New Game in Town

In New York, customers in bars sip their drinks and stare intently at the television play-by-play. In Alexandria, Va., two young men play the game on the sidewalk outside a Laundromat while waiting for their wash to dry. In a San Francisco department store, an expert plays twelve games at a time --and 1,000 people show up to watch. Across the nation, these and thousands of others have become hopelessly addicted to what suddenly is America's favorite board game: chess.

Until recently, most Americans who gave any thought to chess dismissed it as a game for eggheads. But since the opening gambits in the Spassky-Fischer world championship match in Iceland, people who could not have told a rook from a rock have been getting on the board. Chess clubs from Boston to Santa Monica report that their membership is swelling. Executives and employees alike are carrying small magnetic sets to their offices for brisk games during work breaks or at lunch. Many have started department-or even company-wide tournaments.

Chess has become front-page news in many American newspapers. And two men have garnered huge audiences as TV chess commentators. George Koltanowski, a retired international master, is now serving as analyst for San Francisco's KQED. And Chess Master Shelby Lyman brings wit, an incisive knowledge of the game and the rare ability to talk nonstop for five or more hours to move-by-move broadcasts on New York City's educational channel. A typical Lymanism: "It's not enough to have a lot of respect for bishops in the abstract--you gotta watch out for 'em."

Chess has also proven attractive to the bettors. In Las Vegas, Oddsmaker Jimmy ("the Greek") Snyder installed Fischer as a 6-5 favorite at the beginning of the match, and has since raised the odds to 8-5. Interest in the Fischer-Spassky match has also pumped new blood into a dying breed--the chess shark. One Manhattan hustler is cleaning up by betting new chess aficionados that he can checkmate them within ten minutes in a game in which a move must be made every 30 seconds.

To defend themselves against rapacious professionals and more experienced friends, chess novices can turn to any of the instructional manuals now flooding the bookstores. One of the most popular is Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, which lets the reader in on the Brooklyn genius' secrets--the elementary ones at least. Bantam Books is now into a fifth 50,000-book press run of the $1.95 paperback edition. Two other instant books that will report and analyze the Fischer-Spassky confrontation will be available days after the match ends. Bantam will publish Fischer-Spassky: The New York Times Report on the Chess Match of the Century. And Simon & Schuster will issue Fischer vs. Spassky, by Yugoslav Grand Master Svetozar Gligoric.

Manufacturers are also increasing production of a large variety of chess sets that range from the simple, functional and cheap to the bizarre and ultraexpensive. Perhaps the most costly of all is a $100,000 set of gold and silver, designed by Antique Dealer Arthur Corbell and displayed at a recent Los Angeles gem show. But what may well be the most appropriate design for an election year was conceived by LRH Enterprises of New York. Called "The Contemporary Game, Chess '72," it pits Republicans against Democrats, has elephants and donkeys as pawns and well-known politicians as the major pieces. For the Republicans, LRH, of course, made Richard Nixon the king. But, because the set was placed on sale well before the Democratic Convention, the company showed prescience in its choice of the Democratic king: George McGovern.

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