The Gazette Montreal, Quebec, Canada Saturday, July 22, 1961
The West and the World Championship
On the question of the chances for a player from the West winning the world championship, the former British champion, C.H.O'D. Alexander has given his views in the Long “Sunday Times”:
“Every match for the world championship since the War has been between Russians. Is there an inherent Slav genius for the game? I am sure the answer is ‘No’. The reasons are social and economic, not racial. Chess is great encouraged in the Soviet Union: good young players are coached by experts and strong players (many of them effectively professional) can give as much time as they need to the game. A master player has considerable social status as such — including the valuable privilege of being able to travel abroad. Further, the fact that little or no bridge is played in Russia tends to increase the amount of chess. All told there are about ten million registered club players in the USSR and many more casual players. As in all other fields, success breeds success—such numbers improve the general standard, throw up more great players, increase the prestige of the game and thus produces still greater numbers.
For a non-Russian to wrest the championship from the USSR he will have to be a man of quite outstanding genius for the game; and there is just one possibility—the American Bobby Fischer. Seventeen years old, Fischer has won the USA championship for the last four years and is already the strongest player in the world outside the USSR; he might do it. On the whole, I think (but I am usually wrong in forecasting) that he will fail: I believe that his inherent ability is little, if any, greater than that of the leading half dozen Soviet players and that their advantages in State aid and so much more of a chess climate surrounding them — will outweigh any small edge he may have in natural genius.””
Some of the points that Alexander makes can be accepted but he takes no notice of the mechanical set-up instituted by FIDE to find the challenger. This was considered ideal until practice showed that the Russians, through sheer weight of numbers and working together as a team, could almost assure that one of their group would gain the challenger's position. Reshevsky tried it and gave it up as a hopeless set-up. He then tried direct negotiation with the champion for a match, in the style of the ‘good old days’, but nobody, except Reshevsky, expected anything to come of that. The champion had the law on his side, laid down by FIDE. It is doubtful if even a genius of the order of Capablanca could break through this ‘iron curtain’ and unless the West can get a player that far speculation as to his chances in a set match for the title hasn't much value. Some modifications are being made and in the 1962 Challengers tourney not more than three of the eight entries can come from the same country. The West awaits the outcome.
As to Fischer, he is tougher than he looks, has tremendous ambition and capacity for work in his chosen field. As a grandmaster reaches his peak around 35 he has many years to improve and mature. The one serious deficiency that seems to bother his friends is his lack of a good general education. He left half way through high school and all the world champions for the last hundred years, with the exception of Steinitz, had a college education. And Steinitz largely made up for it through his own efforts. Fischer apparently has little interest in anything outside of chess.
