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Date: 10 Jan 2009 17:57:45
From: samsloan
Subject: Epilogue to the Fischer - Spassky Match
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Epilogue
The Bobby Fischer =96 Boris Spassky Chess Match was and still is the
greatest chess match ever played. It was followed in the daily
newspapers of virtually every country of the world. Why? This is an
interesting question.
One possible reason is that chess is regarded as the ultimate test of
intellectual ability. True, it is just a game. Achievements in math
and science are far more important. However, who can say who is the
greatest scientist in the world or the greatest mathematician? It is
purely a matter of opinion. However, it can be said for 100% certain
that Bobby Fischer was the greatest chess player in the world at the
time that he beat Spassky. About what other international activity,
sporting or otherwise, can such a statement be made?
Secondly, the Spassky =96 Fischer match was a match-up between two
competing ideologies. The free market system where individual
initiative is rewarded as opposed to the Soviet collective system.
Spassky had a team of top grandmasters assigned to train him to teach
him how to beat Fischer. Later, Grandmaster Krogius, who was President
of the Soviet Chess Federation, wrote that Spassky had failed to
follow the instructions given to him by the team of grandmasters
assigned to him, and had lost the match for that reason.
By contrast, Bobby was just one man, self-reliant, up against the
entire Soviet machine. Although Fischer had a little help from
Grandmaster Lombardy, most of that =93help=94 was to somehow coerce
Fischer to come to the board and play the game. There is little
evidence that Lombardy in any way helped Fischer decide what moves to
play.
The names of the players had great symbolism. Bobby vs. Boris. Bobby
is a typical American name heard nowhere else. Boris is the typical
Russian name. So, a fight to the finish of Bobby vs. Boris aroused the
attention of the world.
What happened to the people afterwards?
One of the great ironies of the result of this match is that
eventually both players left their countries. After the 1972 match,
Bobby went into hiding and conclusion. For a while, he joined a fringe
religious cult. He left that group and by the 1980s he was crashing
with chess-playing friends in Northern California, who were pledged to
keep his whereabouts a secret. He got saved from his life as a
homeless wanderer by the $3.5 million re-match in Yugoslavia in 1992,
but then the Bush Administration declared him a fugitive from justice
and he went into hiding again. He was arrested in Japan in 2004 on
behalf of America who was trying to bring him back to stand trial. He
spent nine months in jail, as Japan tried to have him deported to the
US. However, Iceland offered him refugee status and sent an airplane
to Japan to pick him up and bring him to Iceland. He arrived in
Iceland on March 23, 2005 and he lived in Reykjavik until he died of
kidney disease on January 17, 2008.
Spassky returned to Moscow, confounding predictions that he might
defect. Nobody came to greet him at the airport. Then, Spassky won the
1973 Soviet Championship, ahead of Karpov, Korchnoi, Kuzmin,
Petrosian, Polugaevsky, Geller, Keres, Savon, Taimanov and Tal. This
proved that Spassky was still the number two player in the world and
confounded the Soviet authorities, who had hoped that Spassky would do
poorly, thereby proving that it was not because of inadequacies in the
Soviet System that Spassky had lost the match.
Spassky was allowed to move to France in 1976, unlike some other
Soviets such as Korchnoi who had to defect to get out. Spassky became
a French citizen in 1978 and in 1984 started representing France in
the World Chess Olympiads.
As to the Americans, most of them are still alive and active, except
for Fred Cramer who died and left a substantial bequest to the USCF.
Every year, the USCF issues =93Cramer Awards=94 based on the wishes that
Fred Cramer left behind.
As to the other characters in the story, I have tried to keep track of
some of the Icelanders who played a background role in the events.
The Klubburinn burned down in 1990. Fortunately, nobody was killed as
it would have been a death trap with thousands of partyers jammed into
a small space. The building was rebuilt and now houses the Hotel
Cabin.
I only saw Laufey Gu=F0mundsd=F3ttir one time after that. In 1976, I was
in Klubburinn again and I heard a voice calling out from behind me
"SAM". Since nobody there knew my name, I was surprised. I turned
around and there was Laufey Gu=F0mundsd=F3ttir. I did not even recognize
her at first. Finally, she identified herself. Of course, I had been
sending her picture postcards from various countries of the world, so
she remembered me. Sad to relate, she did not seem interested in going
home with me or in having me going home with her.
