Re: The Match That Wasn't

On May 5, 6:07 am, J=FCrgen R. <jurg...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> > Fischer sent him a cable congratulating
> > him on his defection in 1976.

> And Korchnoi sent Fischer a cable congratulating him on
> his defection in 1992.

  While Bobby Fischer may well have ranted and
raved about other issues -- including his treatment
at the hands of the Pasadena police department,
an agency of the state of California -- his real beef
in 1992 was over money.  The IRS would have
eaten a big chunk of his winnings, and so too
would his state of residence within the USA.  I
don't think that is exactly comparable to whatever
reasons Victor Kortchnoi may have had for
defecting.


> > In a statement to the press shortly after his defection, Korchnoi
> > expressed his pleasure in knowing the predicament Soviet authorities
> > will face when forced to re****t his results in the Candidates Matches
> > next year. That is the time, he noted, when the millions of Russian
> > chess players will learn of his defection."

> Nonsense. Korchnoi's defection occurred while the Interzonal in Biel
> was going on. I was there, playing in a side tournament, and
> remember hearing the news, which spread like wild fire before it ever
> hit the newspapers.
> The Russian players Smyslov, Petrosian, Tal, Geller and Gulko and
> the Russian crowd of seconds and functionaries heard of
> the defection on the day it happened. Considering how efficiently
> information spread by word of mouth in those days in the USSR,
> every Russian chess player will have known about it the day
> after all these people returned from Biel.

  Perhaps it was the readers of Chess Lies magazine
who did not find out until the following year?  That
would hardly surprise me... .


  -- help bot