AThe Boston Globe Boston, Massachusetts Sunday, September 02, 1962 - Page 25
Chess Notebook 02 Sep 1962, Sun The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com
Bobby Fischer's Blast at the Russians
Bobby Fischer's blast at the Russians contained, besides charges that they loafed against each other and didn't try, a specific example of what might be termed dirty pool at the chess table. Keres and Petrosian met four times, drew four times in 17, 21, 22 and 14 moves respectively. Fischer chose the fourth game as his exemplar. The position: White K at K1; R at KR1 and QR1; Q at QN4; B at KN5; N at QB3; P at KR2, KN2, KB3, K4, QN2, QR2. Black K at KN1; R at KB1 and QR1; Q at Q2; B at KN2; N at Q3; P at KR2, KN3, KB2, QN2, QR4.
Fischer's comment: “…In this last game they overdid if, and while they drew, Petrosian clearly would have won if they had gone on… White's king is permanently trapped in the center of the board. White's queen wing is hopelessly weakened. As a matter of fact black wins in a few moves.” In the caption to the diagram a note said: “If White's next move is Q-N3, black answers P-R5 and White's position crumbles. If White tries Q-R3, black can checkmate in five moves.”
B.W. Wood in Chess made this observation in his review of the Curacao tournament:
“Could Soviet players battle as individuals and not as a team, if an outsider appeared likely to win the Candidates tournament? They would probably consider it unpatriotic to do so! Which in view of the overall strength of the U.S.S.R. chess, adds up to the conclusion that we are unlikely to see a non-Russian challenger for world championship for 10 or 15 years.”
Reshevsky swore off the FIDE challenger route after the 1953 tournament. He attempted a direct challenge to Botvinnik but it was rejected on the semi-fictional grounds that FIDE's mandatory challenge was the only acceptable one. Now Fischer has vowed never to compete in these tournaments again.
Young Michael Ward, Peabody, asks the perennial question: what does 0-0 mean in chess notation. Well sir, 0-0 means castles King-side. And 0-0-0 means castles Queen-side.
And now Chess Notebook has a question for you, Michael: Since you were following the games, as you said, what in the world did you do about 0-0?
Fischer pulled this game out in the 22d round against compatriot Benko. Black played well but found himself in time pressure.
