Computerized Steamroller

According to the World Chess Federation, the champion chess player is Russia's Boris Spassky. Not so, says Bobby Fischer of the U.S. Two months ago he declared, "I'm tired of being the unofficial champion," and he took on Soviet Grand Master Mark Taimanov in the first of three elimination matches to determine the challenger for Spassky's title. Fischer won by the startling score of 6-0--the first time in chess history that one grand master had shut out another without a single drawn game. Last week in Denver, Fischer attacked Denmark's brilliant Bent Larsen like a computerized steamroller and won again, 6-0. Analyzing Fischer's back-to-back victories, the equivalent of pitching two straight no-hitters in baseball, Chess Master Anthony Saidy said, "He is the most rounded chess genius of all time."

Fischer may also be the most unpredictable. He was just a pubescent prodigy of 14 when, turned out in T shirt, dungarees and sneakers, he won the first of eight U.S. chess championships. Ever since, Bobby has been known as the Brooklyn bad boy. He walked out of tournaments. He complained about the lighting, the scheduling, the spectators, the air conditioning, the living conditions, the purses. He refused to compete in the last two world championships, charging that the powerful Russian players had "cheated" by playing for draws against one another and for wins against Western grand masters.

Sense of Mission. In 1968, when officials at the Chess Olympiad refused his demands for better playing conditions, Fischer stomped out and withdrew from international competition "for a period of introspection." Moving to California, he holed up with his massive collection of chess books and "plotted my revenge if I ever come back." When he did come back to tournament play he seemed a new and more determined competitor. "I should have been world champion ten years ago," he said. "I now feel a sense of mission to win the championship."

In his matches against Larsen last week, Fischer disdained his daring assaults of old and played the more profound game of the classical strategist. Instead of rushing into aggressive but precarious attacks, he concentrated on the development of position while waiting for an opening. But when it came, he attacked with the unrelenting ferocity of the boy wonder who once said, "I like to see 'em squirm." With a 5-0 lead and needing only the 1/2 point awarded for a draw to win, any other chess master would have played for a tie. Not Bobby. After losing the crucial center position to Larsen in the final game, he fell into a tight defensive formation, which his opponent was never able to penetrate. Two pawns down after 40 moves, Larsen took a long look at his position and resigned.

If Fischer's game is more controlled these days, so too is his temper. In Denver he did not walk out when he found the lighting less than perfect. Instead, he worked with a lighting consultant and had the fluorescent tubes changed six times until he found the ideal glare-free glow. Though many chess professionals still object to Fischer's irascible ways, they now grudgingly admit that his primary concern has always been the good of the game. His charges of Russian cheating, for example, did result in rule changes that make collusion more difficult.

Now 28, Fischer is determined to break the Russians' monopoly on the world championship, which they have held since 1948. No American has ever won the title; indeed, in the past quartercentury (the championship is held every three years) no Western player has even advanced to the finals. To gain his showdown with Spassky, Fischer must first meet the winner of a semifinal match now being played in Moscow between Tigran Petrosian and Victor Korchnoi.

Spassky, for one, is reportedly convinced that Fischer will be his challenger. Fischer is convinced of even more. Asked who is the world's greatest player, he unhesitatingly answers: "It's nice to be modest, but it would be stupid if I did not tell the truth. It is Fischer."

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