Monday, 6^th January 2014

   An expected opposition of the Cold War :

the chess match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in 1972

  by MATHIS Emilie, MAAMERI Louiza et ARZIMAN Manon

 We have been working  in a cross curricular project on the media; ("Means and places of power").

This article is taken from the Washington Post, a famous American newspaper. It was published on January 19^th 2008, two days after the death of the American genius chess master, Bobby Fisher. This document entitled “Bobby Fischer, World Champion Known as the “Bad Boy of Chess” was written by Joe Holley, a Washington Post Staff Writer.

The article deals with the genius chess master Bobby Fisher and describes his life and his career in a few lines. He played a major part in the Cold War, which was a political and ideological opposition between the USA and the USSR that started after mid-1940's and lasted to the early 1990's. He (an Amrican)  won the World Championship against Boris Spassky (A Russian)  in 1972 and thanks to his victory, he reinforced the American supremacy to the detriment of the Soviets.

We can rely on this article because it was published in a worldwilde famous newspaper which is the Washington Post and the journalist only talks about facts and doesn't give his own opinion.

Fischer died on January 17^th 2008 in a hospital in Rejkavik in Iceland, because of kidney failure. He is still considered by many people as the greatest chess player in the  world, even if his behaviour was quite strange and if  his political ideas were debatable.

We chose this document because it is a contemporary one but also because it deals with Bobby Fischer’s death. Moreover, this event was largely  covered since it was related to the Cold War and it reminded us of Bobby Fischer’s past . Besides, we wanted to see the American point of view, that’s why we chose to study an article published by an American newspaper, like the famous Washington Post.

THE CHESS MATCH OF THE CENTURY

Written by BLATTER Elise, SPEISSER Eve, WASSER Sarah & WINNINGER Mathilde

The document we chose is a caricature taken from the newspaper "Los Angeles Times" (the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the USA), published on Monday 7th August 1972.  It was realized by Frank Interlandi, an L.A. Times editorial cartoonist, so we can rely on it as this newspaper is distributed all over the USA.

This document was made in the middle of the World Chess Championship (US - Bobby Fischer against USSR - Boris Spassky), approximately during the 12-13^th games.  This match was an unexpected opposition of the Cold War between 1947 and 1991 which divided the two countries and the entire world.  Indeed, the confrontation between these two grandmasters took place from July 11th through September 1^st 1972 in Reykjavik, Iceland.

First of all, we wanted to study an picture rather than an article because it may be more meaningful. Then, this document is focused on an American point of view during the chess match of the century.

Indeed, with this caricature we can understand how Fischer was considered in the eyes of the Americans. So we can compare him to the soviet Spassky.

We can see a mistreated woman which is holding a billboard in her hand on which is written "Hooray for Bobby Fischer»: it means that Bobby Fischer wasn't appreciated by the Americans, contrary to Boris Spassky who was well-trained, very charming and popular in his homeland.

The caption written at the bottom of the picture "I must be the only one in the country who appreciates genius!" means that Fischer was a chess genius for the American people but also a gamesmanship with a lot of requests.

 Apparently, Fischer had just one supporter in the US whereas Spassky was supported by the entire soviet nation and a team.

With this document, we can understand that as well as being a chess genius, Fischer was perceived by most of people as someone being pathologically paranoiac, an arrogant gamesmanship and even a degenerate. Indeed, he was devoured by fame which drove him to madness.

We can also say that the two players didn’t stand on equal terms because of their different personalities: Fischer a temperamental person against Spassky a serious-minded and cultivated person. Moreover, Spassky had a lot of supporters all over his country contrary to Fischer who was mainly criticized…

However, Fischer’s genius has finally allowed him to win the chess match against Spassky.  Therefore,  he became the first American to receive the title: Chess champion of the World. After all, the eccentric Fischer is definitely the master ... of chess…