Sport: Sputtering Start

• Share

After a week of petulant demands and infuriating delays, U.S. Grand Master Bobby Fischer, 29, finally showed up in Reykjavik, Iceland, for his best-of-24-game match with World Champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union (TIME, July 17). But he was still bellyaching. He griped about the lights and the chessboard at Reykjavik's Sports Hall, and he ordered his own $500 swivel chair to be air-freighted from the U.S. Even after the start of the first game —for which he arrived seven minutes late—he staged a 35-minute walkout because, he said, he was distracted by an almost invisible camera 150 ft. away.

In the end, Fischer's juvenile act was a better show than the game itself. On the 29th move, Fischer took one of Spassky's pawns—but it was a "poison pawn," since its capture led to the loss of one of Fischer's bishops. The audience gasped, and even the normally impassive Spassky looked incredulous. By common agreement, Fischer's move was one of the most inexplicable lapses in the history of grand-master chess. "A beginner's blunder," said one Fischer admirer—and 27 moves later, it cost Fischer the game.

The next day Fischer refused to show up at the Sports Hall and forfeited the second game. After that, he threatened to boycott the rest of the match unless all cameras were removed, although he had agreed to the cameras beforehand—and, like Spassky, was set to receive 30% of the sale of film and TV rights. He later relented on that score, but continued to insist on another chance to play the second game, a demand chess officials refused to grant. Given Bobby's stubbornness and short-fused temper, not even the experts could predict the next move.