AThe Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois, Saturday, July 29, 1978 - Page 30
Bobby Fischer Haunts World Chess Struggle
Baguio City, Philippines (AP) — The shadow of Bobby Fischer, the American chess genius who angrily rejected the world championship three years ago, haunts every move in the struggle for the title now taking place between Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov.
Books on sale here detail his meteoric rise to the pinnacle of the game and his smashing 1972 defeat of Soviet champion Boris Spassky—a victory that game the United States its first world title.
Since then, Fischer, now 35, has dropped out of competitive chess. He became a follower of evangelist Garner Ted Armstrong's worldwide Church of God and lives in one of its compounds in Pasadena, Calif.
Despite his absence, his brilliant performance at the chessboard is far from forgotten in this mountain resort 130 miles north of Manila where Korchnoi and Karpov are battling for the largest chess purse ever—$550,000. The winner will get $350,000, the loser $200,000.
“He's a great player. he could beat anybody, including me and Karpov,” said Korchnoi, the self-exiled Russian who is challenging Karpov, representing the Soviet Union.
Karpov took the world title by default when Fischer refused to defend it because of a dispute over match rules with FIDE, the International Chess Federation.
Experts here say it is ironic that Korchnoi and Karpov are playing under rules very similar to those Fischer fought for, but was denied.
“Karpov wanted to play Fischer personally,” said Micheal Stean of England, one of Korchnoi's seconds, “but the Russians didn't want him to play, because they were afraid he would lose.”
Florencio Campomanes, Filipino organizer of the current tournament and a close friend of Fischer, said the former champion keeps up with the game and is ready to compete. Campomanes said he invited Fischer to Baguio, but Fischer declined.
Some chess experts who know Fischer well are not convinced that he really wants to return. They say if FIDE met his demands, he would come up with news ones.
Under the new rules for the Karpov-Korchnoi tournament, which Stean called “basically Fischer's.” the first player to win six games becomes world champion. There is no limit to the number of games, and the loser is guaranteed a return match in 15 months.
Now, the Karpov-Korchnoi match stands at four draws and the fifth game adjourned, to be completed Sunday. The sixth game will be started Saturday, before the fifth game is completed.
“It is traditional in world chess that the world champion has had some advantage,” Stean explained. “The traditional advantage has been to limit the number of games, and in the event of a tie the champion held the title.
“Fischer demanded a match of unlimited length, with the first play to win 10 games becoming the winner. But he wanted a suitable advantage for the champion.
“What he proposed was that if the score was 9-9, the champion would hold the title.”
It was this 9-9 clause that FIDE rejected.
Col. Edmund Emundson of Honolulu, former president of the American Chess Federation and a member of the FIDE jury here, explained that if the six victories needed for the championship and the six wins of the return match are added together, “you have 12 games, which is more than the 10 Fischer wanted.”
But most agree that if Fischer did come back, he would continue to dominate the game.
Edmundson said Fischer's shadow “hangs over chess as long as he's alive and does not play.”
“I don't think there's any question that if Fischer decided to return to chess competition, the purse would be many times the $550,000 it is here,” he said. Figures up to $8 million have been mentioned, he said.
“But unless Fischer has changed, the Fischer I knew a few years ago would not be solely interested in money.
“If he comes out again, it would only be to prove that he is still the best.”
