Austin American-Statesman Austin, Texas Saturday, January 12, 1985 - Page 27
Chess dulled by absence of Fischer
Boris, you prophet, you.
A little more than 12 years ago, just before he lost his chess world championship to irascible American Bobby Fischer, Russian Boris Spassky said, “The world would be a dull place without Bobby.”
How dull is it? Russian challenger Gary Kasparov and countryman Anatoly Karpov are locked in a record-setting struggle in Moscow that has just entered its fifth month. And not even chess aficionados seem to care about this world championship that falls only once every three years.
“I've only seen (accounts of) two games,” said Austin's Joe Bradford, the reigning chess champ of Texas.
“There really isn't that much interest,” added Patrick Long, a founder and current member of the ACE Chess Club of Austin.
Where have you gone, Bobby Fischer? In 1972 Americans went gaga about Bobby's genius and his game, chess. As the 29-year-old Fischer prepared to meet Spassky, Americans avidly read about such chess esoterica as Fischer's use of the Sicilian Defense.
We even learned that chess was a bona fide sport, one that took conditioning and endurance, when Life magazine ran photos of Fischer working out as if he were preparing for a heavy-weight championship fight.
AT REYKJAVIK, Iceland, Fischer staged a soap opera far better than Dallas. He forfeited one game because he didn't like the TV cameras and threatened to pull out of the match.
When he went on to beat the Russian at his own game, though, chess suddenly became the sport. People you'd never suspect began carrying portable chess boards.
Chess clubs recorded membership jumps of 40 to 50 per center. There were plans to form a professional U.S. Chess League that would air games on cable TV just like the NBA or the NHL.
[…]
Both [Soviet] players are so quick to agree to draws that there's even some talk in chess circles about a Russian plot.
[…] The first-to-six format will be changed after this championship. But are the Soviets trying to make a point no one will ever forget? Or stay awake for?
Don't they know Americans moved on to backgammon and then Trivial Pursuit? By the way, where is Bobby Fischer when we really need him?
