First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on September 3, 1972
Chess crown to Fischer
By Gary Koshnitsky “The Sun-Herald” Chess Editor
THE HISTORIC match is over and the chess crown has crossed the Atlantic.
Spassky and Fischer battle it out.Credit:Chester Fox
The score, Robert Fischer – (USA) 7 wins Boris Spassky (USSR) 3 wins (one of them on forfeit) and 11 draws is impressive and no one could possibly dispute that the best player won.
The match was the most exciting and the best publicised contest in the history of the game, and not only chess enthusiasts but literally the whole world has followed its progress for eight weeks.
As far as Australia is concerned, the match made headlines two months earlier when our bid of $250,000 to stage it was announced.
From then on the match was continuously in the news because of the wrangling about the venue and later the confrontation between Fischer and the organisers which made a perfect publicity build up for the match itself.
After 0-2 start Fischer piled up a commanding lead of six wins to one loss from the next 11 games of which only four were drawn.
The following seven games were all drawn with Spassky on the defensive in most and Fischer content to coast along on half points.
