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The Game of Kings Sat, May 13, 1972 – 60 · The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) · Newspapers.com
Life Styles
Viktor Khenkin writing on the two outstanding chess personalities, Spassky and Fischer, in “Soviet Union To-day”, comments:
“What then do the two best chess players of the times represent in the general human aspect? Here they differ to an even greater extent than in their game styles.
Boris Spassky is an educated person. he is an alumnus of Leningrad University, having finished its journalism faculty. Robert Fischer left school at an early age, declaring that studies hampered him from taking up chess seriously. Spassky is sociable, bubbling with life and his heart is open to all earthly joys. Fischer is enclosed within himself, unsociable and extremely religious. Spassky always knows what he is striving for, and goes confidently and openly towards it. Fischer, however, is now and then tortured by doubts, and can all of a sudden stop halfway.
As a personality, Spassky is much more attractive than his rival. But at the same time there is something in Fischer's character that compels the chess world to view him with secret sympathy. Spassky himself expressed these sentiments in one of his interviews.”
“I respect Fischer. I see in him a man passionately in love with chess, a man who in general has nothing in life except chess. All his efforts at times even unconsciously, are bent on making the labor of the chess player esteemed and appreciated.
“I believe that much harm is caused Fischer by the people surrounding him, who are striving to create a halo of exclusiveness around him and to take advantage of the American grandmaster's success for their own purposes. Fischer himself is a modest, serious and conscientious chess toiler. He has tremendous chess talent, and works hard at it. For me this is the main thing.
“By nature Fischer is ingenuous and proud. He always says what he thinks. But it is hard for such people to live in modern society and, it seems to me, Fischer is very lonely. That is one of his tragedies.”
