A“Karpov has also questioned whether Fischer is ‘mentally capable of playing chess’ at the moment.”
But why not? The Armstrong Cult Terror? or the professional and financial defrauding by WCG’s inside attorney Stanley Rader?
The defamation of Brad Darrach? Or this Lawsuit manipulated by Soviets and Chester Fox in collusion with Icelandic Chess Federation back in 1972?
Is this an honest assessment by Karpov or a further attempt to gaslight Fischer, in light of all the drama his government manipulated to secure his paper victory by default?
The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Sunday, April 13, 1975 - Page 49 (★)
Fischer: 'No Man's Pawn': Why Chess Superstar Gave Up Millions
THE BROODING and contentious Bobby Fischer, chess champion of the world, has silently relinquished his title and left the chess scene both stunned and in shambles.
Despite his fiery histrionics, his carpings, his outrageous demands, Fischer did more for the so-called “staid” game of chess than any other grandmaster and became its first superstar.
When he won the world title from the Russian Boris Spassky in 1972, his antics in Iceland made headlines and the world — player and non-player alike — watched his every move, both at the board and away from it.
By his own default, the title again passes back to the Soviet Union, into the hands of 23-year-old Anatoly Karpov, a genuinely modest competitor with a bland, conservative style of play.
Karpov defeated compatriot Viktor Korchnoi last November and became the sole survivor of a two-year series of tournaments and matches to select an official challenger for Fischer and the title.
The title match was to have been played in Manila on June 1 with a $5 million purse, the greatest amount ever offered for a chess championship.
Now, Karpov is a “paper” champion — a title the young Russian student of economics certainly did not want.
Colonel Edmund Edmondson, the US Chess Federation's executive director, summed up the feeling of most chess buffs when he said: “It's tragic for Fischer, for chess in the world, and for Karpov.”
‘Suicide’
Many experts believe Fischer brought about his own chess suicide — he “formally” resigned last year as world champion, a gesture not even his own US federation took too seriously.
But the prospects for a championship match this summer have been in doubt for several months, in part because of special demands by Fischer for rules changes.
His two principal demands were:
• That the match should have an unlimited number of games instead of a 36-game limit, with draws not counting and the winner being the first player to score 10 victories.
That in the event of a 9-to-9 tie being reached, the match would be declared a draw, the prize-money would be split and Fischer would retain his title.
Late last month delegates of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) accepted his insistence on the first demand for an unlimited match, but rejected the second, ruling out any possibility of a tie.
The deadline for acceptance of the rules by both players was April 1 — it came and went without a word from Fischer.
FIDE's rulings seemed to have offered a breakthrough compromise but according to Col. Edmondson they reflected “exactly what the USSR Chess Federation wanted.”
He added: “The Soviet Union wanted the title by default because Karpov is not good enough to win it over the board from Fischer.
“It's unfair to Karpov, too. He'd like to play. He's going to be dubbed in history as the paper champion.”
Why did Fischer, the 31-year-old genius of chess who never seemed to care for anything but the game, give up the title — and a chance for a $5 million purse — without a further struggle?
“He thinks in terms of absolutes,” says Jeffrey Kastner, manager of the Manhattan Chess Club and a friend of Fischer. “Things are always 100 per cent right or 100 per cent wrong.”
Before he played Spassky for the title in 1972 Fischer himself said: “Chess will be very big in this country (the US) after I win the title. This country doesn't know what it's got. I'm going to be a superstar.”
Why Fischer never accepted or cashed in on his superstar status remains a mystery.
After he became champion he went into virtual seclusion. During the past three years he has not played a serious game of chess nor has he made any public appearances.
In recent months Fischer, who never had a wide circle of friends, appears to have become even more isolated. His telephone, which reportedly ran up bills of $1,500 a month, was disconnected.
According to one source formerly close to Fischer, the chess champion “had $2.5 million cold in offers and another $7 million or so pending,” when he returned from Iceland.
“All he had to do was sign his name,” the source added. “He didn't sign a thing.”
