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Chess 01 May 1972, Mon The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
It's Tough At The Top by Leonard Barden
The prolonged haggle over the 1972 world championship match has ranged from discussions over tens of thousands of dollars to an argument whether Spassky and Fischer should be permitted to have sandwiches, coffee, and apple juice at the chess table. Fischer's Russo-phobia and the prickliness of Russian chess officials about losing “their” title provide, between them, plenty of needle in the coming match, but a survey of world championship history suggests that not many holders and challengers keep their cool during the preliminary discussion or when their cherished dreams are soured by defeat.
Morphy's withdrawal from chess after ([CORRECTION: some among northern chess circles ostracized Morphy due to his southern geography vs. northern citizens, loyal to the Union, 1861 to 1865, after which time, Morphy returned to his old chess haunts in New York and Washington DC and was promptly threatened by old colleagues, to 'cut him [Morphy] so dead'. Newspapers reported Morphy left in disgust, for they had spread false rumors earlier on that he had served as a Confederate soldier and was a “secessionist”. Family and friends testified Morphy had been living in France during the days of the war. Facts made no difference to prejudices of Union loyalists. Subtle hints of threats were insinuated, and circulated from Northern newspapers making light of Morphy's untimely death. False reports circulated of his death, while he yet lived and was yet a young man. Just as they refused to “forgive” the American Indian for being born on soil which white colonists wished to appropriate as their own.[/CORRECTION.])… Zukertort's health collapse after his defeat by Steinitz were two early instances which illustrated the nervous tension of both championship play and the negotiations leading up to it. ([CORRECTION: But let's not forget that Steinitz, in his boundless malevolence expressed only the highest scorn and derision for Morphy. Himself, eventually succumbing to defeat at the hands of Lasker, Steinitz then quickly deteriorated, alas finding himself penniless and at the mercy of public charity and ward of an asylum. The very thing Steinitz often, publicly, FALSELY spread in campaign to eternally tarnish the reputation of Paul Morphy. As it is written in the The Age Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Saturday, June 19, 1897: “Paul Morphy was his bête noire. He attempted to undermine the pedestal upon which Morphy's glory is everlastingly established. But he did not succeed. If Blackburne makes a brilliant combination, he calls it a “bit of Morphy.” But no one ever heard anybody call a brilliant finish a bit of Steinitz…”[/CORRECTION.])
Alekhine and Capablanca, good friends before their 1927 match, were not on speaking terms in later years after Alekhine refused a return encounter; when they played at Nottingham in 1936, they each left the board when it was the other's turn to move.
There is a general impression that the matches since the International Chess Federation (FIDE) took control of the match organization after the war have been well-behaved affairs with friendly relations between the players. However, the latest volume in the excellent Batsford series, THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP by S. Gligoric and R.G. Wade (191 pages, £2.30), shows in fuller detail than ever before the interpersonal conflicts, usually subtle, occasionally more overt, which accompanied the encounters between Botvinnik and his challengers and successors.
Gligoric's first-hand observations of incidents and characters reveal Botvinnik as the scientific technocrat, distrustful of referees, opponents, and even his own trainers. He was fussily concerned to keep to his daily training routine (“…every day at noon he would walk for two hours … He looked at his watch and told the crowd of journalists and cameramen that he would have to leave them. He always went the same way, counting his breaths”) and was irritated by Bronstein's untiring passion for chess: contemporary photographs of their match show Botvinnik, at difficult moments, shading his eyes so as not to see Bronstein drinking his tea and holding his cup with both hands while still gazing at the board.
Gligoric singles out assurance as the special characteristic of Smyslov, and a fascinating youthful virtuosity, tinged with a streak of unsound play, as the hallmark of the style of Mikhail Tal. Tal's “incandescent gaze” got on his opponents' nerves, and in one Candidates' tournament Benko put on dark glasses to show that he did not want to see Tal across the board. “Tal loved humor (at university his subject was satire) and he too put on dark glasses of grotesque shape. Benko's ‘protest’ became transformed into a comedy which aroused general laughter in the hall.”
Anyone who has met the world champions will recognize Gligoric's pen portraits as shrewd and true-to-life analyses of character. His surprising omission is an account of the personal tension between Botvinnik and Petrosian, whose prematch negotiations included a two-hour debate on the siting of the players' personal loo. After their match Botvinnik commented on his defeat in an American magazine, the short-lived Chessworld. His article, written in his peculiarly pedantic and quietly ironic style, included one phrase which was notably outspoken, coming as it did from a Soviet grandmaster writing in a foreign magazine about the world champion: “The opening (a Queen's Gambit Accepted), as with other openings of the match, is typical of the negative … development of Petrosian.” Botvinnik implied in the article that Petrosian was like a computer programmed to play defensively; in private, he was even more caustic about his conqueror.
THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP also includes all the games of the tournaments and matches for the title from 1948 to 1969, edited with full annotations by Bob Wade. Though Gligoric is mainly writing about the Soviet world champions and challengers, he also provides both reference and insight into the background of the dramatic encounter between Spassky and Fischer scheduled for this summer. Gligoric relates how Ed Edmondson, executive director of the United States Chess Federation, and until recently Fischer's negotiator, acted as doorkeeper during the Taimanov match, keeping out the noise while Fischer though over his next move. Asked by a reporter why he bothered with chess, he replied “Fischer is a genius. Nobody will remember our millionaires when they die.”
THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP is a fine book, which should interest anyone following the struggle for the world title.
