From: "jay hack" <jay.hack@execnet.com>
Newsgroups: rec.games.chess
Subject: chess news        1/5
Date: 17 Aug 92 03:12:44 EST
Reply-To: "jay hack" <jay.hack@execnet.com>
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Organization: Executive Networks Information

MORE CHESS NEWS FROM THE WORLD PRESS.  NOTE REPOST THAT THE US TREASURY
DEPARTMENT HAS ADVISED THAT FISCHER PLAYING IN YUGOSLAVIA VIOLATES
SANCTIONS.   Also note the passing of John Cage who, in addition to
everything else, was reported to be an active chess player.
Supposedly, he spect a lot of time playing with Marcel Duchamps.
The story I heard was that Duchamps gave up art for the study of
chess and spent a lot of time playing and studying at the Manhattan
Chess Club.  Anyone with more info on this?

                       The Reuter Library Report

                       August  14, 1992, Friday, BC cycle


HEADLINE: BOBBY FISCHER -- AN ECCENTRIC  CHESS  GENIUS RE-AWAKES

BYLINE: By Adam Black
 BODY:
   The return of Bobby Fischer, the eccentric genius who turned the
chess   board into a Cold War battleground 20 years ago, has sent
a shiver of excitement  through the  chess  world.

   The reclusive American is due next month to meet his old Soviet
adversary  Boris Spassky whom he defeated for the world
championship in 1972.

   Fischer's decision to play for the $5 million prize on the
Montenegrin resort  island of Sveti Stefan -- an area not affected
by the fighting in former  Yugoslavia -- is relished by both
grandmasters and ordinary  chess  enthusiasts.

   But many wonder whether it is too late for a comeback for the
49-year-old who  became a national hero when he won the sensational
1972 title in Reykjavik.

   ''Twenty years is a lot of rust to remove,'' said Bob Wade,
England's chief   chess  trainer.

   Fischer, the only American to win the title, disappeared from
public view  shortly after beating Spassky.

   Media speculation on his life since has included reports that
Fischer is  under the spell of Claudia Makarow, whom he is said to
have met through the  Worldwide Church of God.

   TV producer Michael Feldman, who spent three days with Fischer
in 1988 in a  vain attempt to set up a Spassky re-match, told
Reuters that his dealings were  overseen by Makarow who, he said,
had ''a Svengali-type hold'' on the  Brooklyn-born American.

   In July, after Fischer was filmed by a U.S. television crew at
a Los Angeles  apartment, London's Guardian newspaper described him
as being ''dressed like a  derelict, waddling and fat and with a
straggly beard.''

   Former friends paint a picture of a solitary man spending much
much of his  day in rooms littered with  chess  books, oranges and
jars of vitamins, playing   chess  by himself, and reading
magazines on  chess  to keep in touch.
   British grandmaster Raymond Keene said there was a risk that the
Fischer-Spassky match ''could be a rematch between two bumbling
chess   geriatrics who can't rub two pawns together.''

    Chess  masters usually peak around the age of 30.

   But Keene and others were nevertheless fascinated by the
prospect, and  speculated on a possible match against 29-year-old
world champion Garry Kasparov  should Fischer win.

   Fischer won the world title in 1972 in a display of brilliant
chess  that he  and many commentators portrayed as an act of the
Cold War struggle between the  superpowers.

   In the process he infuriated Icelandic officials and Spassky
fans with late  appearances and angry complaints about noise,
lighting and the filming of the  match.

   Called to defend the title in 1975, he prevaricated, trying to
impose  outrageous conditions. When the deadline passed, the title
was awarded by  default to the challenger, Russia's Anatoly Karpov,
who was to hold it for 10  years.

   Now that Fischer looks likely to return, his backers are
painting a more  sympathetic picture of him.

   He was ''not the nutter we were led to believe,'' said his
friend, Yugoslav  grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric. He said Fischer
was playing ''very, very  strongly.''

   Keene rated as good Fischer's chances against Spassky in their
match, to be  decided by the first to win 10 games.
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