Fischer in Monaco

Today the tireless chronicler and archivist of California chess, Kerry Lawless, shared a clipping of a Larry Evans article prepared in anticipation of the Fischer-Spassky championship match and published in the "San Francisco Chronicle," June 29, 1972, 

Prince Rainier of Monaco had sponsored a 10 player invitational tournament for May of 1967. He wanted two Americans to participate and specified the Fischer must be one of them.  Bill Lombardy was selected as the second American player. 
Fischer won the event. But Evans shared a little background story.

Here is the opening paragraph from Lombary's June 1967 Chess Life recap:



from Evans' 1972 article:

Pretty funny.  Fischer was always a stickler for good playing conditions (i.e. lighting, noise, seating, timing of rounds).  Problems with these are one of the reasons he withdrew from the Tunisia Interzonal, while leading.

In that same issue of Chess Life (June 1967)  that covered the Monaco Invitational, Evans wrote an article of Fischer (it seems Evans is always writing about Fischer). 

I made a collage of snipping from that article:
Ed Lasker, btw, wasn't much at predicting.

Uhh...

That's probably why they're on the bottom.

Not really suprising

It was a sttong field.  Fischer and Smyslov were world champions.  Geller, Larsen, and Gligorich played in several csndidates competition.  Even Lombardy had been a junior world champion.

What makes me sad about Bobby is that he got scared of Karpov and committed the cowardly act of avoiding the duel!in my opinion Fischer is a coward😠

This has nothing to do with Fischer and Karpov.

I doubt you were alive during the Fischer Era.  I was.  Fischer feared no one over the board.

the most bizarro moment of this tournament wuz when Matanovic refused a draw by repetition against the so-called mighty BF...causing issues. BF didnt take it (starting at move 16...Be6) and so AM egged his face by refusing right back & BF backed dn !...hilarious & good for AM !

btw he's still alive and a Morphy #3...ultra rare ! 

Fischer had a lot of personal problems but fear of his opponent wasn't one of them.

Remember it's a miracle he played Spassky to begin with. Kissenger phoning him at the last moment and other events... and then even after he showed up for the first game, he didn't show up to the 2nd, losing it by forfeit.

A troubled human being, even before the crazy 90s, but not afraid.

And this is a totally separate topic, but I've noticed the label "coward" is rarely attributed correctly. I was thinking about why that is, and what people mean when they say it. In this case I think it's just out of laziness or ignorance, but other cases are more interesting e.g. calling a school shooter a coward, but again that's an entirely different topic.

Fischer-Karpov has been discussed ad nauseum (and usually ignorantly) in other places.  This is a different topic.

@Thee_Ghostess_Lola,  since you brought up A. Matanovic, here he is watching the Gligoric - Geller game

Fischer observing the same game:





Fischer post-morting his game with Bergraser

Larsen-Fischer (0-1) is Game #57 in "My 60 Memorable Games."

Thanks Batgirl. Interesting bit of chess history

Yes... I understood!but I get upset because any text involving Bobby ... Remember that fact😠

Hahaha...