Today's encore selection -- from The 48 Laws of Power
by Robert Greene. The Soviet Union's masterful Boris Spassky versus
America's unpredictable Bobby Fischer was the greatest chess match of
all time. At the time, it was a proxy for the cold war between the U.S.
and Russia -- fought without nuclear weapons. It was Ali versus Frazier,
the Yankees versus the Red Sox, and the Superbowl all rolled into one.
Spassky was the reigning champion and the USSR was dominant in chess:
"In
May of 1972, chess champion Boris Spassky anxiously awaited his rival
Bobby Fischer in Reykjavik, Iceland. The two men had been scheduled to
meet for the World Championship of Chess, but Fischer had not arrived on
time and the match was on hold. Fischer had problems with the size of
the prize money, problems with the way the money was to be distributed,
problems with the logistics of holding the match in Iceland. He might
back out at any moment.
"Spassky
tried to be patient. His Russian bosses felt that Fischer was
humiliating him and told him to walk away, but Spassky wanted this
match. He knew he could destroy
Fischer, and nothing was going to spoil
the greatest victory of his career. ...
"Fischer
finally arrived in Reykjavik, but the problems, and the threat of
cancellation, continued. He disliked the hall where the match was to be
fought, he criticized the lighting, he complained about the noise of the
cameras, he even hated the chairs in which he and Spassky were to sit.
Now the Soviet Union took the initiative and threatened to withdraw
their man.
"The
bluff apparently worked: After all the weeks of waiting, the endless
and infuriating negotiations, Fischer agreed to play. Everyone was
relieved, no one more than Spassky. But on the day of the official
introductions, Fischer arrived very late, and on the day when the 'Match
of the Century' was to begin, he was late again. This time, however,
the consequences would be dire: If he showed up too late he
would forfeit the first game. What was going on? Was he playing some
sort of mind game? Or was Bobby Fischer perhaps afraid of Boris Spassky?
It seemed to the assembled grand masters, and to Spassky, that this
young kid from Brooklyn had a terrible case of the jitters. At 5:09
Fischer showed up, exactly one minute before the match was to be
canceled.
"The
first game of a chess tournament is critical, since it sets the tone
for the months to come. It is often a slow and quiet struggle, with the
two players preparing themselves for the war and trying to read each
other's strategies. This game was different. Fischer made a terrible
move early on, perhaps the worst of his career, and when Spassky had him
on the ropes, he seemed to give up. Yet Spassky knew that Fischer never gave
up. Even when facing checkmate, he fought to the bitter end, wearing
the opponent down. This time, though, he seemed resigned. Then suddenly
he broke out a bold move that put the room in a buzz. The move shocked
Spassky, but he recovered and managed to win the game. But no one could
figure out what Fischer was up to. Had he lost deliberately? Or was he
rattled? Unsettled? Even, as some thought, insane?
"After his defeat in the
first game, Fischer complained all the more loudly about the room, the
cameras, and everything else. He also failed to show up on time for the
second game. This time the organizers had had enough: He was given a
forfeit. Now he was down two games to none, a position from which no one
had ever come back to win a chess championship. Fischer was clearly
unhinged. Yet in the third game, as all those who witnessed it remember,
he had a ferocious look in his eye, a look that clearly bothered
Spassky. And despite the hole he had dug for himself, he seemed
supremely confident. He did make what appeared to be another blunder, as
he had in the first game -- but his cocky air made Spassky smell a
trap. Yet despite the Russian's suspicions, he could not figure out the
trap, and before he knew it Fischer had checkmated him. In fact
Fischer's unorthodox tactics had completely unnerved his opponent. At
the end of the game, Fischer leaped up and rushed out, yelling to his
confederates as he smashed a fist into his palm, 'I'm crushing him with
brute force!'
 |
|
Bobby Fischer (right) plays Boris Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972.
|
"In the next games Fischer
pulled moves that no one had seen from him before, moves that were not
his style. Now Spassky started to make blunders. After losing the sixth
game, he started to cry. One grand master said, 'After this, Spassky's
got to ask himself if it's safe to go back to Russia.' After the eighth
game Spassky decided he knew what was happening: Bobby Fischer was
hypnotizing him. He decided not to look Fischer in the eye; he lost
anyway.
"After the fourteenth game
he called a staff conference and announced, 'An attempt is being made to
control my mind.' He wondered whether the orange juice they drank at
the chess table could have been drugged. Maybe chemicals were being
blown into the air. Finally Spassky went public, accusing the Fischer
team of putting something in the chairs that was altering Spassky's
mind. The KGB went on alert: Boris Spassky was embarrassing the Soviet
Union!
"The
chairs were taken apart and X-rayed. A chemist found nothing unusual in
them. The only things anyone found anywhere, in fact, were two dead
flies in a lighting fixture. Spassky began to complain of
hallucinations. He tried to keep playing, but his mind was unraveling.
He could not go on. On September 2, he resigned. Although still
relatively young, he never recovered from this defeat."
The 48 Laws of Power
Author: Robert Greene
Publisher: Penguin Books
Copyright 1998 by Joost Elffers and Robert Greene
Pages 124-125
No comments:
Post a Comment