The Times, Shreveport, Louisiana, Sunday, June 29, 1958
Arrives Too Early
Young American Chess Whiz Hits Moscow Snag
Moscow, June 28 (AP)—Bobby Fischer, 15-year-old whiz kid of American chess, has had little trouble with the complicated maneuvering at Moscow's Central Chess Club but he has become ensnarled in some of the Reds' red tape.
Bobby is the Brooklyn schoolboy who won the U.S. chess championship, then won passage to Europe on a TV program. And he hasn't done anything but play chess since he got here last Wednesday. Only trouble is Bobby wasn't due to show up until July 20, two weeks prior to his scheduled appearance in the opening interzonal chess championships in Yugoslavia Aug. 5-15.
The Russians footed the bill for the Moscow portion of the trip and made provisions for Bobby's two-week visa. But the kid, more interested in the inside of the usually hushed and solemn chess club than in seeing the sights, blew into town more than a month ahead of time.
VISA PROBLEM
Bobby wants to stay around until tournament time, but one Soviet official said this presents a very complicated problem, although Bobby is certainly welcome. The official explained gravely that it may be difficult to get the extension of Bobby's visa.
Meanwhile, as the chess club directors hold daily meetings aimed at unraveling the legal problem, Bobby keeps showing up daily to play chess, knocking off 30 games in three or four hours every morning before the officials turn him out to get some sunshine in the afternoons.
One official threw his hands up in the air today, saying “We have to throw him out every afternoon. We don't know what to do with him. But he's a wonderful boy.”
Bobby said, “I like to play, I want to play against the best they have got. Their style gets me. That is why I came here.”
Bobby said he'll take on anybody and complained that all his games so far have been quickies.
Club officials said Bobby has been winning about 60 per cent of his games, but they emphasized that the games have been completely informal with no time limit and no thought behind them.
Bobby has lined up a friendly but relatively serious match with Tigran Petrosyan, a Soviet grandmaster for Monday afternoon, but as for meeting world champ Mikhail Botvinnik or former champ Vassily Smyslov, Bobby said, “You got to go through channels with these championship class players.”
