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 urging 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.)