Young Man's Game

I'm researching primary sources/contemporary accounts in regard to Fischer's 1965 historic teletype (from the Marshall Club in NYC) participation in the Capablanca Memorial being held in the Habana Libre Hotel in Havana, Cuba.

I came across the article by the famous music critic/chess author Harold C. Schonberg using his observations of Fischer during this tournament, particularly during his game against The Cuban Champion, Eleazar Jimenez (their 4-game lifetime record would be 3 draws and one win for Fischer but at this point only 2 draws) as a basis for his belief that Chess is a Young Man's Game.
Here's the game:

Here's the article (clipped from the Nashua (N.H.) Telegraph, Sept. 29, 1965)

how come it ended as a draw there?

A lettuce and tomato sandwich?  No bacon, no turkey?

I prefer a BTK (Bacon, Tomato, Kale)  before I play a game.

I suppose bacon was not on Fischer's diet.  But I like a BTA (avocado)

Kale is not on mine - too much Vitamin K ...causes clots.

I have to admit, while my diet is fairly horrible normally, during a tournament I eat well. I like big greasy hamburgers and such, but during a tournament the round after lunch would suffer. So I usually have a salad... I never eat salads otherwise.

Hostess Sno-Balls and a carton of chocolate milk.  Twinkies in an emergency.

Great stuff as always 😁👍. I remember getting Schonberg's much maligned book 'Grandmasters of Chess' from a Congress book stall as a youngster. Hope all is well with you @batgirl 

Hi.  When I first took an interest in chess my library had three non-instructive chess books. One was a coffee table book on chess sets, the second was Lawson's book on Morphy and the third was Schonberg's Grandmasters.  Needless to say,  I read them all many times over. 

The article mentions Bill Slater and Bruce Altschuler manning the teletype machine but ignores Kathryn Slater who did much of that operation. I don't know how accurate this info is, but I read that the Cuban government spent $10,000 (in 1965 dollars) for that month long teletype and telephone connection.

It also states that Jimenez was little known, but doesn't say that up to that point he and Fischer  has a history of 2 games, both draws (just as this game was). 

Some people claimed Fischer had the advantage since he had a tiny bit more experience with this type of long-distance play  than any of his opponents; others say he had a disadvantage since all his games were played in this more tedious method while his opponents only had to play one such game. 

Ah, if I had a pound for every time I have read Masters of the Chessboard, I could afford a holiday. At £1-00 an hour for the time  I have spent with the Weltgeschichte volume on Lasker I could retire early!!! 🤣 Petrosian once said about Nimzovich's Praxis, that when you get a book that way you really treasure it. Know where you are coming from. 😁👍

"The Pride and the Sorrow of Chess" is sn excellent read.

Couldn't agree more with the above statement.

Football (soccer for you, Americans) is a young man's game, racing is a young man's game. But chess? It can be played by anybody with a sharp mind.

Edit: And by young men I mean young people. Female Americans play soccer better than male Americans.

Transgender Americans play soccer better than cis-gendered Americans.

And if you disagree you're going to jail.

I mean, that's a fact, the Women's National Soccer Team of USA are World Champions, while men didn't even qualify for the World Cup.

Ok, that's nice.

It's like saying my 10 year old niece is better at chess than world #2 Caruana because she won 1st place in her school's chess tournament.

But whatever.

The World Cup is the biggest tournament in the world.

But whatever.

If the "biggest tournament in the world" doesn't invite the best teams then who cares.