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Chess Master Sat, Apr 22, 1972 – 32 · Times Colonist (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) · Newspapers.com
Master of Masters
Bobby Fischer today stands head and shoulders above any other sports figure in America. He is hailed by many knowledgeable folk in the chess world not only as the greatest player on earth in 1972 but the greatest ever to have sat down at the chess board.
Yet, outside the chess world, Bobby is known vaguely by many only as the expert practitioner of an exotic and mysterious game, and his claim to fame is rated as something akin to that deserved by the World Champion Boomerang Thrower.
To those of us who believe that chess is THE game, this attitude is aggravating in the extreme. Perhaps after the summer is over, no matter who wins the World Championship, chess may have gained some of the stature in the world of sports that Bobby has achieved in the game of games.
The youngest (at 15) Grandmaster in history, Bobby has driven himself relentlessly, ceaselessly practicing, studying, innovating, absorbing. Chess is virtually everything to this young genius who pours into the game his energy, his frustrations, his dreams. He is sure NOBODY is as good as he is, that even if Boris Spassky beats him it will mean nothing because it will be a fluke.
But he is positive that he, Bobby Fischer, will win. Most masters I have talked with — and written to — agree that Bobby will be the next World Champion.