I have found out that she was only 18 and going to turn 19 in two
weeks when I met her. However, it was Laufey Gu=F0mundsd=F3ttir who
started me on my infatuation with Icelandic women which lasted for
several years until my tastes moved Eastward.
Of the four Icelandic girls who worked for me, Hafdis Einarsd=F3ttir
and Helga =DEorvar=F0ard=F3ttir live in America, J=F3hanna Baldursd=F3ttir =
and
Inga Brandsd=F3ttir live in Iceland. Inga has five children, one of whom
is a high fashion model on the runways of London.
Mayor John V. Lindsay, who gave Bobby Fischer the Key to New York
City, ran for President of the United States. He did not do well in
the primaries and dropped out. He was re-elected to one more term as
mayor. He became unpopular due to the financial difficulties the city
faced while he was mayor. After his term of office expired, his law
firm went bankrupt and he moved to South Carolina, where he lived
alone in obscurity and had been nearly forgotten by the time he died.
As for S=E6mundur P=E1lsson, the simple policeman who became famous as
Bobby Fischer's =93bodyguard=94, we have not heard the last of him.
S=E6mundur was instrumental in getting Bobby out of jail in Tokyo and
bringing him to Iceland. S=E6mundur had been doing things for Bobby for
years without ever being paid anything.
S=E6mundur decided it was time to cash in and make a video about life
with Bobby.
Bobby expressed his thanks for getting him out of jail in the same way
that Bobby usually express thanks to people who help him, by suing or
threatening to sue S=E6mundur P=E1lsson to stop him from making the video.
When Bobby died, the matter was still pending. One expects that now
that Bobby has gone to the great chessboard in the sky, S=E6mundur
P=E1lsson will be coming out with the video soon, if he can raise the
money, considering the fact that all the banks in Iceland crashed and
collapsed recently, due to Our Great Leader George W. Bush.
Sam Sloan
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Date: 14 Jan 2009 18:26:50
From: help bot
Subject: Re: Epilogue to the Fischer - Spassky Match
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On Jan 14, 3:01=A0pm, samsloan <[email protected] > wrote:
> The Bobby Fischer =96 Boris Spassky Chess Match was and still is the
> greatest chess match ever played.[/quote]
> This seems debatable. =A0Kasparov-Karpov 1985 for example. =A0Capa -
> Alekhine. =A0A few other potential world championship matches also come
> to mind.
>
> Then, of course, there is Brock-Sloan.
As we have seen, nearly all of Mr. Sloan's
innumerable critics and hecklers have chicken-
ed out; not one seems willing to play a grudge
match against the master-of-disaster, Mr.
Sloan.
Is it fear? Mr. Sloan has provided numerous
examples of him winning from lost positions; of
his profound understanding of "bad chess" and
how to properly handle losing positions, right
from the opening. One suspects that these
wannabee will continue in their cowardly ways,
always ducking and weaving the challenge of
an over-the-board match against so dangerous
an opponent.
Far from silencing critics, the thumping which
Mr. Brock received seems to have had but one
effect on them: it instilled FEAR... .
-- help bot
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Date: 14 Jan 2009 12:01:36
From: samsloan
Subject: Re: Epilogue to the Fischer - Spassky Match
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[quote=3D"kbachler"][quote=3D"samsloan"]Epilogue to the 1972 Fischer-
Spassky Match
The Bobby Fischer =96 Boris Spassky Chess Match was and still is the
greatest chess match ever played.[/quote]
This seems debatable. Kasparov-Karpov 1985 for example. Capa -
Alekhine. A few other potential world championship matches also come
to mind.
Then, of course, there is Brock-Sloan.
Kevin Bachler [/quote]
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Date: 10 Jan 2009 21:18:42
From: Offramp
Subject: Re: Epilogue to the Fischer - Spassky Match
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The games of the match are a bit of an anticlimax after Fischer's
great feats of 1970 and 1871. Fischer played really well, but Spassky
woke up too late.
Game 3 is okay. Game 4 is quite good. Game 6 is well-known, a famous
Fischer game.
Game 10 is Fischer's last great Spanish. Game 13 is the best of the
match. Games 15 and 18 are interesting.for Spassky's defence. Game 19,
the Alekhine's one, has an interesting interlude.
My favourite long WC match would probably be the 1990 K-K match.
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