APensacola News Journal, Pensacola, Florida, Friday, April 11, 1958
U.S. Can't Send Chess Entrants
New York (AP)—Russia is expected to have at least six chess players trying to qualify for a shot at the world championship in the interzonal tournament next summer. The United States may have none—because there isn't any money to send two qualified players to Yugoslavia.
A world championship match currently is being played in Moscow between titleholder Vasily Smyslov and challenger Mikhail Botvinnik, a former champion.
It's progress is eagerly followed by Russian chess players and others around the world, estimated to number in the millions.
Chess is virtually a national game in Russia. American players, counted only in thousands, are by comparison a mere handful.
Two Americans are eligible to compete in the interzonal matches at Portoroz, Yugoslavia, Aug. 5 to Sept. 15. They are Bobby Fischer, a 15-year-old wonder kid of chess from Brooklyn, and the 46-year-old, Polish-born veteran Samuel Reshevsky.
Whether they'll be able to go is another question. Spokesman at the Marshall Chess Club, where Bobby won the U.S. Open and closed championships this year, explained:
“The United States Federation is supposed to pay their transportation. Once they get over there, their living expenses will be paid. But the federation hardly had enough money to hold the championships here. It doesn't look as if they'll get enough to send them.”
The interzonal tournament is the second stage in a three-year cycle leading up to a world championship match. The first is qualifying competition in the various zones into which the international federation divides the chess world.
Doubtful If U.S. Chess Champs Will Compete In World Tourney 30 Mar 1958, Sun Evansville Press (Evansville, Indiana) Newspapers.com
U.S. Can't Send Chess Entrants
New York (AP)—Russia is expected to have at least six chess players trying to qualify for a shot at the world championship in the interzonal tournament next summer. The United States may have none—because there isn't any money to send two qualified players to Yugoslavia.
A world championship match currently is being played in Moscow between titleholder Vasily Smyslov and challenger Mikhail Botvinnik, a former champion. It's progress is eagerly followed by Russian chess players and others around the world, estimated to number in the millions.
One point is awarded for winning a game and one half for a draw. The first player to score 12½ points wins the title and if the 24-game match game is played out on even terms the titleholder retains his championship.
National Game
Chess is virtually a national game in Russia. American players, counted only in thousands, are by comparison a mere handful.
Two Americans are eligible to compete in the interzonal matches at Portoroz, Yugoslavia, Aug. 5 to Sept. 15. They are Bobby Fischer, a 15-year-old wonder kid of chess from Brooklyn, and the 46-year-old, Polish-born veteran Samuel Reshevsky.
Whether they'll be able to go is another question. Spokesman at the Marshall Chess Club, where Bobby won the U.S. Open and closed championships this year, explained:
“The United States Federation is supposed to pay their transportation. Once they get over there, their living expenses will be paid. But the federation hardly had enough money to hold the championships here. It doesn't look as if they'll get enough to send them.”
Second Stage
The interzonal tournament is the second stage in a three-year cycle leading up to a world championship match. The first is qualifying competition in the various zones into which the international federation divides the chess world.
“The interzonal tournament is like the semifinals,” said Kenneth Harkness of the U.S. chess federation. “The top seven players in it, I think, qualify for the candidates tournament next year. The winner of that is entitled to challenge the world champion.”
Grand Master
About 20 of the 30 or so players who have won the international title of Grand Master are Russians. The five already eligible for places in the Portoroz tournament hold that title. The sixth Russian place will go to the loser of the current world title match.
Reshevsky also is a Grand Master. Young Fischer, a gangling 10th grade student at Brooklyn's Erasmus Hall High School, was rewarded for his amazing victories in the U.S. tournament with the title of international Master of Chess.
Bobby, who hates to lose a chess game and who is regarded as probably the most remarkable young player ever developed in America, commented:
“They shoulda made me a Grand Master.”
