Courier-Post, Camden, New Jersey, Thursday, July 24, 1958
Rochester, Minn., will be the site of the annual U.S. Open Championship, which will run from Aug. 4 to 16.
Bobby Fischer, now in Europe, will not be on hand to defend the title he won last year but a strong field will be entered. First prize is $1000 and prize money will total $3250.
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Fischer arrived in Yugoslavia on July 9 to prepare for the interzonal tournament starting there Aug. 4. He flew to Moscow June 25 in advance of the date Soviet officials expected him to arrive. Because of that fact there was no welcoming party to meet him, though a car was rushed out to the airport to pick him up after the Moscow Sports Committee heard he had landed.
During his stay in Russia on a two-week visa, Bobby did little but play chess, playing as many as 30 games in a morning. “We have to throw him out every afternoon,” said one official. “We don't know what to do with him. But he's a wonderful boy.”
Bobby was reported winning about 60 percent of his games and was meeting some of Moscow's best players, though not the very first-flighters and not in overly serious matches.
Incidentally, Bobby is paid a high tribute by Reuben Fine in the latter's newest book, “Lessons From My Games.” The veteran grand master writes, “He is the strongest 14-year-old in all chess history, better than Morphy, Capablanca, or Reshevsky at that age. He may well be a future world champion.”