AThe Times Shreveport, Louisiana Thursday, September 10, 1992 - Page 8
Bobby Fischer Trails 2-1, Spassky Makes Most of Opponent's Errors
Sveti Stefan, Yugoslavia (AP) — Bobby Fischer on Wednesday lost the second consecutive game of his comeback chess series with Boris Spassky, who took a 2-1 lead in their $5 million match.
Fischer resigned five hours into the game, after Spassky's 45th move. Holding the advantage in the middle of the game, Fischer made some mistakes that allowed Spassky to take the offensive.
“I made a couple of oversights and missed a couple of things,” he said, referring to Spassky's 25th move, which broke the pattern of Fischer's attack by forcing an exchange of bishops.
The loss sets up another possible comeback scenario for Fischer, 49, who returned to chess competition after 20 years in virtual seclusion. In their 1972 match, Fischer was behind 2-0, but came back to defeat Spassky to become America's first and only world chess champion.
The first player to score 10 victories wins the match. The next game is today.
The defeat was all the more galling for Fischer because he was playing white, which theoretically gave him an advantage because he got the first move.
“When you're losing with white, you know there's something wrong,” said Yugoslav grandmaster Stefan Djuric.
Fischer, who still claims to be world champion and has demanded the rematch be considered a world championship event, used the Ruy Lopez, or Spanish opening.
He used the same opening in his victory in the first game of the series on Sept. 2. The first 15 moves today were identical to that game.
“Essentially, Bobby became a victim in a very unnatural way,” said American grandmaster Yasser Seirawan after the game. “He played strong, logical moves and ended up in bad position. He was playing very clear, good moves, but his opponent played better.”
Only about 20 spectators and a much-reduced press corps watched Tuesday's game. The winner of the series will get $3.35 million, and the loser received $1.65 million.
Chess experts have speculated the match could stretch into weeks or even months. The second and third games were draws and did not count in the scoring. Spassky, a Russian-born French citizen, won his first game on Sunday.
The contest is being played in defiance of international sanctions against Yugoslavia, now comprising only of Serbia and Montenegro, for its role in the war in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina.
