Author: Mihaly Szalai
Date: 07:35:27 08/11/04
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On August 11, 2004 at 10:03:57, Mark R. Anderson wrote: >On August 10, 2004 at 20:22:00, Steve B wrote: > >> >>>Spassky to Bush: Arrest me! >>hi Danny >>interesting post >>Spassky of course owes his very livelihood to Fischer,who in 1992 pulled Spassky >>out of obsurity to share the 3 million dollar prize fund in Yugoslavia >>Spassky was rated 99th in the world at that time >> >>Best >>Steve > >Spassky, as a former World Champion (1969-1972) was hardly in "obscurity," >although it is correct that he was ranked about 100th at the time of the 2nd >Fischer match .... mostly I think from the fact that he had not really worked at >chess for years and had lost the "eye of the tiger" years before and willingly >gave draws to lesser players. Spassky has huge natural talent for the game (as >many GMs have pointed out), but his weakness, as Spassky has willingly admitted, >is that he is "lazy" (I quote him) and has never liked working at the game, >which of course you need to do to be at a high level. > >I don't think Spassky's appeal to Bush was motivated by the crass money factor >you mention. If any of you have ever met Mr. Spassky, you then know that he is >a very, very nice person and a real gentleman. He admired Fischer's "pureness" >and obvious genius and work ethic, but was always very aware of Fischer's >personality problems, which later grew to outright mental problems. As a >gentleman, I think that Spassky feels great compassion for Fischer. If Boris >made some good bucks from the 1992 rematch, then I say good for him. I can >understand how me must feel that it's strange that he returned home to France to >smiles and pats on the back, and Fischer got served with an arrest warrant. >However, I'm not defending Fischer, just pointing out how odd that must have >seemed to Spassky. Boris is showing the same sort of compassion that you might >to a deranged person in a mental hospital ... unfortunately, an apt comparison >in Fischer's case. > >Mark Agreed. Spassky has always been a fine gentleman (even as a Soviet citizen). We know the names of every world chess champion by heart so obscurity is a kind of insult here. Mihaly
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