AThe Guardian London, Greater London, England Monday, February 05, 1962 - Page 6
Bobby Fischer off to a good start 05 Feb 1962, Mon The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Bobby Fischer off to a good start
From a Correspondent
Stockholm, February 4
The fifth Interzonal Chess Tournament organized by the World Chess Federation has started in the Kungshallen here with a field of 23 players, the largest in the history of these events. The top six players will qualify for places in the Candidates' Tournament later in the year when, with Tal and Keres, they will play a four-round, 28-game tournament to determine the next challenger for the world champion, Botvinnik.
The sensation of the early rounds has been the comparative lack of success of the Soviet players, who used to dominate previous interzonals. After the fifth round not one of the four Russians is anywhere near the top, the lead being held at this stage by Dr. Filip (Czechoslovakia) with 45 points from Bolbochan (Argentina) and the 18-year-old United States champion, Bobby Fischer, with four each, and with Gligoric (Yugoslavia) next.
In individual games, the Russians were beaten three times when facing foreigners: Geller by Cuellar (Colombia): Korchnoi by the same player; and Stein by Filip. In the corresponding tournament at Stockholm 10 years ago, five participating Russians lost only three games to the other competitors in the whole 21 rounds of the contest.
Bobby Fischer is the hero of the crowds, and his board is always the centre of attention. He held an advantage in all five of his games, but Teschner (West Germany) and Benko (OS) escaped with draws. In his game against Bilek, he used only 10 minutes of his time for his first 20 moves, while his opponent had used up almost his total time allowance for the first playing period of 40 moves.
No wonder the Hungarian exceeded the time on move 27. Fischer's style, a strange mixture of sangfroid defense in complicated variations, for which he prepares, and utility chess of a high order, by means of which he aims at an advantageous end-game, makes him a hard man to beat. At this early stage he has an excellent chance of winning the tournament.
