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Thursday Morning, December 22, 1977Section C, Page 1Korchnoi, Spassky war off the chessboardttooBy MICHAEL DOBBSSPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON POSTBELGRADE — Viktor Korchnoi, the Russian chess grandmaster who defected to the West last year, claims that his opponent, Boris Spassky, is distracted by the forlorn-looking red Soviet flag at his side.Expelled from the Soviet Chess Federation and stripped of all Sovi-Korchnoi with an air of triumph: “The other day, I caught him trying to push his flag into themiddle of the table. I went over tothe controller and complained — and the flag was put back where it belonged, next to Spassky.”In the emotion-charged atmosphere of world-class chess, such psychological victories off the board are almost as important asSpassky boycotts Wednesday's gameBELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) *— Soviet grandmaster Boris Spassky boycotted his world championship semi-final chess match with Viktor Korchnoi on Wednesday, escalating a procedural dispute over whether he has to sit and face Korchnoi at the chess board.As a result, tournament organizers took the unusual step of postponing the 12th game of the 20-game match until Friday, but protests by both players were threatening to torpedo the tourney.Spassky, a former world champion, is trailing the self-exiled Russian Korchnoi 6.5*3.5 with one adjourned game. The winner will play world champion Anatoly Karpov, another Russian, next year for the crown.Spassky’s protest apparently centered on the Yugoslav umpire’s removal from the game area of a demonstration board that Spassky relied on for studying positions.When Spassky had not shown up an hour after the 12th game was to begin Wednesday, organizers went into an emergency session to discuss the situation.Because the one-hour limit had been exceeded, the game point normally would have gone to Korchnoi. But instead the organizers announced that the game would be played Friday.Korchnoi earlier this week filed a protest with officials about Spassky’s practice of leaving the game board and retiring to a specially screened-off box where he pondered his next move, studying the large, electronically operated demonstration board hanging on a wall.Spassky began using this technique in the 10th game, which was adjourned, and continued it in the 11th game Monday, the first game he won during the tournament.After consulting with Dr. Max Euwc, president of the World Chess Federation, umpire Bozidar Kazic decided he could not order Spassky to stay at the game board, but he had the demonstration board taken down in the belief that this would force him back to the table.The organizers scheduled another meeting for later Wednesday to try to resolve the crisis.et sporting honors, Korchnoi, 46, is playing the most important match of his long chess career, without a flag. The winner of the 20-game series now under way in a central Belgrade theater will win $16,000. But more important, he will challenge the Soviet Union’s latest chess idol, Anatoly Karpov, for the world championship next year.According to Korchnoi, Spassky dislikes being put in the position of having to defend Soviet prestige against a man officially accused of “morbid self-esteem” and “betraying the motherland.” Saysthe capture of pieces on it. They have helped give Korchnoi an almost invincible lead. But Spassky, at 42. a former world and Soviet champion, has won game 11 and begun the almost impossible job of trying to win the match.A small, puckish figure with a mischievous grin, Korchnoi is within sight of fulfilling his dream of playing the 26-vear-old Karpov who became world chess champion by default in 1975 when the temperamental American geniusBobbv Fischer refused to defend %■the title. For Korchnoi, such amatch would offer the chance of sweet revenge. He maintains that he was punished for putting up too much resistance against Karpov, the official favorite, in the last candidates’ tournament for the world championship.