AThe Journal Times, Racine, Wisconsin, Thursday, April 20, 1989 - Page 5
Fischer's Chess Manager Dies
Mequon, Wis. (AP) — Fred Cramer, a former U.S. and international chess official and Bobby Fischer's manager in a famous 1972 match with Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union, has died of cancer at his Mequon home. He was 76.
Cramer was president of the U.S. Chess Federation from 1960-63, when it grew from 2,000 members to 9,000. He later served as vice president of the International Chess Federation.
He was Fischer's manager during the seven-week world championship match with Spassky in 1972 at Reykjavik, Iceland. It was the first competition between an American and a Russian for the world title.
Cramer spent much of his time pursuing Fischer's many complaints about playing conditions.
“It was a high point because he had to serve as a diplomat between the high-strung Bobby Fischer and the proper, by-the-book Icelanders,” said Cody Engle, Cramer's nephew.
Fischer won.
Cramer, who died Tuesday, was survived by his wife, Ramona; daughter, Jennifer, of Mequon; sons, Fred Jr., Mequon, and Eri Caban, San Diego; and sister, Catherine C. Engle, Oro Valley, Ariz.
Services were scheduled at 10 a.m. Thursday at St. Cecilia Church, Thiensville.
Courier-Post, Camden, New Jersey, Sunday, June 18, 1989 - Page 95
Fischer at best in columns
Recollections of Bobby Fischer vary — and often conflict — in New York, where he lived a few years before he won the world championship in 1972. He is remembered as sometimes being arrogant to those he regarded as “inferiors.” Or he could be friendly, kind and inquisitive, especially with younger players.
For three years beginning in 1966 (Fischer was then 22), he wrote a bi-monthly column in Boys Life. Judging from excerpts recently published in Edward Winter's Swiss periodical, Chess Notes, he approached his role as mentor with typical Fischer conscientiousness.
HE WAS respectful, natural and effective with his audience. A sampling:
• “I was really pleased at the response to my first ‘Checkmate’ column. Over a thousand of you sent in questions and gave answers to the first puzzler.”
• On another occasion, he wrote: “Hi! Glad to be back. Sorry I missed the last column, but I was away playing in tournaments in Yugoslavia and Tunisia.”
•When asked: “Can you call a draw after you are checkmated,” he answered in absolute deadpan: “No, Jim. Once you're checkmated, the game is over.”
• When a reader wished to know how long he thought on each move, he explained: “My problem is that I require time to think, but my opponent always yells for me to hurry up.”
HIS ADVICE was usually superb. “Concentrate…” he said. “Chess demands total concentration. No one's interested in excuses if I lose. Many people who play chess are using only a fraction of their mind, and the rest … is off wandering somewhere.”
And he was unabashed in urgin his audience to play: “With your young fresh mind you should be beating your elders easily. And of course, spend as much time at the game as you possibly can.”
The excerpts remind us how much we lost when Fischer withdrew from chess at his peak.
DIAGRAMMED is a rare Fischer loss (albeit in an early 1960's simultaneous exhibition against Harold Dondis, now chess columnist for the Boston Globe.)
