Even in the 20th century, the United States had had several elite players, such as Frank Marshall, Isaac Kashdan, Reuben Fine, and of course Samuel Reshevsky.
Both Reshevsky and Fischer had many a titanic bout, including their famous match in 1961
But none of them had ever captured the public imagination like the young outspoken prodigy Bobby Fischer, and as a result he was the subject or articles and interviews in popular mainstream media such as Harper Magazine, the Saturday Evening Post, and even Sports Illustrated, arguably the most popular sports magazine in the world at the time.
It was therefore no big surprise to see an article in the Sports Illustrated edition of August 20, 1962 on Bobby Fischer, but this wasn't about him, it was by him. It is a testament to his celebrity status and star power that they gave him leeway to publish this massive attack with the very blunt title: "The Russian have fixed World Chess"
The multi-page denunciation by Bobby Fischer was scathing in its content. In it he explained that in the Candidates tournament held in Curacao in 1962, the Russians had colluded amongst themselves in such a way as to ensure that a Russian would always come out as the challenger and as a result, the title would never leave Soviet hands. To understand how such an accusation could even be feasible, you need to understand how the world championship was structured at the time.
In 1962, the final stage of the World Championship to decide the next challenger to the title was a massive Candidates tournament, similar to today, but with a few differences, The tournament had no restrictions on the number of players from any one nation, and as a result this eight-player competition had no fewer than five Soviet players. However, unlike today, each player was to face every other player no fewer than four times, for a staggering 28 rounds in all.
With four rounds played a week, and two adjournments, it meant a grueling seven weeks of almost non-stop competition. Three of the top players, Petrosian, Geller, and Keres, had an obvious agreement to play quick draws amongst themselves to save their energy and efforts for their foreign rivals. Korchnoi was the odd man out, and Tal was spared of such as he fell ill and was hospitalized for the kidney problems that would plague him throughout his life.
As an aside, of all the players in the competition, only one ever took the time to visit Tal in the Hospital: Bobby Fischer, who was to be a rival and friend of the Magician from Riga to the end of their days.
This unsportsmanlike concerted effort was not enough, and Fischer wrote, “If I was playing a Russian opponent, the other Russians watched my games, and commented on my moves in my hearing. Then they ridiculed my protests to officials. They worked as a team.”
Snapshot of the article
Would Bobby Fischer have won it in the absence of this collusion? Grandmaster Larry Evans, years later, didn’t think so and said, "The fact of the matter is that in '62 at Curaçao Bobby just wasn't good enough yet."
However, it bears mentioning that Fischer’s decrying did not fall on deaf ears, and the world championship was restructured to prevent such things repeating themselves.
It wasn’t until 2006, over 40 years later, that another World Championship would seriously fall under the pall of a cheating accusation.
Continued in Part 2
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