ADeseret News and Salt Lake Telegram Salt Lake City, Utah Thursday, June 26, 1958
Bobby Fischer Begins Russian Exhibition Tour
Bobby Fischer, the 15-year-old American chess wizard from Brooklyn, arrived by plane Wednesday in Moscow for the start of his exhibition tour. There was no official welcoming party at the airport, the UPI reported, due to a misunderstanding as to the time of arrival. The Moscow Sports Committee just managed to get a car out to the airport for him at the last moment.
Bobby is staying at the National Hotel. Thursday he is scheduled to meet officials of the USSR Chess Federation to draw up plans for his exhibition tour. Young Fischer flew June 17 from the International Airport aboard a Sabena Air Lines plane for Brussels. It is first trip abroad. He stayed in Brussels until his trip yesterday to Moscow. His sister, Joan, a registered nurse, who taught him the moves of chess, preceded him to Brussels by several days.
Word came last Saturday, June 21, from Belgrade that Bobby will have a Yugoslav chess master as his second in the international tournament in Portoroz, the second stage in the three-leg cycle leading to a world championship match.
The Yugoslav Chess Federation had received a letter from Bobby's mother saying her 15-year-old son would be the only entry in the tournament without a second.
(American chess players, as usual, are disgraced in the eyes of the chess world because they do not give any financial assistance to their top players in international events. Bobby's trip abroad is the gift of a television show, CBS-TV's “I've Got a Secret.”)
The Yugoslav Chess Federation decided to appoint a Yugoslav master to help Bobby during the tournament. It has not been announced yet who his second will be.
Twenty-one players are entering the tournament, including four grandmasters from Russia. It will be played during August. Bobby will tour Russia the balance of June and throughout July, giving exhibitions at the expense of the USSR government.
