AThe Daily Oklahoman Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Sunday, November 23, 1958
Checkmated at the Chess Table
Few of the many things that went wrong can be laid to Spann, however. Most involved the old, old, diplomatic frictions of east versus west, or more specifically, U.S. versus U.S.S.R.
When he lined up his team, Spann hoped he could take the country's top six players. But the U.S. champion, Bobby Fischer, a 15-year-old Brooklyn school boy couldn't go. Truancy laws in his state wouldn't yield to the team's great need for the boy genius.
No. 1 seeded player Samuel Reshevsky of New York, (he has never played U.S. champ Fischer and because he held the championship for so many years, still is seeded first) is an Orthodox Jew and was lost for eight days—Jewish Rosh Hashannah, Yom Kippur and the weekly sabbath. He played only 11 of the 19 tourney rounds, and only a few of the vital finals.
Spann had written permission of the tourney director that Reshevsky would be clocked to play from 7 p.m. to midnight on Saturday and holy days, since sundown heralds and concludes the Jewish sabbath.
“But we were scheduled to play Russia on Saturday, and they would not agree. So we had to play at the regular time of 4 to 9, without Reshevsky.” The U.S. team drew Russia's to a 2-2 score. “I think we would have defeated them with Sammy.”
In the final outcome, Russia compiled the highest point total.
Other teams also refused to honor the late hours play agreement for Reshevsky. “They said they were tired of the ‘Reshevsky problem’.”
Paul Benko, seeded third behind Fischer, is a Hungarian refugee and not yet a U.S. citizen. So he also was lost.
