AThe Central New Jersey Home News New Brunswick, New Jersey Monday, August 11, 1986 - Page 11
Ex-King Spassky Fond of Fischer But Not of Chess Crown
Franklin — Almost 15 years after his defeat to chess prodigy Bobby Fischer, former world champion Boris Spassky still speaks admiringly of his American nemesis.
“Bobby was created for chess, he loved chess. For him, the world was created into two part: chess players and non-chess players. He was an honest man, but absolutely unsociable,” Spassky said yesterday to about 200 chess players and enthusiasts at a question-and-answer session at the Somerset Hilton, the site of the current U.S. Open Chess Tournament.
Spassky, the top player in the 1986 Open, reminisced about his famous 24-game match with Fischer for the world chess championship in 1972. Fischer became notorious in the press. Yet, the Russian grandmaster called him a “gentleman.”
“During the match, his behavior was correct. He did not disturb me. He was a gentleman,” Spassky said, his English colored with a Russian accent. He added, though, that Fischer could be a bear at times. “He was polite to chess players, if he respected them.”
Fischer declined to defend his title in 1975 when the international chess organization, known by the French acronym FIDE, would not agree to some of his demands. Fischer has not played professional chess since that time.
Spassky, 49, described Fischer as being almost carried away with his victory.
“He was dreaming to play a lot after the championship. He said he would play 40 people at once. But something happened to him. I can't describe his problems. It's very much a pity,” Spassky said quietly.
Paradoxically, Spassky saw a silver lining in his loss to Fischer. Asked if he would like to become world champion again, Spassky responded with an emphatic “nyet.”
“No, I was unhappy as champion. The best time of my life then was working toward the championship. My life was pure, full of energy. After I won, I realized I had so many duties and nobody helped me. I was dissatisfied with my life.” He paused and added, “I like to fight sometimes, but I'm rather peaceful now.”
Life became difficult for him in the Soviet Union after he lost to Fischer, Spassky went on. The Soviet Chess Federation made it almost impossible for him to travel abroad, which he said sent him into a “deep depression” in 1973. He married a French citizen in 1975 and moved to Paris the following year. However, he played for the Soviet Union for the next seven years while residing in France. About three years later he became a French citizen.
A chess player in the audience, evidently confused about Spassky's nationality, asked, “So, Boris, you're not a defector?”
Quick on the uptake, the Russian-turned-French grandmaster grinned and replied with mock indignation, “I am not a defector, I am a peaceful man,” as the audience broke into laughter and applause.
Sketching his own beginnings in chess, Spassky said the second World War interrupted his first attempt at learning the game when he was 5 years old. Returning to Leningrad when he was 9 in 1946, he experienced a “second love” of the game.
“I became a chess prodigy very fast, in a couple of months. This was mysterious, very mysterious,” the grandmaster said.
On the current state of chess in the United States, Spassky said he believed this country lags behind Europe in “chess culture.” The U.S. needs a “chess leader,” somebody on the order of a Fischer, he said.
The state of world chess also came under fire. In the past, chess champions relied more on themselves, he said. It is now not uncommon for a champion to travel with an entourage of 40 people, something Spassky disdains.
“Champions bring their coaches, cooks, psychologists, parapsychologists and so on,” he said. “A chess match now is like a fight between two big collective farms.”
