Vegas chess event to introduce fans to ‘Fischerrandom’ style

David Clayton

Monday, Nov. 2, 1998 | 11:08 a.m.

The phone rang in the Budapest, Hungary, home of chess grandmaster Pal Benko, an endgame genius who 20 years ago dared to suggest that centuries of opening analysis had stymied this royal game.

On the line was the Las Vegas Sun and Benko was asked his thoughts on the eve of a promised "Battle of the Sexes" event in Las Vegas, where the evolution of his openings criticism, a new style of chess called Fischerrandom, would create an international sensation.

Benko was well aware of this proposed event and predicted that one day Fischerrandom would be played at serious, international tournaments.In fact, he told the Sun during the Oct. 19 phone call that he had just dined the evening before with Bobby Fischer in Budapest, and they had talked of the Las Vegas event and Fischer's possible participation.

Fischer, the eight-time United States champion who alone took on the Soviet chess machine in the 1960s and then ground it to mincemeat in 1972 by winning the world championship against Boris Spassky, quietly introduced Fischerrandom two years ago in Argentina.

If the Las Vegas event comes off the first week of December as hoped, there will be nothing quiet about it this time around.

Billie Jean King, who had her own "Battle of the Sexes" in 1973 against Bobby Riggs at the Houston Astrodome, will be the umpire. Fischer will have some role, perhaps from afar, likely as an expert commentator. And Anatoly Karpov, 47, the men's world champion, will be sitting across from Susan Polgar, at 29 the oldest of the fabulous Polgar sisters of Hungary and currently the women's world champion.

In Fischerrandom, the pawns line up in front of the pieces as always, but a computerized shuffler chooses one of 960 possible starting positions for each player's pieces, solving the problem that Benko and other noted grandmasters have talked about for decades.

"I think it (Fischerrandom) is interesting because there is too much theory in chess, too much is known about the openings," said Benko, a former Hungarian champion and two-time candidate for the world championship. "Everything is the same (in Fischerrandom) except the opening. Skill decides, not memory."

Regular chess has become more of a science than sport, with opening analyses so deep now that the game often goes to whoever has the most time to commit the most opening variations to memory, Benko said.

During their dinner, the 55-year-old Fischer had professed an interest in the Las Vegas match and had requested to see in writing the proposal for his role, Benko said. That proposal has been forwarded to Benko by Shiloh Quinn, Karpov's agent in Montreal and chief promoter of the match.

"It goes without saying that air fares, hospitality suites including food and beverage, will be at the cost of the organizers as well as walk-around expenses. Participation fee and additional expenses are open for conversation," Quinn's letter to Benko said.

It will be impossible, however, to bring Fischer to the United States unless the U.S. government agrees to drop charges against him. In December 1992, Fischer was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The act gives the president the power to prohibit Americans from conducting business with countries under sanction, such as Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979. President Bush sanctioned Yugosalvia in 1992 for its "ethnic cleansing" atrocities in Bosnia.

Always the recalcitrant iconoclast, Fischer of course spat on a warning from the U.S. government when he announced his 1992 return match with Boris Spassky -- in Sveti Stefan and Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

Karpov and other international chess luminaries have tried to get the U.S. government to soften its stance against Fischer, but the indictment remains and the former champion -- who once had the White House pleading with him to play the 1972 match, and who received an engraved invitation to visit the White House after he beat the Russian champ -- now faces 10 years in prison and stiff fines upon his return to this country.

Fischer is said to be living in Yugoslavia now, perhaps 100 miles from Benko's home in Hungary. Despite Fischer's perplexing moves on the international chessboard, Benko says he remains strong on the one with 64 squares. Benko, who has known Fischer since the American burst onto the international chess scene 40 years ago, says the two have played Fischerrandom.

"He won more than me," Benko said.

Susan Polgar would not comment on her games with Fischer. Her family was close to Fischer when they lived in Hungary. "I promised not to reveal the results," she said, respectful of the intensely private Fischer.

Polgar's two sisters, Judith and Sophia, are also chess grandmasters. Many expert observers predict that Judith, the strongest of the three, will one day challenge and defeat a man for the overall world championship. Internationally, the Polgar sisters are superstars, commanding and receiving huge fees for their appearances.

Reached at her home in New York City, Susan Polgar said Fischerrandom is a "great idea."

"It is more to the original idea of chess, a battle between two minds instead of a battle between who is more prepared theoretically," she said.

While Polgar stopped short of saying that Fischerrandom would replace tournament chess as it has been played for the past 500 years, she did say it will likely take its place alongside the game. "I could see it being played simultaneously," she said.

As part of the chess world's efforts to bring more popular appeal to the game, a form of chess known as blitz is now taking place simultaneously at many tournaments. In blitz, each player has five minutes for all their moves. Fischerrandom, as Polgar suggests, could one day be an event at the major tournaments.

Neither a sponsor nor site has yet been found for the Las Vegas match. However, both Polgar and Karpov have agreed to play, Fischer has expressed interest in seeing a written proposal and Billie Jean King has sent word to Quinn that she would be available Dec. 1-4.

In an interview last month with the Sun, Karpov said he would like to play in Las Vegas to make up for his role in busting an international tournament that had been scheduled for the Bellagio next month. The tournament, which would have led to the crowning of a new world champion, was opposed by Karpov because he still has an entire year remaining on his title. After Karpov's objections, the world chess federation reluctantly postponed the tournament until sometime next year. (Gary Kasparov, whom most chess observers consider to be the world's best player, is no longer affiliated with the world chess federation, which bestows the official world champion title.)

Quinn, who promoted the King-Riggs tennis battle, says Karpov will get definitely get his chance to play in Las Vegas and make amends.

"The match will 100 percent come together," Quinn said last week from his office in Montreal.

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