First Moves / Chess news from around the U.S. Tennis with Bobby Fischer
Many of our top players play tennis to keep in shape or just for fun during their downtime, as did Bobby Fischer. On occasion, it is interesting to see how non-chess players view our world, as in a short chapter from this book that recently crossed our desk.
The following is a chapter excerpt from the book THE WIMBLEDON FINAL THAT NEVER WAS by Sidney Wood ($15.95, New Chapter Press,
www.NewChapterMedia.com) that tells an interesting tale of chess master Bobby Fischer and his tennis encounter with Wood, the charismatic 1931 Wimbledon champion.
FOR THOSE WHO MAY RECALL and have wondered about the unfathomable antics of the super-cerebral Bobby Fischer, king of kings of the chessboard, my experience of an afternoon with Bobby should be either enlightening or further puzzling. As an average “patzer” chess player
(the term is familiar to other patzers), I was a consumer of The New York Times chess column, written by my friend the late Al Horowitz, a former national champion. A week prior to Fischer’s 1972 trip to Iceland for his world championship match with Russia’s Boris Spassky, Al phoned me to
ask if, of all things, I would play some tennis with Bobby. Of course I said yes. The next day, all in whites, Bobby came by my hobby-born, rooftop Town
Tennis Club on Sutton Place with Rosser Reeves, a generous contributor to chess causes and the 1966 retired head of the big-three Ted Bates ad agency. Also accompanying Bobby was a medium-young, medium blond lady whose name failed to register, perhaps because Bobby kept asking her to tell it to him again; indications were that Bobby did not live by chess alone. I had heard that Bobby rarely ventured more than an arm’s length from a chessboard, and to my surprise, he hit the tennis ball vehemently and with good coordination. He was only mildly overweight and not at all tired from the workout. When I asked him what he would like to drink he asked for an orange juice, milk and a beer—all at the same time. We sat around for awhile and I cautiously volunteered the idea that Bobby might want to meet Mark McCor- mack, with whom I had put together a 600-outlet Arnold Palmer Cleaning Center franchise. I had been warned that Bobby was suspicious of everybody except his
mother, and my overture was proffered in low key. Even so, though a break- fast meeting was set up with Mark who flew in from Cleveland, Bobby could not bring himself to attend. The Fischer-Spassky match was receiving tremendous front page publicity
because it had become blown up as a contest between U.S. brainpower and Rus- sia’s. The championship was to be decided by the first winner of 12 of the 23 game points won (one point for a win, a half point for a draw). When I pointed out to Bobby that he would easily be the most famous person in the world for 23 days, he tilted his head a little and with a pixie-like grin asked me how did I know it wouldn’t be 12 days—as many as it would take for him to win with- out losing or drawing a game! On the basis of that afternoon’s enjoyable association, there was no hint of the unpredictable side to Bobby’s makeup, and I would have rated him as self-assured but not abrasively so, engagingly friendly, humorous and as well-adjusted as his stratospheric IQ would permit.
Note: this anecdote is the only chess item in this book. Write to
faces@uschess.org to be considered for inclusion in this column.
FACES ACROSS THE BOARD
By AL LAWRENCE
JON WHITFILL TEXAS
Internationally recognized artist
Jon is a physics and chem-
istry teacher. He’s also an artist. “These positions are not mutually exclusive,” he laughs. For proof go to
www.jonathanwhitfill.com. As an artist, Jon has a long list of awards and exhibitions, including a public TV special on his unique work. The founder of Estacado High School chess club, he awards chess-letter jackets and has developed chess into a credit-earning course. “My passion for the game and discipline to improve is what I hope to impart to my team.”
WARREN PORTER
MISSISSIPPI
The Forrest Gump of Chess
Chess to Warren has been a box of chocolates without an expiration date. He learned at five, but, in the 1960s, “my game improved tremendously while I was at LSU with Jude Acers.” Porter was one of the first to write to Chess Life about switching to algebraic notation and got a firestorm of response. He played in the 13th annual Armed Forces Cham- pionship. A long-serving state official, “I had to be a TD by necessity.” Interestingly, his wife was Bobby Fischer’s dental assistant “when he had his metal fillings removed so ‘they’ couldn't track him.”
JEFF ROLAND IDAHO
Chess Journalists of America vice president
Jeff is president of the Idaho
Chess Association, webmaster of
www.idahoches-
sassociation.org, editor of Northwest Chessmagazine, and now the newly appointed vice president of Chess Journalists of America. “CJA can become a training ground for young chess journalists,” he said. Roland remains a very active organizer and tournament di- rector. “I’ve been both playing locally and traveling more than ever before in my life ... What interests me most about chess is meeting people. Each game is kind of an adventure we share together.”
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