“I want to show to everyone in the world that the Soviet Union is an oppressive society, and that those people who leave for the West can play chess better than those who stay in the Soviet Union. I feel free now. I feel that if I were to play Karpov now, I could come to his throat and seriously damage it,” he says in his slightly idiosyncratic English.A world championship match between Korchnoi and Karpov, which now seems increasingly likely, would be a severe embarrassment for the Soviet Union — probably even more embarrassing than the celebrated Fischer-Spassky contest in Reykjavik in 1972. Most Soviet emigres can safely be ignored as soon as they leave their homeland, but not a chess player on top of his form.As Korchnoi remarks in his recently published autobiography “Chess Is My Life”: “In the Soviet Union I enjoyed a degree of perfectly official popularity that neither Solzhenitszn nor Sakharov could boast of, nor even Rostropovich or Barshai, public figures who are much better known in the West than I am. I was seen on the television screens by tens of millions of people, I was greeted, and my speeches listened to, by hundreds of thousands. For dozens of years the papers talked about me — Stalin, Malenkov, Khrushchev gave way one to another, but my name did not disappear from the press.”A boastful statement perhaps, but also an accurate one in a country where chess is a national pastime an played avidly in parks, restaurants and on streetcorners.Korchnoi sees Spassky, a longtime friend and rival, principally as an obstacle to his match with Karpov. Describing Spassky as a “one-legged disident” because of his marriage to a French girl, he claims they had an unwritten agreement to support each other when they were both out of favor with the Soviet Chess Federation.“But the Russians are now supporting Spassky as the lesser of two evils. For the second time in his life — the first time was against Fischer — he has been called to defend the Soviet frontiers. And both timesKorchnoi (left) faces Spassky across the chess boardAPhe is losing,” says Korchnoi in an interview in his hotel room, surrounded by unfinished chessgames.Taunts apart, relations between the two men appear cordial enough when they meet in the cavernous auditorium of Belgrade's TradeUnion Theater which is the venuefor their matches.Spassky gingerly shakes Korchnoi’s left hand (his right hand was hurt in a car accident just before the beginning of their match last month) and they briskly set about their business.There is a swift round of applause from the expectant crowd as Korchnoi, playing white, moves immediately P-QB4, the EnglishOpening which is his favorite inthis match. Spassky has already decided on his defense and the opening 10 moves take less than 10 minutes time by the clock which the players switch off and on as they move.Play then settles down into the “middle game” — the battle of wits, strategy, and emotions with each player struggling to gain some slight advantage. The moves are displayed on a giant chessboard at the back of the stageand flashed onto electronic boards around the auditorium. The 2,000-strong audience seems as absorbedin the game as the players themselves, sitting patiently even when Spassky ponders a record 68 minutes on a crucial move. (There is a buzz of excitement when hefinally makes up his mind).Outside the hall, there is another electronic scoreboard. A Yugoslav grandmaster explains the significance of each move to a large crowd of enthusiasts. Young girls wearing “Spassky-Korchoni” T-shirts sell badges and programs. Book stalls stacked high with chess literature (“Play Like a Grandmaster” and “Chess Is Chess” are typical titles) do brisk business.Many fans follow the game on pocket chess sets —- arguing with their neighbors over possible permutations. “Don’t you see, by sacrificing that pawn Spassky controls the bishop’s file and puts pressure on Korchnoi’s rook. If Korchnoi goes there, he can go here,” reasons a Spassky supporter. His friend disagrees and their discussion becomes more heated.Haunting the match like a ghost who can’t be exorcised is the mystical personality of Bobby Fischerwho lives as a semi-recluse in the United States after being strippedof the world title in 1975. BothKorchnoi and Spassky pay tribute to his brilliance as a chess-player and express the hope of playing against him again. He is alternately reported to have retiredfrom chess for good, and to bepreparing a comeback, by journalists who claim to have spoken with him at one of his hideouts.Spassky has been described as “the Pushkin of chess” — because of his controlled emotions and methodical, harmonious style of play. Korchnoi, on the other hand, is known in Yugoslavia as “Strashni Viktor” (Viktor the Terrible) because of his fighting spirit and his ability to exploit mercilessly the slightest mistake of his opponent.Support for the two is fairly evenly divided among Yugoslavs. As in Reykjavik, when he was subjected to lengthy melodramatics from Fischer, Spassky captures the sympathy vote. He is cool, obviously decent, and his hair curls mod-ishly round his ears, Korchnoi is high-string, aggressive — and also happens to be winning. At least he has been up to game 11.
Newspaper Details
South Mississippi Sun
Biloxi, Mississippi, US
Thu, Dec 22, 1977
Page 21
Full Page
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CA, USA 14 Jan 2023
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