AThe Guardian London, Greater London, England Saturday, September 29, 1962 - Page 3
Russian Challenge to US Chess Prodigy 29 Sep 1962, Sat The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com
Russian Challenge to US Chess Prodigy
The Russians have issued a challenge to the American teenage prodigy Bobby Fischer to play a match with the world's leading woman chess master, Nona Gaprindashvili. In an interview last year Fischer claimed he could give any woman player in the world odds of a knight and defeat her.
Gaprindashvili is considered by the Russians to be almost the equal of the late Vera Menchik, the world's greatest woman player. She is at present winning easily in a match for the woman's world championship against the holder, Elizabeth Bykova.
Told of the challenge at the world Team Championships here, Fischer said he would accept, for stakes of $3,000 a side and Russian officials are considering the offer. Opinion among the other masters is sharply divided on the outcome of the match if it takes place.
Most of the non-Russians favor Fischer who today won the most brilliant game of the tournament against the Argentine grandmaster, Najdorf. However, the Russians—many of whom know Gaprindashvili, a 21-year-old student from Tiflis, Georgia—consider that the American's well-known brash confidence is due for a setback.
The Soviet champion, Boris Spassky, commented: “Bobby ought to be satisfied with odds of pawn and move,” while the former world champion Mikhail Tal, summed up the general feeling in the Russian camp: “Fischer is Fischer, but knight is knight.”
In the second round of final Group B of the championship, England lead Mongolia 2-1, with Clarke having a slight advantage in his unfinished game with the Mongolian top board, Purevzhav.
Littlewood seemed disheartened by his defeats and was outplayed by Momo in the middle game, but Barden attacked energetically against Chalssaruen and broke through to win. Wade won in excellent positional style against Namshil.
The final Group A scores are:
From page 158 of A Legend on the Road by John Donaldson (Milford, 2005): Fischer denied making the remark. The remark was an invention from Ralph Ginzburg's own perversity and was later sued by Barry Goldwater, which landed Ginzburg in court and Goldwater successfully collecting thousands USD in defamatory libel-damages. A more complete review of Ginzburg is located here.
