AFor those with doubts that GOOD PUBLICITY for Robert Fischer was enough to generate widespread interest in chess, consult the 1971 Bobby Fischer Newspaper Archive. Western press was literally LIONIZING Bobby, elaborating on the significance of his unheard intellectual achievements. 6-0 Fischer-Taimanov, 6-0 Fischer-Larsen… knockouts… practically unheard of in that level of grandmaster competition. Victories of monumental proportions… arousing excitement and interest among Americans, especially the young and their counterparts in western nations who were sensing the very real possibility of bringing home the very crown the Soviets had taken hostage since after WWII.
In 1971, reports about Fischer were for the most part, positive, informative… rousing interest in the game of chess, and it is important to emphasize: Being covered by media agencies within nations OUTSIDE control of the Soviet Empire's authoritarian clutch. In Argentina, Canada, the U.S., there were just too many eye-witnesses to testify after every round, that Fischer was certainly not making “unreasonable demands” and Moscow couldn't exactly throw the tournament into chaos, from within Argentina, the United States or Canada. In fact, when the Soviets misbehaved, as they often did, it quickly passed into disparaging headlines. The propaganda was beyond Soviet control, and there was nothing the Soviet could do about it. Now could it? Perhaps in Russia, twisting the stories to fit the party line for their own unfortunate citizens, but not western folks.
By Spring 1972, when the “old hands” Ken Smith's publication referred to working behind the scenes in Europe and Russia to disqualify Fischer and replace Fischer with a Soviet contender, it was all downhill from there. Either way, Americans and fellow westerners were already ITCHING to see the Soviet get its long overdue comeuppance and the crown brought home. Period.
The public was engaged and there was only one way to go from there: UP! More lionizing, more showering Fischer and the game with full coverage as a role model for young American youth, and the Soviet Empire along with the decades of nuclear threats and the myth of the “Soviet-Nazi Übermensch” biting the dust. The world was fascinated in 1971. There was no need of the vicious, inflammatory, defamatory Soviet influenced press to “bring attention to chess”. Fischer's artistry was enough! Anything else was excessive Soviet-bias and a blatant campaign of hostility targeting Robert Fischer. Make things up out of thin air, or twist the facts to make Fischer out to be a “bad guy” to the glory of the Soviet empire. All the while, family-oriented Americans and Westerners were now turning away from Chess. Soured by the awful reports coming out of Reykjavik. False reports designed to turn people around the world away from their interest in seeing the Soviet defeated, squashed and publicly humiliated.
Without the Soviet's campaign of defamation, the people would've bought their chess boards, and learned the game, the news agencies would've broadcast the tournament on television and radio, without the Soviet defamation campaign! The public were engaged… and had been supportive of Fischer all the way up until the Soviet smear campaign was orchestrated through Moscow's worldwide network of media connections, and had the Soviets not unleashed their bombastic venomous bloviation in world media, perhaps had the tournament been hosted elsewhere, say Australia who bid a whopping $225,000 with the lion's share going for duly deserved prize money fitting of a champion like Fischer — the world interest would have been increased one hundred... thousand fold! Instead, the Soviet chose to drag the world tournament through a sewer of petty bickering and backbiting.
Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah, Friday, July 21, 1972
What's wrong with Bobby Fischer?
Not enough to deserve the vicious television, radio, and press that he is receiving.
Soviet Anti-American Invective to Turn World Interest AWAY from Fischer's Defeat of USSR!! Who's controlling the flow of information and narrative out of Reykjavik??
Fond Du Lac Commonwealth Reporter Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin Friday, July 21, 1972 - Page 18
Sale of Chess Sets Not on Increase. THANK The Soviet Union for Betraying The Game!
With all the notice that the World Championship Chess Match between Bobby Fischer of the United States ([and all the negative Soviet publicity dripping with vicious hubris and idle rumors, defamatory allegations manufactured in Moscow against Fischer who is now ISOLATED in Soviet stronghold of Anti-American Iceland, thousands of miles from any location where major media outlets would have otherwise congregated]) -- and Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union has been getting lately, one would think that the stores would be selling chess sets faster than they arrive in stock.
But, such is not the case in Fond du Lac. Only one out of three local stores contacted noted a marked increase in chess set sales. The other two have noticed no increased demand for the games. ([THANK THE SOVIET UNION'S NAZI PROPAGANDA MINISTRY!])
Rehashed Soviet Anti-American Invective to Turn World Interest Away From Fischer's Defeat of USSR 21 Jul 1972, Fri The Reporter (Fond du Lac, Wisconsin) Newspapers.com
