January 25, 1958 Let's Play Chess by Frank Anderson, The Hamilton Spectator, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

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Chess 25 Jan 1958, Sat The Hamilton Spectator (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) Newspapers.com

Bobby Fischer, the 14-year-old Brooklyn schoolboy who is the U.S. Open title holder, has created a sensation by winning the very strong closed championship held at the Manhattan Chess Club in New York. Throughout the 14-player event, young Fischer and experienced international Grandmaster Samuel Reshevsky were battling it out for the lead. They quickly went into a lead from the other players and matched win after win until Reshevsky lost to Jim Sherwin in the tenth round.
Going into the final round Fischer, was leading Reshevsky by half a point and, showing Fischer's clan, we see him offer Abe Turner a draw on the eighteenth move. This put the issue squarely up to Reshevsky who had to win against the world junior champion, William Lombardy, in order to even tie Fischer. This latter match was most exciting with Lombardy engineering a beautifully timed and dangerous assault against Reshevsky's king.
Eventually this pressure paid off and Reshevsky went down to his second defeat. Fischer now holds all the main titles in the U.S. He is Junior, Senior, Closed and Open Champion, all at the age of 14! He is undoubtedly heading for a Grandmaster title and has every chance to be the youngest grandmaster in chess history. Both Fischer and Reshevsky qualified for the right to represent the U.S. in the World Championship Interzonal Tournament to be held in Yugoslavia next year.
It is obvious that Fischer is a true chess prodigy. In the history of chess we have had only three other genuine chess prodigies—Paul Morphy (the American champion of the last century), Jose R. Capablanca (the Cuban world champion who won from his father at the age of four!) and Samuel Reshevsky who toured the world giving simultaneous exhibitions at the age of seven! It is singularly poetic that former prodigy Reshevsky should be deposed by present prodigy Fischer. One fact is quite clear in this situation. The U.S. has a great chance for a future world champion.