New York Times, New York, New York, Sunday, May 06, 1962 - Page 70
Fischer Resigns In 2 Chess Games
Tal Also Loses First Round in Curacao Tourney
Willemstad, Curaçao, May 5—Bobby Fischer of the United States resigned two games today in the Candidates Chess Tournament here. The tournament leads to a world championship match.
He conceded defeat in his first-round game to Pal Benko, also of the United States, and his second-round game to Ewfim Geller of the Soviet Union without resuming play in the adjourned matches.
Another unfinished game, between Tigran Petrosian and Mikhail Tal, both of the Soviet Union,w as decided today when Tal overstepped the time limit in a losing position after sixty-three moves.
The losses by Fischer and Tal were expected to cause consternation among their fans in the United States and the Soviet Union. However, the tournament is a twenty-eight-round affair and neither has been knocked out of top competition by these early setbacks.
Fischer had been favored strongly in the United States to win the tournament in which two United States, five Soviet and one Czechoslovakian player are competing. The second choice in the the United States was Tal.
Conversely, in the Soviet Union Tal was given first choice and Fischer second. In his last two tournaments Fischer had played more than twenty games without a single loss, competing against Russians in eight of the games. Fischer played draws in eight of the games.
While some Fischer supporters in the United States, who had been told of his losses, asserted that “in a total of twenty-eight rounds of play, they don't mean very much,” others took the pessimistic view that “a loss is a loss, whether it comes at the beginning or the end of a tournament.”
All conceded that Fischer's chances of taking top score had been weakened considerably.
Chess fans on this island off Venezuela carry pocket radios to keep up with tournament events. The Dutch shops are doing a heavy business in chess sets and chess literature.
