On This Day April 4, 1975: The Times reports on Bobby Fischer being stripped of the world chess champion title
The International Chess Federation (Fide) today declared Anatoly Karpov, the Russian challenger, to be world chess champion after Bobby Fischer, of America, had failed to meet the extended deadline given by Fide within which he had to agree to meet Karpov to defend his title.
“We have sent Karpov a telegram informing him that he has been awarded the title, and congratulating him,” Dr Max Euwe, Fide’s president, said today in Amsterdam. He did not conceal his disappointment, but said that Fide had left no stone unturned in its attempt to negotiate a compromise agreement.
Karpov said today that he was glad the chess crown had returned to the Soviet Union but regretted that he did not get to play Fischer for it. He said he could not understand why Fischer did not play the match. “I wanted this match to take place very much and I think I have done all I could for this.”
There was silence today from South Pasadena, California, where Fischer normally lives. But several other American chess players have been expressing regret over the sequence of events which led to his losing the world title.
“It’s tragic for Fischer, for chess in the world and for Karpov,” Colonel Edmund Edmundson, the director of the American Chess Federation, has said. “Poor Fischer won’t have his title, Karpov will have a paper title, and the world won’t have its match. We’re all losers.”
Source: The Times
It would have been an interesting match.
Fischer=biggest coward in chess history. Afraid of Karpov, who was much much stronger than Spassky.
FIDE is bunch of robot baboond who like to play god with chess players and probably play dress-up with animal costumes at night.
Fischer was a force that stood above FIDE. One cannot declare a storm is not a storm by renaming its title. There is still thunder, lightning, and rain regardless of the classification of storm. GM Fischer was the Storm of the Century, the Perfect Storm!
GM Polgar is another Perfect Storm FIDE chose to deny. One wonders if the same type of idiot runs FIDE that runs the USCF.
baboond = baboon. Apologies to baboons in the audience.
Fischer wasn’t stripped of the title, he resigned it in June 1974. This is just the day that they replaced him.
awfulhangover said…
Fischer=biggest coward in chess history. Afraid of Karpov, who was much much stronger than Spassky.
I don’t see how you can say he was afraid of Karpov when he didn’t play anybody else either. He retired, that’s all. Every man’s got a right to retire. What he did wrong was to try to pretend that he was still active when he wasn’t.
FIDE can do what they like. As far as most people are concerned Fischer was/is still the champion and defended the title against Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992.
The fact that he died this year, and can no longer defend it, means that the OFFICIAL TITLE of World Chess Champion will be decided between Kramnik and Anand. Remember, Anand won his pretender title in Mexico City while Fischer was still alive. Fischer was not invited to the tournament and it is therefore not legitimate. The real unification is now coming up.
Fischer did send a letter of resignation during 1974. That’s a fact.
But considering that the negotiations continued after that, it’s obvious that FIDE, Karpov, the URSS and American Chess Federations and Fischer himself still regarded Bobby as the reigning World Champion up until April 1975.
We can safely assume then that the “resignation letter” was either tacitally withdrawn, rejected or simple taken by all concerned parts for what it was: a negotiation instrument.
Furthermore, how can you “resign” at being World Champion? You may, at best, give up on the rights of the WC such as having a WCC match, but you can’t “resign” the title. The World Champion is the last winner of a World Championship, it’s like saying that Anand resigns at being the last Linares winner… just doesn’t make sense.
I have seen this letter mentioned all over blogs and messageboards, either as a way of blaming Fischer for the unplayed match, the ridicule FIDE on stripping a title that wasn’t there anymore, or simply for the “You can’t fire me, I resign!” feeling.
I’m still to find though a single chess book saying that the throne was vacant from 74 to 75, or to say that Fischer was WC from 72 to 74.
Yes, the letter was written and delivered. No, Fischer didn’t stop being World Champion on 1974.
Clearly Fischer wasn’t keen on facing this new Russian Phenom. But the chess world did suffer greatly. If Fischer had confidence that he could beat Karpov he definetly would have played. Many champions played matches where they were not satisfied with all the conditions. As great as Bobby was he was not the most courageous fighter we’ve seen. It’s as if beating Spassky and being recognized as the world’s number one was all the satisfaction
he wanted. Truth is he didn’t want to tarnish his legacy. For that his fans could not be very proud.
“But considering that the negotiations continued after that, it’s obvious that FIDE, Karpov, the URSS and American Chess Federations and Fischer himself still regarded Bobby as the reigning World Champion up until April 1975.”
It’s obvious that Edmondson and the US Chess Federation hoped to negotiate a deal that would get Fischer to withdraw his resignation, and that FIDE would have let him withdraw it if he’d wanted to.
But the USCF never succeeded in negotiating such a deal, and Fischer never withdrew his resignation or conducted any negotiations after that time. His title reign ended in June 1974.
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Furthermore, how can you “resign” at being World Champion? You may, at best, give up on the rights of the WC such as having a WCC match, but you can’t “resign” the title. The World Champion is the last winner of a World Championship,
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By that reasoning, Fischer lost his title in 1978, and nobody claims that.
What’s so hard to understand? Frank Marshall similarly resigned the US Title in 1935, and allowed it to be reassigned, without his having been defeated for it.
