1972 Wasn’t A Golden Age?
From July through September 1972, the brightest star in the history of American chess shone brilliantly. It was the Summer of Bobby and for the first time since 1948 the hegemony of the Soviet Union in world chess was not only threatened, but ultimately shattered as Robert James Fischer wrested the crown of the chess world out of the maw of the Russian bear that seemingly claimed it as a birthright.
The 10 or so years that followed were known as the Fischer boom—chess was everywhere. Suddenly it was cool to play chess. No longer just a pastime, chess was now a way to beat the Russians at their own game within the context of the Cold War. Patriotism ruled.
On the surface, the Fischer boom seems indicative of being a golden age in and of itself. Yet upon deeper examination the concept winds up falling short. While it was certainly the pinnacle of success by any American since Paul Morphy, it stands as a singularity rather than as a thread within a larger tapestry. Much like Morphy before him, Fischer walked alone into the pages of chess history.
No other top-level American players developed along with Fischer. The only one who perhaps could have was William Lombardy, but he chose to do battle for souls rather than over the board, joining the priesthood just as he was entering his prime playing years. In the ensuing generation only Yasser Seirawan and Larry Christiansen even approached the world elite.
There are any number of possible explanations for why this occurred the way it did, but the most likely seems to be the disappearance of Bobby. Perhaps heeding the words of musician Neil Young, he chose to burn out rather than fade away, and spent the next 20 years as essentially nothing more than a rumor. Whispers of his whereabouts would surface from time to time, but the man himself rarely did, and never for longer than for his fans to get a fleeting glimpse.
Had Bobby continued to play it is very possible that the Fischer boom would have had a longer shelf life. It could have produced many top-level talents who in turn would have inspired the next generation, much the same as Botvinnik’s lengthy reign spawned practically the whole of Soviet chess from himself through the eras of Mikhail Tal, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, and Vladimir Kramnik. Instead, he walked away, leaving a generation rudderless in his wake.
Then in 1992 he did reemerge, and the impact on chess here at home was startling. What could have been a joyous rebirth instead quickly morphed into a waking nightmare as we saw the exposed and shattered remnants of his sanity.
Just over nine years later, on September 11th, 2001 Bobby went on the air in a phone interview with a Philippine radio station and erased the last trace of the glory that had come before, permanently and irrevocably closing the door on his former greatness. ~CW
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PHOTO: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
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