The Age, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Tuesday, September 30, 1958 By “The Age” Correspondent in New York
Chess Wonder Boy of U.S.
When Bobby Fischer was six year old, his sister Joan went out to the local candy store in Brooklyn and bought a chess board.
Since Bobby was too young to read, Joan — then aged 11 — studied the instructions and explained the moves to her brother.
Soon, as children do, she lost interest in the game.
But Bobby became obsessed by it and now, at the age of 15, is not only junior champion of the United States, but the youngest international chess grand master in the world.
His victory at Portoroz, Yugoslavia, recently, qualifies him to be cone of the six who will compete against one another to play the world champion — Mikhail Botvinnik, of Russia — in 1960.
But already Bobby is regarded by leading chess critics as a genius.
“His is the sort of talent which is rarely, if ever, repeated,” said the president of the Manhattan Chess Club, where Bobby often plays.
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TO maintain his talent Bobby concentrates all his interests and energies on chess.
Although “good average” at school, he does not care for lessons; the only literature he ever reads from choice are books of his favorite game.
Outdoor sport, once his chief interest, now takes a poor second place.
And his circle of friends has dwindled since he now has little in common with boys who do not share his enthusiasm for the game.
Bobby's exceptional ability was brought to light when his mother, anxious to keep his mind occupied, advertised in a local newspaper for some child to play chess with him.
A chess critic saw the advertisement and suggested that the boy should enter a chess exhibition at Brooklyn public library, where a well-known chess player was taking on all-comers.
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RELUCTANTLY the expert took on seven-year-old Bobby — who surprised everyone by lasting 15 minutes.
Soon Bobby started entering for competitions, and at 13 became the U.S. junior champion.
Now he belongs to one of the most exclusive circles in the world, since there are only about 40 international grand masters still playing chess.
He is the extraordinary of a typically ordinary family. Joan has become a nurse like her mother, and the three of them still live modestly in Brooklyn.
Mrs. Fischer is immensely proud of her son.
“But,” she says, with genuine feeling, “I often wish he had stuck to baseball. He used to get so much more fun out of it.”