Do you consider Kramnik to be the world champion now? He’s still the last guy who won a world championship match.
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I have seen this letter mentioned all over blogs and messageboards, either as a way of blaming Fischer for the unplayed match,
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Fischer retired. We have to face that. I wouldn’t use the word “blame”, though you can if yuou want to. But the match didn’t happen because Fischer didn’t want to play. He didn’t want to play Karpov. He didn’t want to play anyone else. Surely 30 years later that’s obvious, isn’t it? It may not have been at the time that he was retired, but it is now.
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I’m still to find though a single chess book saying that the throne was vacant from 74 to 75, or to say that Fischer was WC from 72 to 74.
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I don’t get it. You know about the resignation. But you’re convinced that somehow it didn’t count.
If you’re interested, buy the Chess Lilfe & Review 1935-1975 set some time, and read the whole story. Fischer resigned the title, and made no effort to negotiate after that time. Edmondson kept negotiating, hoping to get something that would bring him back into the fold. FIDE would have let him retract his resignation if he wanted to, but he never did want to and never tried to.
His title reign ended in June 1974. It certainly makes no sense to say that it ended in 1978, as you’re implying.
Im not implying that ended on 78. I accept it as ending on 75, when he should have played and instead let Karpov win it by default.
Yes, Fischer did retire, and for all practical purposes the retirement occured right after his 72 match. Does that mean that he lost the title in 72? No, of course not. Retiring doesn’t strip him of the title. Defaulting at the Championship did.
And about Kramnik, he might have won the last title match, but not the last World Championship. Althought that discussion can open a whole new can of worms.
“It’s tragic for Fischer, for chess in the world and for Karpov,” Colonel Edmund Edmundson, the director of the American Chess Federation, has said. “Poor Fischer won’t have his title, Karpov will have a paper title, and the world won’t have its match. We’re all losers.”
Paper title. That’s ironic, considering that less than 3 years later, Edmondson was working for Karpov, saying how he deserved to world champion, and helping him get the rematch clause.
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Im not implying that ended on 78. I accept it as ending on 75, when he should have played and instead let Karpov win it by default.”
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If that’s the case, then it is possible after all, to lose your title *without* losing your status as “Last Guy to Win a Championship”. If Fischer can lose his title that way in 1975 (in absentia), I don’t see why he can’t lose it the same way in 1974 (with his direct participation and written resignation).
I agree it might have gotten sticky if Fischer had ended up playing after all. That would open up questions about whether Fischer had “un-resigned”, or whether the resignation had never happened at all (which is what happened with Lasker in 1920; he resigned the title, then came back and played after all, with the stipulation that he should be considered the challenger. The contract said it, but most people and most books ignore it).
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Retiring doesn’t strip him of the title. Defaulting at the Championship did.
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I believe that retiring (openly) DOES strip you. Marciano and Tunney gave up their championships when they retired. Fischer didn’t, because he never actually announced any retirement until around 1996.
I think that Fischer lost his title when he openly resigned it, Marciano lost his title when he openly retired, and Frank Marshall lost the US title when he resigned it, not when Reshevsky replaced him the next year (or when the 1936 tournament began without him).
(April 4 is not the day the match would have happened, BTW. April 1 was the last day for both players to announce their availability. If they both hda, the match would have been played in the summer.)
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And about Kramnik, he might have won the last title match, but not the last World Championship. Althought that discussion can open a whole new can of worms.
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Yeah, let’s stay away from that, then. If you want to say a Championship Match = a Championship Tournament, that’s fine for purposes of this discussion.
But I still think that if Fischer can lose the title without play in 1975, he can do it in 1974 too. No matter how you slice it then, he continued to be the Last Guy to Win a Championship after he stopped being champion.
“But I still think that if Fischer can lose the title without play in 1975, he can do it in 1974 too. No matter how you slice it then, he continued to be the Last Guy to Win a Championship after he stopped being champion.”
The difference between 74 and 75 is that in 74 he said “I’m not the champion anymore” while in 75 he actually defaulted. True, he didn’t default by not showing up, but he defaulted by not declaring himself available and ready.
I have to admit that this is a very academic discussion, since Fischer in fact never exercised the World Champion title, that is, he never played as world champion. So, in the pure practical sense he was champion only for the closing ceremony. But as history goes, I consider him champion until 75.
You don’t divorce by saying “I’m not married anymore”, you might consider yourself single from that moment, but you’re legally binded until the judge says so. And in Fischer’s case that was 75.
I think that fundamentally Fischer retired. I don’t think he was able to psych himself up to do the immense amount of work that a Karpov match would have required.
But he did it in a most dishonourable and cowardly way.
He must have known that his ridiculous ‘If it gets to 9-9, the match is a draw’ condition would have been unacceptable. I think this was just a device to get out while being able to pretend it was everybody else’s fault and that he was still the ‘real’ champion.
Very cowardly. But at least he resigned his title in writing.
The title of ‘biggest coward in chess history’ must surely go jointly to Alekhine and Kramnik. who both continued to claim they were champion while doing everything possible to avoid a match with their most dangerous opponent.