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6-D—LUBBOCK AVALANCHE-JOURNAl—Thursday Evening, March 8, 1973United States Chess Craze Makes Mini-Celebrity Expert Shelby LymanBy KAY BARTLETT Lyman smiles and adds, *1NEW YORK (AP) — Bobby Fischer, believer in America, and Boris Spassky, folk hero of the Soviet Union, turned chessinto big business.Shelby Lyman, believer 4n chess and in Shelby Lyman, capitalized on that business.Lyman was the top instructor at New York’s prestigious Marshall Club and unknown except In the international chess set until he hosted, on public tele-vis km, the captivating play-by-play simulation of the big match in Iceland and became an instant mini-celebrity.Lyman now turns down offersto teach for $100 an hour. He is writing three books, consulting on two more. He’s writing a syndicated chess column for newspapers. Lectures bring him $800 to $1,500 apiece. He is developing the first Leach-your-self chess unit. He is negotiating a documentary with a major Holly-wood studio. He’s considering offers to endorse products. More television programs are on the way. And he has opened his own chess institute. Only the last is nonprofit.Apex Of Culture “I've just become the focus of many different kinds of chess activities. After Fischer, I stand at the apex of the new chess culture,” Lyman explainswith the same brand of candoithat got Bobby Fischer into trouble.I’m not making that much money,” lie says. I’ve had all kinds of people come to me with this project or that project and tel I me, 'Look, you can make $100,000 off of this.’I’m going after the long run, I'm not going after the fast buck,” said the expert, well schooled in the art of going for the king.To help him, he has engaged a lawyer, an accountant, a literary agent, a manager and one more but I can't remember what he does at the moment.”never even hud a lawyer before.”Sporting longer hair and a few more pounds than he had during his day's on television, Lyman, boyish-iooking at 36, says his life hasn't changed.“I moved from a $140 apart-mant in Brooklyn to a $190 sublet down here (Greenwich Village), bought a new suit and anovercoat which I needed. But that's not too dramatic, I guess,” he says.The celebrity status bothpleases and dismays him,The people I meet on the street now are warmer than the people I knew all my life,” he says with the enthusiasm heputs into everything, For awhile there, it was a little much. But now I really like itwhen people come lip and say they liked the television show.”On the other hand, he is put off by the groupie cult that developed around him, the people who screamed when he came out for appearances and waved their homemade Shelby Lyman signs around.That's a little bit unhealthy,but then I like it as a sign that I'm in a good position,” saysthe Brooklyn-born, Boston-raised son of a doctor.Marriage Annulled“There's another irony,” volunteers Lyman, a graduate of Boston Latin School and Harvard. Women are now more available than ever before an my life. And I’m too busy to take advantage of it.”Lyman’s only marriage ended in annulment.His favorite haunt is, of course, the Shelby Lyman Chess Institute in the Village. The instructors are all masters, one of whom is ranked fourth in the country. Lyman, once ranked 18th, tries not to teach but admits he can't resist once he starts watching a game.“It's a great spectatorsport,” says the man who once described certain situations as“libidinous,” who looks upon the 64 squares as a battlefield with trees and valleys, guns and horses.Every Game DifferentLyman doesn't think all of the world's problems would besolved if everyone playedchess. Just most.Other competition is generally staged in a fearful situation, in a classroom, in physical activity where the punishment is strong and you very rarely have complete control.“In chess, its a finite situaiion but every game is differ ent. No one has ever been in that situation before in the his tory of the world. You become an actor, a maker of history It's very much of a model for life. It’s a feeling of mastery It’s ego-building.”PIGGLYWIGGLYThe people ptezsit* storeCopyright Shop Rite Foods. Inc. 1973
Newspaper Details
Lubbock Avalanche Journal
Lubbock, Texas, US
Thu, Mar 08, 1973
Page 59
Full Page
Clipped by
Los A.
CA, USA 26 Dec 2022
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