Brooklyn Daily Brooklyn, New York Wednesday, June 25, 1958
Unadjusted Impressions by Maurice Paul
Brooklyn has decided to bring this Cold War down to Luke Warm. We're sending our own Ambassador of Good Will to the Reds. If this envoy from Brooklyn can't do it, start digging that bomb shelter!
Our Secretary of State has tried talking to the boys in the Kremlin. The Secretary of the UN has tried to talk turkey. They don't seem to have gotten very far with the Moscow Mob. So now we're sending over a young man who talks their language. We know he does, because the Reds have specifically invited him to Moscow.
It's Brooklyn's own Bobby Fischer, the 15-year-old chess whiz.
Bobby finished his Regents examination at Erasmus High School last week and took off immediately after with his older sister, Joan, via air for Brussels, Belgium. The Sabena airplane flew him there so he could take a look at the Fair and let the Fair have a look at him.
Today, he is in Moscow where he will engage in practice games with Russian grandmasters of the ancient and muchly-admired game of chess. Bobby and his Russian sparring partners will be preparing for the forthcoming International Chess Tournament which is to be held in the Adriatic seacoast resort of Portoroz, Yugoslavia, from August 5 to September 15.
After that major chess event, Bobby will go off on a further goodwill tour sponsored by our State Department. He has also been asked to participate in the Chess Olympics to be held at Munich, Germany, from September 30 to October 23. However, Bobby has decided to pass up that opportunity. He wants to be back at good old Erasmus High when it starts classes again in early September.
The Russians are pretty excited about the youngster from Brooklyn. They are providing full hospitality for him and his sister during their stay in Russia. The Yugoslavs, too, are providing full room and board for six weeks. Prague, Czechoslovakia, also has put in a bid for Bobby's time.
Right now, the champion chess player of the world is a Russian, Mikhail M. Botvinnik. If Bobby can take his competition, he should get a chance to meet the Red champ in a matched playoff.
Hats off to a terrific youngster, Brooklyn's own Bobby Fischer!
