It was a match like none before.
It was two masters of chess from the two Cold War superpowers
going mano a mano over a chessboard in Reykjavik, Iceland.

CHESS MEN STRIP FISCHER

It was the U.S. champion (since age 14) against the World Champion (since 1969).
It was the first time in almost 25 years that a player from outside the Soviet Union
had earned the right to play a match for
the World Championship title.

Bobby Fischer stripped of the world chess champion title
On This Day, The Times, April 4, 1975

The International Chess Federation (Fide) today declared Anatoly Karpov, the Russian challenger, to be world chess champion after Bobby Fischer, of America, had failed to meet the extended deadline given by Fide within which he had to agree to meet Karpov to defend his title. "We have sent Karpov a telegram informing him that he has been awarded the title, and congratulating him," Dr Max Euwe, Fide’s president, said today in Amsterdam. He did not conceal his disappointment, but said that Fide had left no stone unturned in its attempt to negotiate a compromise agreement. Karpov said today that he was glad the chess crown had returned to the Soviet Union but regretted that he did not get to play Fischer for it. He said he could not understand why Fischer did not play the match. "I wanted this match to take place very much and I think I have done all I could for this."

There was silence today from South Pasadena, California, where Fischer normally lives. But several other American chess players have been expressing regret over the sequence of events which led to his losing the world title. "It’s tragic for Fischer, for chess in the world and for Karpov," Colonel Edmund Edmundson, the director of the American Chess Federation, has said. "Poor Fischer won't have his title, Karpov will have a paper title, and the world won’t have its match. We're all losers."

ORWELL DIARY APRIL 4TH and MORE APRIL 4TH DIARIES

FISCHER MAN AGAINST MACHINE and BOBBY FISCHER IN ROOM 202 and BOBBY FISCHER A WINSTON SMITH and UNCLE SAM FINDS BOBBY FISCHER

"Chess Match of the Century: Fischer vs. Spassky"
upcoming HBO Film, St John's University, Apr 7, 2008

When World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer died in January 2008, the media from all over the world immediately sought out Frank Brady, Ph.D. for background information and commentary on the temperamental chess genius. As Fischer’s biographer, Dr. Brady had years ago forged a relationship with the young chess player at the office where he founded and wrote Chess Life magazine. Fischer, the reigning U.S. Chess Champion, continually visited Brady’s office to read all the latest chess literature. They’d dined together, played in the N.Y. Metropolitan Chess League, and competed against each other in speed chess (a chess game with clocked moves) at the Marshall Chess Club) in Manhattan (“It took Bobby two minutes to checkmate, it took me 10,” Brady chuckles). “Fischer was the Beethoven of chess,” Brady states, “probably the greatest chess player that ever lived.” Brady, who is a Professor and Chair of the Mass Communication Division in the College of Professional Studies, reports that because of his knowledge of and experience with Bobby Fischer—“he was controversial, arrogant, egotistical and towards the end, outrageous” — he sold the film rights to his book to Home Box Office (HBO) last year and will serve as a consultant on a long-planned docudrama about the most famous chess match in history, Fischer vs. Spassky in 1972.

It was a match like none before. It was two masters of chess from the two Cold War superpowers going mano a mano over a chessboard in Reykjavik, Iceland. It was the U.S. champion (since age 14) against the World Champion (since 1969). It was the first time in almost 25 years that a player from outside the Soviet Union had earned the right to play a match for the World Championship title. It was a match watched on televisions around the world. "It was a big deal. That match sparked a huge interest in the game of chess," Brady notes. He reports that before the famous match there were about 5,000 members in the U.S. Chess Federation and since 1972 that number has soared to its present 90,000 members.

The film, which has a working title of Fischer-Spassky, has been slow to get off the ground due to the recent strike by the Writers Guild of America, but is now about two months into production. "They asked for the rights to use my book, Bobby Fischer: Profile of a Prodigy", the CPS Chair explained recently. "I’ll be on the set from time to time to guarantee authenticity and serve as a consultant." Film consulting is not new to Brady, who was tapped as a consultant for the 1993 Hollywood film, Searching for Bobby Fischer, and for the reissuing of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil. He has also worked in Hollywood with George Lucas on a radio adaptation of Star Wars. He guesses that since HBO moves more quickly than Hollywood, shooting for the HBO film will take place during the summer when the weather improves.

In the meantime, a documentary maker — Academy Award nominee and Emmy winner Liz Garbus, co-founder of Moxie Firecracker Films - is also collaborating with the St. John’s professor, this time on a film chronicling Fisher’s entire life. He says it’s possible that both jobs might take him to Iceland where the famous match was held in 1972. He anticipates that both films might be completed by the end of 2008. With an eye always on opportunities for his students, the mass communications professor is hoping that a few internships might be made available by the documentary makers....

Bobby Fischer stripped of the world chess champion title, On This Day, The Times, April 4, 1975
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/court_and_social/article3675060.ece

Jackie Jura
~ an independent researcher monitoring local, national and international events ~

email: orwelltoday@gmail.com
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