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The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California, Sunday, September 27, 1959
WHOEVER wins the World Series imagine for a moment that the Russians sent a baseball team over here — and beat our team! The psychological and propaganda victory would be no greater for them than it would be for us if America's “secret weapon” scores in a current battle of wits. He is Bobby Fischer a New York lad only 16 years old who is competing with the top chess masters of the world in a European tourney to pick a challenger for the Russian world champion Mikhail Botvinnik. And the fact is chess is as much Russia's national game as baseball is ours. If young Fischer wins the right to play Botvinnik for the world title — and then beats him — crepe would hang in Moscow. It could be the turning point in the war of nerves. Russia would never be the same. Bobby is trailing in the early rounds but there's still a chance. The point of all this is that you might even consider it a patriotic duty to take advantage of some chess lessons being offered by the city recreation department and the Capital City Chess Club. They're held in the Clunie Clubhouse at 8 PM on alternate Wednesdays. The next session will be on October 7th. The instructor is William Rogers, the city champ. You're never too old or too young to learn the royal and ancient game. And who knows — we might turn up a future world champion, beat the Soviets at their own game.
