Fischer-Gligoric, Yugoslavia 1979

It never happened!

Yesterday I received this e-mail from Diana Moon.

Jim,

I'm a tad confused about the dating of the Schaap article. It says in the intro that the article was in a magazine from 1979; but Schaap mentions Fischer in Yugoslavia, which was in 1992.

Please clarify. I'm quite fascinated by Fischer, although I agree with Schaap. My oldest brother, who was a "patzer", played Fischer at the old Chess and Checkers Club on 42nd Street in the late '50s-early'60s. He said that playing Fischer was like playing an alien life force. There was no beginning, middle or end - he just lost.

Diana

Dick Schaap was referring to a proposed match between Bobby Fischer and Svetozar Gligoric in Yugoslavia that was scheduled to take place in the first half of 1979. In October 1978, Serbian Chess Federation president Milos Milovanovic said that Fischer "intends to come back to the chess scene after an absence of six years." According to Milovanovic, Fischer wanted $1 million for the match. As we all know, the match never became a reality.