a chess champion. Authors Ralph J. Olmo and George L. Stephens report that several world champions “went into hiding” after winning the title and that “introversion is a common personality trait” found among top chess players. “You don't have to be a recluse to be a great chess player,” they add, “but our study suggests that it helps, at least, to be a very private person.”
The followers of American tournament chess appear perpetually hopeful that “another Bobby” will turn up. The U.S. Junior Championship matches are often a source of such inspiration. This year's matches were conducted in June at Ojai, Calif., and the winner, Patrick Wolff, becomes eligible to play next year in the U.S. Chess Championship. So will the victor in the Fort Worth tournament. Sometime later next year the top three American players will meet foreign competitors in “inter-zonal” play to determine who challenges the Russian champ.
The Journal News, White Plains, New York, Sunday, August 05, 1984 - Page 79
Game success depends on hard work, enthusiasm
By Shelby Lyman
In chess and other human endeavors, talent in undeniably important. But perhaps even more important for ultimate success are enthusiasm and a capacity for hard work.
From the start, Bobby Fischer's talent for chess was indisputable. But his deep passion for the game and his ability to endlessly immerse himself in it were even more out of the ordinary.
Recently 16-year-old Patrick Wolff of Belmont, Massachusetts, became the second youngest player to win the US Junior Championship. Like Fischer, who was the youngest, Wolff is distinguished by an exceptional love for chess and an impressive ability for work.
The new junior champion learned to play chess at the age of seven. According to his father, Robert Wolff, a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, “Patric insisted I teach him the moves. He immediately became obsessed with chess. He got up at six every morning to play chess. He read books and practiced the moves.
“Chess proved a focus for his energies. It gave him discipline. He has enormous discipline — the result of all the work he has done in chess — which shows up in his school work and all sorts of other things.
“He just doesn't just play chess. He systematically studies openings, endgames and so forth and so on. He has studied chess that way for years. He works very hard at it.”
But the payoff for Patrick Wolff occurs when he sits down at the chessboard opposite a live opponent. He vividly recalls his first game:
“I was so excited about the novelty of my first tournament. I had always wondered what it would be like. I couldn't believe I actually was playing in a tournament. Playing chess was exciting. It was the competition, playing against the other person seeing how well you could do.”
The Alexandria Times-Tribune Alexandria, Indiana Wednesday, September 19, 1984 - Page 9
A Word About Chess
“I've enjoyed tinkering with chess since 1971, but my interest in the game-sport got a boost in the 1972 Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky championship match in Iceland. Fischer, the American, proved that there was no one better in the world at chess and that upset the Russians because they'd grown accustomed to dominating the game. (Americans with their hurry up, go, fight, win lifestyle don't embrace chess with much passion.)
…I might add there are still plenty of chess fans in the U.S. though not as many as when Fischer was threatening to become the game's greatest player ever.
…Though it is strictly against the rules, there have been claims (especially by the Russians after Fischer won) that players received help from the spectators.”
The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California, Sunday, December 09, 1984 - Page 41
Argentine GM Miguel Quinteros announced that he is trying to arrange an exhibition match against retired world champion Bobby Fischer. The Italian Chess Federation has offered Fischer $2.5 million to play in Milan. Fischer has not played a tournament or a match since he won the world championship in 1972.
