AThe Boston Globe Boston, Massachusetts Sunday, March 27, 1983 - Page 131
A Surplus of Reading
“Jackie is an earnest and honest worker and throws in many snippet news items. One example: Bobby Fischer has written a book, not about chess but alleged hard treatment at the hands of the Pasadena police. If you want to get a memento from Bobby, buy the book for $1 from Bobby Fischer, PO Box 50307, Pasadena, Calif. 91105. The whole thing is such a pity.”
The Independent-Record, Helena, Montana, Sunday, July 24, 1983 - Page 2
Temperaments make quiet game tempestuous
Moscow (AP) — In the tempestuous circles of grandmaster chess, the current debate over sites of two world matches is only the latest in a series of flaps over money, politics, food — and even massages and hypnotism.
Top players have accused each other of all kinds of underhanded ploys, from Boris Spassky's “war of nerves” charges against Bobby Fischer to Soviet defector Viktor Korchnoi's fears of poisoning.
Chess is taken very seriously in the Soviet Union, whose grand masters have held the crown since 1927 except for brief reigns by Fischer and Holland's Max Euwe. Emotions run high over what many consider much more than a game.
“Chess is my life,” world champion Anatoly Karpov once told an interviewer.
The current furor is over where to hold two matches next month that will help determine which of the world's best players will have the right to challenge the Soviet.
The Soviet Chess Federation has protested the decision by the chess world body, the International Chess Federation, to hold the matches in Pasadena, Calif., and Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Tass news agency also charged “there are no governmental guarantees of security” and free access to Soviet officials in Pasadena.
But Florencio Campomanes, president of the International Chess Federation, said the Soviets oppose Pasadena because they fear “political factors.”
The Soviets have protested match sites before, after Fischer beat Spassky in 1972, the Soviets called Manila, Fischer's choice for the 1975 series, a “steambath.”
Fischer wound up losing his title that year to Karpov when he and the International Chess Federation couldn't agree on rules.
Politics often has entered chess, especially in the case of Korchnoi, who provoked bitter official attacks when he claimed harassment had caused a loss to Karpov in 1974—and then defected.
Korchnoi struggled for eight years to win emigration rights for his family — a battle that Boris Gulko, a grandmaster who wants to go to Israel, is still fighting. Gulko was briefly detained in 1982 for protesting outside a match in Moscow.
Grand masters have regularly displayed their tempers in the days since Alexander Alekhine, who began the Soviet domination of the crown in 1927, resigned a match by hurling his king across the room.
In a 1977 contest with Tigran Petrosian, Korchnoi refused to drink anything prepared for him by a hotel in Florence, Italy. He boiled his own tea water because he feared poisoning.
He also demanded a bulletproof screen, which he didn't get, and both men insisted on separate eating and toilet facilities and refused to shake hands.
In 1979, after losing a match to Spassky, Korchnoi claimed Soviet team psychiatrist Vladimir Zhoukar sat too close to the board and hypnotized him into hallucinating. Officials refused to get involved.
Last April, West German Robert Huebner ignored Smyslov's proffered hand because the Soviet grandmaster wouldn't allow a masseur to knead Huebner's neck muscles during games.
But perhaps the most flamboyant grandmaster was the American, Fischer, and the most talked-about match his 1972 contest against Spassky in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Fischer first delayed the series by demanding more money. A private donation of $130,000 nearly doubled the purse, Fischer “humbly” apologized to Spassky in writing, and the contest began.
But there were delays, arguments, reconciliations, and more arguments over everything from television cameras to Fischer's demeanor.
The Soviet press complained Fischer wanted nothing but “money, money, money,” and commented later that he had “introduced…such fuss and confusion that chess masters suddenly were in urgent need of diplomats, speakers and lawyers.”
Florida Today Cocoa, Florida Thursday, August 11, 1983 - Page 16A
Soviet Chess Federation Condemns Judge's Decision
Moscow — The Soviet Chess Federation, the most powerful factor in world chess since the abdication of American champion Bobby Fischer, declared war Wednesday on the Philippine president of FIDE, the International Chess Federation.
The Soviet federation condemned Florencio Campomanes' awarding victory by default in the semifinal matches of the chess challenger competition to Soviet defector Victor Korchnoi and Zoltan Ribli of Hungary. The FIDE president disqualified the two Soviet opponents because they refused to play at the two sites chosen by Campomanes and FIDE's executive council.
Courier-Post, Camden, New Jersey, Sunday, September 18, 1983 - Page 68
The Bobby Fischer Legend Growing Still
By Shelby Lyman
Would you like to communicate with Bobby Fischer? Apparently it is possible, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times recently. Fischer, it is reported, will open a letter forwarded to him, for a $1,000 fee!
But don't count on it. Six years ago, Fischer backed out at the last minute of an agreement to make an appearance at Caesar's Palace for $250,000. He asked for $1 million instead.
Lina Grumette, the source of these disclosures, is a Los Angeles chess organizer, whose home Fischer often visited during the years before he became world champion. She fondly reminisces: “He (Fischer) used to be a very thoughtful, sweet person, not nearly as, well, unreasonable as he is now. When my husband was in the hospital, for instance, Bobby visited him every day. He and I would play chess in the evening. He would take my dog out for walks in the evening.”
Diagrammed is an off hand game played by Bobby Fischer in 1963. His opponent is Dr. Reuben Fine, a prominent psychoanalyst, who was one of the world's strongest plays in the 1930's. Fine, obviously, was caught off guard in the opening, a variant of the well-known Evans Gambit.
The Gazette Montreal, Quebec, Quebec, Canada Saturday, October 08, 1983 - Page 105
Fischer's Story
Bobby Fischer is back in the news but it has nothing to do with chess. He has been living in Pasadena, Calif., for about 10 years now. This summer he was picked up by the local police. Apparently Fischer was walking down the street when the police stopped and questioned him.
It seems he resembled the description of a bank robber. Although it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity, the police took him in due to his attitude. Tired of answering the same questions over and over again, he told them: “I'm not answering any more questions. If you want to arrest me, arrest me — that's it.”
Fischer claims he was choked, beaten and kept naked in an unfurnished cell for 47 hours before being charged with interfering with a police officer and damaging jail property.
