APoughkeepsie Journal Poughkeepsie, New York Tuesday, September 03, 1963
Bobby Posts Perfect Score
By Frank Brady
Bobby Fischer, the United States chess champion, earned a perfect score of seven points with no losses and no draws to capture the New York State Open championship at the IBM Country club yesterday. The tourney, which started Friday night was the first open championship ever staged for the New York state title.
Fischer, who resides in Brooklyn, defeated Miro Radiojic, a Yugoslavian journalist, in his final match in 33 moves. Radiojic conducted a “two knights” defense against Fischer's attack, but was unabled to escape the loss of either his rook or queen and was forced to resign the game.
FISCHER'S SEMI-FINAL victory was over International Grandmaster Arthur Bisguier, of Elmhurst. Bisguier also conducted a “two knights” defense, but Fischer forced his rival to resign in about the same number of moves.
James T. Sherwin, who was a leading contender for the crown, forfeited as a result over overstepping the time limit against his opponent. Tournament chess requires that each player make 50 moves in two hours. This rule is enforced to prevent a player from “sitting on his position” and taking an unusually long time for each move and wearing out his opponents' endurance. A special timing device containing two clocks—one for each player—is used for this purpose. A small red flag drops when the two hour limit is reached. If a player has failed to make the required moves, as in the Sherwin game, he is forfeited out of competition by the tourney director.
THE TIME FACTOR in chess adds another dimension to the game since, in addition to a live rival, each player must also battle the clock. Often, if both players take a great deal of time in the beginning of the game, they must make many of their moves in a few minutes, sometimes seconds, in order to make the 50 move limit. The result is a flurry of moves made so fast that the eye often cannot follow the action and the volley of quick fire exchanges that result by each player can be faster than a tennis match.
Second, third and fourth places in the tourney were shared by Bisguier, Sherwin and Matthew Green, of Suffolk, N.J. Each player won five games, lost one and drew one for a score of 5½-1½.
The highest rankign local player was Paul Steiner, Poughkeepsie, who scored five points. Dick Meyerson was close behind with 4½. At 3½ were Robert Tomasullo, Eugene Meyer and Richard Molan. John Randolph and Laimons Zvaigzne both scored three points. George Vassilikas, Walter Beverage and Bob Greenberg each had two points.
THE TOURNEY was directed by Don Schultz, an engineer at the Kingston IBM plant. Mr. Schultz is the president of the New York State Chess association, vice president of the United States Chess Federation and City champion. The event was sponsored by the New York State association with cash prizes and trophies being presented to the winners.
