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Chess 31 Jul 1992, Fri The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia) Newspapers.com
If you had the task of upstaging the Olympic Games, how would you do it? Start World War III? Convert the Pope to Buddhism? Find a cure for the common cold? Reunite the Beatles? Some of those feats might go close, but with the whole world gripped by Olympics fever, even such monumental achievements would be unlikely to push Barcelona off the front page.
Back in 1972, however, one event did upstage the Olympics, and that was the Fischer-Spassky match for the world chess championship. A quick poll of Melbourne taxi drivers confirmed that while only 53 per cent could recall where the 1972 Olympics were held, 100 per cent claimed to have followed the match in Reykjavik, Iceland, move by move.
(Incidentally, 74 per cent of all Melbourne taxi drivers know somebody who could have given Fischer a rook start and whipped him comfortably. All my attempts to locate a person who knows 74 per cent of Melbourne tax drivers have proved fruitless; if he/she is out there somewhere, please drop me a line.)
There have been numerous Fischer comeback rumors before, but this one has more substance than a weight-lifter, has moved more quickly than Ben Johnson, and holds more water than an Olympic swimming pool. The match is scheduled to begin on 2 September in the Montenegrin resort of Sveti Stefan, and will conclude in Belgrade, according to the sponsor of the match, Serbian banker Jezdimir Vasiljevic.
The 16-page contract includes a clause that allows Fischer to choose a new venue if gunfire can be heard from the venue. Given the proximity to Dubrovnik, and assuming Vasiljevic has as much political clout as money, this could be the break that the UN needs to achieve a lasting ceasefire in the region. Such a contract has the distinct overtones of Bobby Fischer, and it is no secret that Yugoslavia was his preferred site for the 1972 match.
The purse for the match is $US5 million, just half that offered by American film-maker Darney Hoffman for a Fischer-Spassky rematch. Hoffman, however, annoyed the reclusive Fischer by tracking him down while making his film, ‘The Bobby Fischer Story’. That film, when completed, is sure to focus on the 1972 match, in which the following game was crucial.
Trailing by one game, Fischer appears to break every rule of positional chess, ceding the two bishops allowing his king-side pawns to be weakened, giving his opponent a protected passed pawn, and giving himself a backward b-pawn, but still sweeps the then world champion aside.
Spassky vs. Fischer, 1. d4, Nf6; 2. c4 e6; 3. Nc3 Bb4; 4. Nf3, c5; 5. e3 Nc6; 6. Bd3 Bxc3+; 7. bxc3 d6; 8. e4 e5; 9. d5 Ne7; 10. Nh4 h6; 11. f4 Ng6; 12. Nxg6 fxg6; 13. fxe5 dxe5; 14. Be3 b6; 15. O-O O-O; 16. a4 a5; 17. Rb1 Bd7; 18. Rb2 Rb8; 19. Rbf2 Qe7; 20. Bc2 g5; 21. Bd2 Qe8; 22. Be1 Qg6; 23. Qd3 Nh5; 24. Rxf8+ Rxf8; 25. Rxf8+ Kxf8; 26. Bd1 Nf4; (see diagram) 27. Qc2 Bxa4; and White resigned in view of 28. Qxa4, Qxe4 threatening both Qxe1 and Qxg2, or 28. Qb1, Bxd1; 29. Qxd1 Qxe4.
