The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Monday, February 15, 1960
“Chess Is A War Of Nerves”
Sir,—James Holledge, in “Chess is a War of Nerves” (“Herald,” Feb. 13), states that Paul Morphy, the American chess genius of a century ago, “could not pass examinations to qualify as a lawyer.”
Morphy was called to the Bar at 19 in April, 1857. He could recite from memory nearly the whole Civil Code of Louisiana at this time, and spoke four languages fluently.
It is true that Bobby Fischer, the American chess prodigy, is restive and lazy at school, but when he decided to learn Russian so as to read his 40 Russian chess books, he mastered it in a matter of months.
True, also, one cannot prove any correlation between chess and intelligence, but the Australian junior chess championship has usually been won by boys of academic brilliance.
Alekhine, probably the most libeled chess champion of all time, never threw his king at any opponent.
Holledge says Lasker claimed he lost the world championship to Steinitz because Steinitz sipped lemonade. Lasker did not, however, lose the world championship to Steinitz; he won it from Steinitz.
C.J.S. PURDY.
Greenwich.
Worthy of note, the comment above, is an opinion piece, a letter to the editor.
Bobby's school's administrators described a bright child who scores rather well academically:
“But last year, despite an intensive schedule, he settled down and scored 97 in mathematics, 90 in Spanish and 80 in biology examinations.”
This year, though his principal said he would be carrying five courses — English, Spanish, intermediate algebra, world history and physical chemistry.
Awarded a gold medal for achievements.
Hardly “lazy” and Bobby did not describe himself as a “master of Russian”:
“Sure they put out a lot of books. Yeah, I can read a little Russian—I can read the moves. I can speak a little. Mr. Pressman at NYU (New York University) taught me.”
—Bobby Fischer
