This is gold dust. James Burke interviews Bobby Fischer on the eve of his 1972 world championship match against Boris Spassky.
Despite the intermittent attempts to paint Fischer as an obsessed eccentric, he comes over as intelligent and personable. And of course he spent a lot of his time studying chess: it was his profession. Do we think top golfers are eccentric because they spend their time practising golf?
Fischer's confidence turned out to be justified, yet before this match he had never beaten Spassky. They had met four times, with two of the games being won by Spassky and two ending in draws.
The games were reported on the BBC news, with adjourned positions shown, and it spurred me to learn how to play.
ReplyDelete