July 29 1972
The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky, Saturday, July 29, 1972
Dr. Eliot Hearst, professor of psychology at Indiana University, Bloomington, and a U.S. senior master in chess, has praise for Bobby Fischer's efforts to improve chess tournament conditions.
Good for Chess
IU psychologist credits Fischer with improving the lot of players.
Associated Press-Bloomington, Ind.—The captain of an Olympic chess team that included Bobby Fischer says while some chess masters would disagree with Fischer's tactics, he has improved the lot of chess players considerably. “To understand Bobby's sometimes roughshod tactics, you have to understand him,” said Dr. Eliot Hearst, captain of the 1962 U.S. Olympic chess team. Hearst, a U.S. senior master, is a psychology professor at Indiana University.
“He's a very private, retiring individual. He's lived alone since he was about 15. He's been without the influence of any other person. He's self-made. All his abilities at chess he owes to his own hard work and study,” Hearst said.
“He's not a humorless, sullen person as some observers described him. He is deadly serious about chess, however, and is very stubborn.”
While Fisher's late arrivals for games have drawn attention, Hearst said he is certain they are not “due to a desire to show any disrespect for world champion Boris Spassky. Bobby is so shy that he'll sneak in late just to avoid the usual pregame amenities and small talk.
“Fisher must be given credit for doing more for chess than anyone else in the world,” Hearst said.
“Bobby single-handedly has made things better for all chess masters. He has fought for and obtained better playing conditions, such as improved lighting and less audience interference,” Hearst said.
“I've played in tournaments where the spectators were literally breathing down our necks, so that it was nearly impossible to concentrate.
“Bobby feels that players of high caliber should make as much money as great golfers or baseball players, and he fought to increase the available prize money, with the result that the awards in the current match with Spassky will be more than 10 times those of any previous world championship match.
“And Bobby has brought much publicity to the game, and helped raise interest in it, so that now more of the better players can make a living teaching and writing about chess.”
Hearst said he was certain “all the other U.S. chess masters would agree with me that Bobby's goals have been desirable, but most of us would have tried different tactics.”
Says Spassky always a gentleman
“Spassky, who is always the perfect gentleman, complained about the meager prize money when he won the championship, but he wasn't able to improve things—Bobby was.”
Hearst thinks that Spassky is beginning to show signs of the strain that Fischer's brilliant play seems to have caused in all his opponents in the preliminary bouts en route to the championship match. Hearst noted that all of these victims—the Danish player Larsen and the two Russians, Taimanov and Petrosian became ill and were advised by their doctors to take a rest (Fischer beat both Taimanov and Larsen 6 to 0 and won the last four games from Petrosian, the former world champion, to beat him 6½ to 2½).
Asked if he thought Fischer's complaints and demands were designed to “psyche out” Spassky in their match, Hearst said he didn't “really think so.”
“Fischer has made similar complaints in past tournaments, simply because he thinks conditions should be ideal for top-flight chess to be played,” Hearst said.
“I think that Fischer, if anything, doesn't pay enough attention to chess psychology. The Russian players are particularly aware of this facet of the game. Their analyses of one another's strengths and weaknesses often read like the reports of a psychiatrist.”
