A FORGOTTEN MONARCH

The King of Kings  

 During the early 70's we as school children used to wonder where on earth was this Reykjavik. But we knew one thing for certain, that a young man called Bobby Fischer from the US was there, tearing off the iron curtain into pieces and bursting all red myths prevalent in the then world of chess where the Russian domination was unbelievably complete. At the world championship I think Fischer lost the first game, forfeited the second one and there after  played chess the way none else had ever played , conquered Boriss Spasky and went back quietly with the crown on his head. During those cold war days the west could not have asked for more and their media glorified this as the victory of capitalism over communism. But later incidents show that the King of chess never ever cared for such attributes. At Reykjavik he just played chess the way he only could. He did not even defeat Spasky.  Spasky was just crushed when the juggernaut rolled on! The King of the sixty four squares never competed in another world cup. Probably the genius never wanted anyone else to vouch for his position as the greatest of all grand masters of all times. While making the statement " I am the best and Spasky is the second" he was not engaging in any psychological warfare which was so rampant in the field of chess those days with the Russians being the Masters of the Art. He was only stating the obvious. It is a crying shame that the world chess establishment did not exploit the Fischer genius for posterity. Or did they find it convenient to avoid him and let him go his way? If he had continued to play chess, the present day grand masters would have been playing the game in an altogether different fashion with "Fischer games" as their encyclopedia. If Fischer had not freed the game from the clutches of Russia there would not have been so many non-Russian grand masters and world champions now. The game of chess and all those who love the game are eternally indebted to this legend called Bobby Fischer. Indeed a King who could never be check mated !!