The San Bernardino County Sun San Bernardino, California Saturday, August 19, 1961
Chess Champ Gives Up, Forfeits $8,000 Match
New York (UPI)—Former U.S. chess champion Samuel Reshevsky was declared winner of the $8,000 American Chess Foundation series Thursday night after 18-year-old Bobby Fischer failed to show up for the 13th game.
Fischer, present U.S. chess champion, was declared to have forfeited the game and the entire 16-match series after he kept Reshevsky waiting for an hour. A telegram from Fischer indicated he would not play the 13th game because the foundation had made no decision on the “illegal” forfeiture of the 12th game.
CORRECTION: The schedule was changed twice.
- Changed from Saturday night to Sunday at 1:30 P.M. to which Bobby Fischer consented.
- Changed from 1:30 P.M. Sunday to 11 A.M. Sunday, by Referee Irving Rivise, to accommodate his own trip to San Francisco for the U.S. Open which opened the following day, Monday.
Young Fischer protested that the schedule should be returned to the originally scheduled time of 1:30 P.M. This clarification is documented in the August 14, 1961 Los Angeles Times “Chess Champ Forfeits By Failing to Appear”