AThe News Tribune, Tacoma, Washington, Wednesday, January 06, 1960
Chess Champ, Only 16, Wants To Beat Russ
NEW YORK. (NANA-North American Newspaper Alliance)—Fresh from winning his third consecutive national chess championship, 16-year-old Bobby Fischer is taking aim at a new target—to beat the Russians and capture the world crown in 1962.
The Brooklyn High School junior, who played against this country's elite in winning the U.S. title, said he hopes—and expects—to whip all comers in the '62 play for the world championship.
“Give us a few years,” said the lanky and usually laconic youngster, “and we'll have the best players in the world. We have the best young players now.”
If Fischer does cop the world crown, now worn by Russia's Mikhail Botvinnik, it will be the first time that an American has ever officially held this title.
The young star, who many rate as “The greatest chess player in the Western Hemisphere” (a “rash statement,” he says), thinks interest in the ancient art of chess is picking up “slowly but surely” in the U.S. But, he admits, such interest has a long way to go before it gets to be anything like it is in Europe where fans wait for hours in line to get tickets to tournament games.
As Popular As TV
At the recent world challenger's tournament in Belgrade, in which Fischer finished among the top half dozen, he had to fight off thousands of autograph-seeking fans. “The tournament was the event of the year,” he said. “The Yugoslavs love chess. Play it just like we watch television.”
“The trouble with chess in America,” said the international grandmaster, “is that it has got hooked up with checkers—just another game. Chess has nothing in common with checkers.”
Fischer also took poke at those who believe chess helps “develop the mind.” Not so, he said. “I think playing baseball does just about as much for developing person's mind. I play chess simply because I like to play chess.”
Asked if a good memory was indispensable to the game, said, “No. Talent and hard work, that's what counts.”
Fischer, who gets about average grades in school, learned the moves in chess at the age of six from his older sister, Joan. He played and studied for years, reading chess books in a number of foreign languages which he learned just well enough to follow the classic games.
1957 “Upset”
In 1956 he won the U.S. junior championship, but it wasn't until 1957 that he really came into prominence. In that year, at age 13, he upset some 200 of his elders to win U.S. Open championship for the first of his three times. No one had ever captured a major title at such an early age.
The youngster has frequently been at odds with chess authorities in this country, criticizing financial arrangements for tournaments and claiming that games are not set up according to international procedure.
