The Guardian London, Greater London, England Friday, August 18, 1961
Fischer fails to attend and loses game by forfeit
By Leonard Barden, our Chess Correspondent
The match between Bobby Fischer, the 18-year-old United States champion, and Samuel Reshevsky, his greatest rival, has flared up in controversy. With the score at 5½ points each. Reshevsky asked that the twelfth game should be changed from Saturday evening to the next morning. Fischer protested, but officials warned him to appear or lose. When he failed to arrive, the referee declared Reshevsky the winner by forfeit.
According to the “New York Times” Fischer said he had forfeited the game because he was “unable to arrive so early in the morning” and do himself justice at the chess board.
The referee, I. Rivise, said the game was switched because Reshevsky did not want to play on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. “I think Fischer felt this was done,” Rivise added, “to accommodate Reshevsky and he didn't want to have anything to do with it. We haven't been unreasonable. He has.”
The organizers appear to have been at fault in not preparing a playing schedule which would avoid a game on the Jewish Sabbath. Reshevsky's religious orthodoxy is well known; at Munich in 1958 he wanted to postpone his game with Botvinnik until after the Sabbath and the captain of the United States team had to play a substitute.
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”
