A< Prev Index Next >
The Chess Column Sun, Nov 14, 1971 – 2 · The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, California) · Newspapers.com
Bobby Fischer, a New York bachelor who may become the first American to be world chess champion, has brought a new national interest in the ancient game. The interest is reflected in a new feature. “The Chess Column,” which is on page P8 of today's Bee. “The Chess Column” is written by two Sacramento-area experts, Richard E. Fauber who has a national rating of 2173, and Frank J. Garosi who is a B player rated at 1727.
The Chess Column Sun, Nov 14, 1971 – 102 · The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, California) · Newspapers.com
The Chess Column: Bobby Fischer's Big Victory by Richard E. Fauber and Frank J. Garosi, Special to the Bee.
Robert Fischer has become the first American in 64 years to earn the right to challenge the world champion of chess.
In the matches completed last month, Fischer did not just defeat his rivals, he crushed them. Against three of the very best of the world's grandmasters, he won 17 games, drew three and lost only one. Such a feat has never occurred in chess before. Sports analogies are treacherous but the closest we can come would be Vince Lombardi winning every football title from 1960-1967.
Boris Spassky, the world champion, defeated his collective opponents by 18½-10½ (draws count ½ in chess competition) in 1965 and by 17½-8½ in 1968. Spassky won convincingly, but allowed frequent draws among his victories; Fischer swept through 13 straight victories before he suffered a setback.
The U.S. chess-rating system, now adopted by the International Chess Federation, rates Fischer the strongest player of all time. Yet Spassky has won three games from Fischer and never lost to him in international competition.
Fischer is the lonely genius, self-trained and self-motivated. Spassky is the product of the most rational and organized training program any nation has devised to breed great chess talents. Paradoxically, in their styles Fischer is the master of technique and Spassky the hero of inspired improvisation.
To talk of Fischer is to talk of what chess is. It is a contest, a sport.
Chess is a game of strategy, but it is not a war game; there is no “chance,” no fear under fire, no bloodshed. The last recorded chess fatality was an opponent of William the Conqueror who died because the King broke a board across his head.
Chess is an intellectual challenge that does not require any formal academic training. Anyone can learn to make strong moves that will massacre his opponent. The secret is simply to know that in chess, as in thought in general, you do not seek to fool your opponent. You do not attack a piece and hope we will not see it. You do not hope that something will turn up if the game drags out long enough.
The essence of chess is planning. Fischer provided a good example in the seventh game at Buenos Aires in October. That game broke the spirit of his last opponent, Tigran Petrosian.
Throughout the game Fischer played to maximize the activity of his pieces and used his pawns only to restrict the movement of the Black pieces. In the diagrammed position, a casual glance would rate the position equal. Black has two isolated pawns, a slight weakness that should not lose games between relatively equal players.
1. P-QN4 (White's move is good because it fixes the weak queen rook pawn on a square where it can be attacked by the White bishop. If Black plays P-QR4, White gets a powerful passed pawn by P-N5) K-B1; 2. N-B5, B-B1; 3. P-B3 (White's position improves with each move. The weakness of the rook pawn has driven the Black bishop back. Now Fischer restricts the activity of the Black knight and prepares a way for his king to come into action. The Fischer plan is quite simple. His pawn position is more solid and he will increase the activity of his pieces by attacking the weak Black pawns) KR-K2; 4. R-K5, B-Q2; 5. NxB (the bishop threatens to get active by B-N4 RxN; 6. R-QB1 R-Q3 (Note the difference between the activity of the White and Black rooks. The White rooks command all the open files, and will use these avenues to penetrate deep into the Black position. Black has to respond to the White threats, and his rooks crouch passively protecting his pawns); 7. R-B7 N-Q2; 8. R-K2 P-N3; 9. K-B2 P-KR4 (White does not try to force the game. Instead he improves the position of his king, his only inactive piece); 10. P-B4 P-R5; 11. K-B3 P-B4; 12. K-K3 P-Q5ch; 13. K-Q2 N-N3 (This move allows a decisive penetration, but Petrosian has come to a point where he is even running out of pawn moves); 14. R/2-K7 N-Q4; 15. R-B7ch K-K1; 16. R-QN7 NxBP; 17. B-B4 Black resigns.
Chess activity in the Sacramento area centers around two chess clubs: The Davis Chess Club, directed by Serge von Oettingen and Gary Pickler, which meets every Monday at 7 p.m. in the UC Davis Student Union, and the Sacramento Chess Club, directed by William Rebold, which meets every Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. in the Clunie Clubhouse, Alhambra and F Streets. Both clubs have players of all strengths and welcome new players.
