AThe Post-Crescent Appleton, Wisconsin Friday, August 24, 1962 - Page 4
Chess and Diplomacy 24 Aug 1962, Fri The Post-Crescent (Appleton, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com
Chess and Diplomacy
What the Russians are doing to control international chess so that a Russian is assured of being world champion may help to clarify what goes on in international conferences on foreign relations.
A young American chess player, Bobby Fischer, who at age 19 is a veteran of international competition, explained recently why the champion is always a Russian.
Back before 1946, the international champion decided who he would meet in a championship match. This was not altogether fair because he could always avoid a challenger he feared. Then in that year Champion Alexander Alekhine died, and there was no clear-cut procedure for choosing his successor.
The Russians took the initiative and set up a tournament in Moscow to pick a new champion. Five players were selected, three of them Russian. A Russian by the name of Botvinnik won and has been champion ever since. And since that time also, a Candidates' tournament is held each year to determine who will meet the champion for the title. And in each Candidates' tournament, the majority of the contestants are Russian.
Fischer relates how the Russians, when they are playing against each other in the tournament, draw most of their matches in rapid time while non-Russian competitors are engaged in exhausting games. When a Russian is playing an American, the other Russian players gather around to kibitz and comment, even going into huddles with their countryman during the play. And in the latter stages of the tournaments it is evident that the Russians decide which of their players has the best chance of winning, and the others start throwing their matches to him. Thus the Russian champ is always meeting a Russian challenger.
In other words domination of world chess is just part of Russia's propaganda program, and it doesn't matter who wins so long as it is a Russian.
