The Birmingham Post, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, Thursday, March 26, 1959
15-year-old Schoolboy in Dungarees is U.S. Chess Phenomenon
A gangling 15-year-old Brooklyn high school boy, who has been startling international chess circles for some time, is beginning to arouse grudging admiration and interest in many non-players who are normally apathetic towards the game.
The boy, Bobby Fischer, turned up at the Manhattan Chess Club in dungarees and tee-shirt recently to defend successfully his title as the United States Chess Champion. He was the only player who went through the tournament undefeated, Reuter reports.
Bobby, the winner also of the United States Open Chess Tournament and the United States Junior Championship, has been taking on all comers since he walked into the Manhattan Chess Club when he was 12 and astonished veteran players with phenomenal ability at “rapid transit.”
Rapid transit is the game in which a player is given only ten seconds in which to make a move.
'Mozart of Chess'
An international grand master in chess since last year, Bobby is already casting his eyes at the World Chess Championship. Chess masters who have seen his play believe that he will walk away with it if he continues playing as he has for the last couple of years.
Chess critics, normally filled with scepticism, can find no words to describe Bobby. “The Mozart of chess,” they call him, or “miracle boy” and “the greatest natural genius the game has ever known.”
“Never before in all chess history has there been such a phenomenon,” says Dr. Hans Kmoch, once a renowned player himself, who is secretary of the Manhattan Chess Club.
No Plans for Future
“My sister showed me the moves when I was six, but I didn't play until I was nine,” Bobby says. “I became interested and walked into the Brooklyn Chess Club. I just decided to see a club. After a while, I just beat them every time I played them—all of a sudden.”
Unable to find strong enough opposition there, Bobby left the Brooklyn Chess Club, and wandered into the elite Manhattan club.
Bobby has no plans yet for his future. “If I had a lot of money I should like to play in chess tournaments,” he said, “but you cannot make a living at chess.”
Asked what he thought made a good chess player, Bobby answered: “Practice, study, talent.”
Few Friends
Bobby, a well-built youngster standing 5ft. 10in., has few friends of his own age. Outside chess publications, he seldom reads and unlike most boys of his age, has little interest in films or television. Nor has he much interest in girls.
“Girls,” he says loftily, “cannot play. They have not enough patience.”
He has received invitations to chess tournaments from all parts of the world, including England. But most of all he wants to go to Jugoslavia, for from there lies the road to the World Championship.
Reminded that in Jugoslavia he would meet the best players from the four leading chess nations—the Soviet Union, Jugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Argentina—in any qualifying tournament for the World Championship, Bobby shrugged and said: “Of course, they are good, too.”