Big offers
Some offers were spectacular:
• The Las Vegas Hilton Hotel offered him $1.4 million to defend his title there against anyone, and it is estimated what with television rights, etc, he could have cleared $2 million.
Fischer declined to reply to the offer.
• Warner Bros offered him $1 million to make a series of records, How To Play Chess, which would have taken only a few hours of his time to do.
Fischer didn't like the photographs for the record jackets or the three scripts submitted to him. The records were never made.
• A television producer wanted him to make a series of chess films which could be marked throughout the world.
• A car manufacturer offered Fischer $75,000 and a new car if he would say he drove only that make of car. The offer was declined.
Larry Evans, an international chess grandmaster and the man who helped Fischer train for the 1972 title match explained: “I think he feels that lending his name to something is beneath his dignity.”
“He's just basically lazy about things other than chess and he's basically suspicious of people he doesn't know.”
When Fischer returned triumphant with his world title he took refuge with friends in Pasadena, California, home of the headquarters of the Worldwide Church of God, a fundamentalist group that “follows biblical teachings 100 per cent.”
A church official said Fischer “had observed the church's principals better than many of our members,” but that he had been “a contributor rather than an actual member.”
Fischer has never gone through the church's baptism ceremony.
But according to Fischer's lawyer, Stanley Rader, “he's taken a lot of spiritual strength from the basic tenets of the religion.”
RELIGION
There were reports that Fischer had become disenchanted with the Worldwide Church of God and moved to Denver to stay with a man who used to be associated with the church.
He has since moved back into the Pasadena area and his association with the church is no longer clear because of his isolation.
While Fischer was withdrawing further into the background, the new world champion, Karpov, was emerging as an international chess force.
He won the world junior championship in 1969 and became an international grandmaster the following year at the age of 19.
He qualified for the series of Candidates Matches leading to the world championships in 1973 on his first attempt, and last year a worldwide panel of chess journalists voted him player of the year 1973, an honor that either Fischer or Spassky had won every year since 1967.
Ironically, the slight school-boyish figure of Karpov is often called “the Bobby Fischer of Russia” — not because he exhibits any of the American player's eccentric quirks, but rather for his sensational accomplishments over the board.
To Karpov, who was taught the rudiments of chess by his father when he was four, “chess is my life.”
“I always want to be first,” he said. “If I were not a chess-player I would still try to be first in anything.
“Well, let's say, not first but one of the best. And in chess, that much more. Otherwise it's stupid to play seriously.”
He regards chess first as a sport and second as a science, and insists that the main thing is to win even if this means colorless, purely technical play.
“The point is that anyone who goes in for attractive maneuvers and mind-boggling complications, ends up by losing a point — albeit one point out of 10. I prefer to win 10 points out of 10 by technical means.”
‘A Genius’
Last November, after winning the right to challenge Fischer, the loser of the match, Viktor Korchnoi, declared that Karpov's “chess arsenal is very poor” and painted an unsuccessful future for the young Russian in any meeting against Fischer.
Karpov himself said of such a meeting: “I cannot guarantee that I will win, because Fischer is a genius. Nevertheless, I do not think that I have no chance for success.”
However, some experts believe that even if Fischer suddenly emerged from his “retirement” Karpov may not play him now.
“The Russians believe that you should defend a title only when you have to,” explained Col Edmondson.
“Karpov doesn't have to play until 1978 and there's no way anybody can force him.”
Will Fischer ever return to the chess scene?
“If he wouldn't play for $5 million purse what will he play for?” asked William Lombardy, Fischer's second in the 1972 championship.
LAW SUIT
Karpov has also questioned whether Fischer is “mentally capable of playing chess” at the moment.
On the other hand Julio Kaplan, a former world junior champion, believes Fischer will be persuaded to play the match with Karpov eventually because of previous concessions in match rules granted the former American champion.
And some think he will agree to play because he may need the money in case he loses a $3.25-million lawsuit brought by filmmaker Chester Fox who had the film rights to the 1972 chess championship.
Fischer barred move cameras during the match.
The case is pending.
But nobody will force Fischer into doing anything. As one friend pointed out, this chess genius who single-handedly generated intense world interest in the game is “no man's pawn.”
