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Chess Mon, May 29, 1972 – 11 · The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) · Newspapers.com
The Making Of A Genius
Bobby Fischer, born in 1943, U.S. champion at the age of 14, currently the highest rated player in chess history, and favorite to win the world title from Spassky this summer, was in one sense a late developer. Other boy prodigies like Morphy, Capablanca, Reshevsky and Pomar were master strength before adolescence, and their early results reflected pure innate ability with hardly any formal study of chess literature. Fischer could not be called a chess natural in this sense. Though he learned the moves at 6, he was little more than an average club player at the age of 12 when he took part in the US junior championship, finishing only equal tenth with an un-Fischer-like quotient of six draws in ten games.
Bobby's great leap forward occurred in 1956 and 1957 with at least part of the secret being sheer quantity of practice. He lived, ate and dreamed chess, went through Shakmatny Bulletin, from cover to cover, played 168 tournaments as well as numerous five minute blitz games in two years. It was a unique display of concentrated pubescent energy. Even Bobby's 1972 opponent Spassky, himself a rapid improver, took five years to advance from a second category player to beating grandmasters. By January 1958 Fischer was US Open and Closed Champion as well as a qualifier for the world title interzonal, and American chess fans began to look forward to the day when he would topple the long period of Russian dominance.
One of the features of The Games of Robert J. Fischer edited by Robert G. Wade and Kevin J. O'Connell (Batsford, 448 pages, 660 games, £3.90) is that it documents all the accessible games (some previously unpublished) of the two critical formative years in the Fischer legend, as well as providing a complete move by move record of Bobby's international career. The book includes special articles assessing Fischer's achievements by his US colleague Bisguier, by one of his Russian opponents, grandmaster Paul Keres, and by other experts. Action photographs show the change from the nail-biting, crew cut boy in a T-Shirt in the Manhattan Chess CLub to the suavely groomed young man, standing in a victory pose with thumbs in hip pockets at the final ceremony after his win over Petrosian last autumn.
As a reference to every serious game of Fischer's career, this book can hardly be faulted. There are brief notes on critical moves, with twenty of the most important encounters annotated in depth. Many Fischer fans will want to keep the Batsford book alongside the paperback version of Fischer's own collection, My 60 Memorable Games (Faber and Faber £1.40.) Fischer is only 28, and if he beats Spassky will still have worlds to conquer; the Russians are waiting for the day when he plays their grandmasters in Moscow.
The two games this week are an early Fischer win from the Batsford book which shows him crisply refuting unsound play, and a casual all-grandmaster encounter from New York 1963 which the authors missed.
Robert James Fischer vs Peter Lapiken
57th US Open (1956), Oklahoma City, OK USA, rd 4, Jul-19
Zukertort Opening: Symmetrical Variation (A04) 1-0
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044033
Reuben Fine vs Robert James Fischer
New York (1963), New York, NY USA, Mar-??
Sicilian Defense: Fischer-Sozin Attack. Flank Variation (B87) 0-1
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1043993
The Guardian Chess by Leonard Barden Monday, May 29, 1972 London, Greater London, England Before I casually quote the...
Posted by Bobby Fischer's True History on Wednesday, March 3, 2021
Before I casually quote the Leonard Barden column's hype, as “fact,” I went back and did some review of the recorded historical documentation so that Bobby's academic high school record is put into a clear perspective, as it appears he was a relatively NORMAL teen ager, and on the overall, a good student. Who makes straight A's and the honor roll, all the time? How many Honor and Merit roll students ever achieve status as a national champion in any field, especially one so complicated as chess, and at such a young age? Barden makes the claim that:
“…played 168 tournaments as well as numerous five-minute blitz games in the two years, and collected a barrage of D grades from his teachers at Erasmus High.”
Which on the surface, puts Bobby in a negative light. But was it really so?
In regard to Leonard Barden's statement,
NINTH GRADE/FRESHMAN YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL (1958)
Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Saturday, August 17, 1957
“…His scholastic record is only average as a freshman in high school.”
(Excellent grades are ranked as "A to high B+". Average is ranked as a "B- to C," which is acceptable, and quite normal, as in average percentage of American children are at the same level and achieving such grades. Failing is ranked as "D" or lower).Detroit Free Press Detroit, Michigan Sunday, October 27, 1957
“…the despair of his high-school teachers. Last year, as a freshman, he fell behind in all his subjects, and almost didn't pass.”
TENTH GRADE/SOPHOMORE YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL (1958)
Arizona Republic Phoenix, Arizona Sunday, October 27, 1957
“…his mother, a cheerful-looking visiting nurse, said the young chess genius, a high school sophomore […] Outside of a little tennis, which he plays at high school, where his grades are average, he doesn't appear to have any other interest at all, she said.”Press and Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, New York, Sunday, October 12, 1958
“…Until last year, Bobby was little more than a good average student. But he is settling down and working hard. He scored an excellent 97 in New York's State's Regents exam on geometry last spring.”The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle Milwaukee, Wisconsin Friday, November 22, 1957
“…The new chess hero is in his second year at Erasmus High School in Brooklyn and is a good but by no means brilliant student.”St. Louis Post-Dispatch St. Louis, Missouri Wednesday, January 22, 1958
“…Said to be of generally superior intelligence by school authorities, Bobby is no better than an average student.New York Times, New York, New York, Sunday, February 23, 1958
“…In the fourth grade, the Brooklyn Community-Woodward school gave him a scholarship. The boy's intelligence quotient has never been made public, but school authorities indicate that it is high in the upper percentile. “Brooklyn Community did a lot for Bobby,” says Mrs. Fischer.”
