APittsburgh Sun-Telegraph Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Saturday, November 01, 1958
The Chess Olympics Reveal How Russians Dominate
Final scorings in the recent Chess Olympics show how far the Russians are in front. Their team had 25 wins, 19 draws, no losses. Of the 12 contestants, the Americans were fourth with 12 wins, eight losses and 24 draws.
It is no news to Sun-Telegraph chess fans that the arts and sciences in Russia are entirely dominated by the ruling oligarchy. In team play or individual encounter its importance to other nations is not too great.
Very important however is government interference in next year's Challengers Round to find an opponent for World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik. The tournament was devised to match the world's best, man-for-man in a round-robin, the winner to truly represent the strongest possible challenger.
But as it works out, four of the eight contestants will be Russian and it would be a very credulous chess fan indeed to presume that, when Russian opposes Russian, fair play would be permitted by the commissar of sports and culture if a vital point were at stake.
What chance will American entry, International Grand Master Robert Fischer have when the Soviet manipulators have three points advantage to assign to any one of their four players.
The Federation International des Echecs should accommodate immediately the rules to anticipate fraud by denying unequal national representation or by negating scores between players of the same country.
