Sport: Spassky in Transit

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The 41 players who filed into Chess City's smoke-filled second-floor loft on Manhattan's Upper West Side last week ranged in age from six to 50. With the persistent chutzpah of the true chess buff, each one figured he was the equal of a grand master; and each one plunked down $25 for the right to trade gambits with Boris Spassky, the former world champion. The simultaneous matches quickly turned into a boisterous chess happening. Six-year-old Robert le Donne bounced in toting his schoolbag; another player brought along a sustaining bottle of borsch; a third steadfastly refused repeated offers of $50 to relinquish his board. Spectators standing on chairs and stepladders strained for a better view of the action.

Spassky did not disappoint them. He entered to enthusiastic applause, then set to work with a standard PK4 opening. Just eight moves and 20 minutes later, he claimed his first victim, Gordon Thompson, 26. "I made a terrible boner," said Thompson. "I had hoped to last at least ten moves."

One Win. Striding purposefully from board to board, Spassky occasionally paused to survey troublesome tactical positions. There were few. One by one, the opponents tipped over their kings to acknowledge surrender. "It's like Off-Track Betting," said Charles Hidalgo, one of the victims. "There are few smiling faces when people leave OTB, and there are going to be even fewer smiling faces leaving here. There will be, maybe, one win."

He was right. Only one challenger had earned a victory (Spassky won 32 games and granted eight draws) when the marathon drew to a close after almost five hours. Charles Madigan, 21, an intense college dropout, forced Spassky to concede after 51 moves. Then, in a statement that sounded like Bobby Fischer at his brashest, Madigan said: "I didn't play very well."

Spassky was not talking. He pocketed about $ 1,000 for his evening's work and departed for a friend's apartment. His recent victory over U.S. Contender Robert Byrne in the quarter-final round of the world championship tournament to choose Fischer's next opponent was a reminder that he had bigger games and bigger paydays on his mind.